How Laudemio Frescobaldi Has Led the Way for Premium Italian Olive Oil

Born from a crisis, and from the dedication of one of the most prominent Italian wine dynasties, Laudemio is now a symbol of quality in extra virgin olive oil.

Laudemio Frescobaldi a tavola

The winter of 1985 goes down in history as one of the coldest ever in Italy: in January, temperatures dropped well below seasonal averages and a wide area of the country was taken in the grip of frost. If Rome covered in snow was a remarkable show, frostbite’s effects were quite harsh all over Italy and especially in Northern and Central regions. A thick, white blanket covered the Tuscan olive groves, decimating the century-old trees and radically changing the regional olive growing and production: yet, it wasn’t all bad after all.

As it often happens when a crisis hits hard, growers had to face what happened and find solutions. Despite being a symbol of Tuscan gastronomy, in the Italian region famous for its great wines, extra virgin olive oil had never been truly enhanced, or preserved, as a precious asset. Now, it was time to make a change. Credit goes to Marquises Vittorio and Bona Frescobaldi, belonging to one of Italy’s aristocratic wine dynasties, for the intuition: Tuscan extra virgin needed a new life, a new impulse, and, possibly, a new name. To underline the quest for higher quality, and better promotion, they chose Laudemio: originating from a medieval Latin word (laudemium), it marked “the best part of the harvest, destined to the lords”

Which is to say, the very best.

Bottle of Laudemio Frescobaldi

It was, somehow, a trailblazing statement of Tuscan excellence, also adopted as a distinguishing feature – with a shared production regulation and a uniquely shaped transparent bottle shielded in a cardboard box – by other twenty regional producers reunited in the Laudemio consortium, today chaired by Diana Frescobaldi. This marked the birth of Italian extra virgin olive oil intended as a premium product: “By then, there were no PDOs in Italy for olive oil: it was considered a commodity, something taken for granted on Italian tables. Yet, since my family had a strong background in top quality wine, my uncles decided extra virgin olive oil deserved as much attention, too”, Matteo Frescobaldi says. Born in Florence in 1989, he represents the 30th generation of the family involved in wine and oil making.

Matteo Frescobaldi: An Italian Visionary

Matteo Frescobaldi

After graduating from Business School and working in finance in London and the US, Matteo was appointed Brand Manager of Laudemio Frescobaldi in 2018. The guidance of a young man with an international background is a precious asset for a historic brand always striving to match tradition and modernity. He took up the task with dedication, bringing a renovated attention to innovation and sustainability, as well as to the food and restaurant industry both in Italy and abroad, without losing the tie with the brand’s origins. The US market, in particular, had a steady growth over the last five years: “This is now our first market, besides Italy. Especially during the pandemic period, Laudemio was very appreciated by consumers through high-quality grocery stores and companies such as Fresh Market. While today we are happy to have many American chefs serving contemporary Italian-inspired cuisine and paying special attention to ingredients and extra virgin olive oil as our clients. I’m thinking of L’Artusi in New York City or Antico Nuovo in Los Angeles, just to name a few”.

Matteo Frescobaldi also started some collateral projects, including a home fragrance developed with the acclaimed “nose” Laura Bosetti Tonatto (who created a lovely, limited edition home fragrance based on Laudemio’s aromas in 2020), and the new pasta brand Tirrena, based on rediscovered local grains, which makes a quintessential and delicious Mediterranean pairing with extra virgin olive oil.

“Laudemio Frescobaldi has always been quite important to me,” he recalls. “I remember that when I lived abroad, between October and November I started visiting shops hoping to find the new harvest’s bottle. And it always was the most appreciated gift I could bring to my friends there. As a kid, I spent a lot of time in our Nipozzano estate, playing around the olive trees”. Among which there was, and still is, the one planted in the so-called “Princes’ groves” in 1986 on the occasion of the visit from the Prince of Wales, a close friend of the Marquises: today Charles III, King of the United Kingdom, he still receives the extra virgin olive oil as a gift for his birthday every year.

The Unique Character of Laudemio Frescobaldi

Mill photo courtesy of Nipozzano Hospitality

Counting 34 harvests since 1989, when the newly planted trees started bearing fruits, Laudemio Frescobaldi has a distinct character – elegant and fierce, with beautiful scents of mown grass and artichoke, and an intense yet very well-balanced flavor between bitter, spicy, and fruity – which is the result of a reasonably anticipated harvest, a fast processing in the company’s mill (at Nipozzano Castle, where a few charming rooms also welcome guests, and visits and tasting sessions can be followed by a lovely lunch by chef Alessandro Zanieri) and an ideal diversity of growing conditions. The Frescobaldi payoff – Cultivating Toscana Diversity – applies to olive oil, too: “We are lucky enough to have groves and estates in different areas near Florence, each with its own micro-climate,” Matteo explains. “The greatest part of the olive groves are located East or North-East, in the estates of Pomino, Nipozzano, and Poggio a Remole. Thanks to the Apennines, this is a colder area compared to the South-Western lands where the climate is more Mediterranean: and this lets us achieve the style we wish for Laudemio”.

Olive groves

Overall, the Frescobaldi’s olive groves count around 300 hectares and over 150 thousand trees, mostly frantoio (flanked by moraiolo and leccino as pollinating varieties and contributing to the blend). Around half of the groves, especially in the harshest hilly areas, still hosts the trees untidily planted before 1985. “They make a wonderful view, yet are not very functional to modern olive growing, “Frescobaldi explains. “These are the remains of ancient farming, where olive trees, vines, and other plants grew together. You can still see some of the trees with the frozen trunk and the new ones which grew on the side”. After 1985, producers turned to specialized olive growing and modern, rational planting layouts with tidy rows to help harvest automation and reduce the risks of hand picking for workers. Nowadays, research focuses on the study and identification of varieties similar to the local ones yet more apt to smaller planting layouts, to avoid frostbite and ensure the trees have the right solar coverage. While working on perfectly orchestrated harvesting and milling procedures aims to guarantee the highest quality, corresponding to the increased attention of the consumers.

Changing & Adapting

Why Blending is As Important to Olive Oil as it is to Wine at Jordan Winery

Of course, climate change is a fact: “We are having strong rainfalls alternating with drought, And, over the last three years, around the 5th and 7th of April temperatures

drastically drop, with springtime frost. We know how to handle it but there are changes to be done: postpone pruning, feed the soil. Nature has always been changing and we have to adapt.”

Spring 2023 was no different: the continual rainfalls and a light frost in early May could have affected the blossoming, which is a bit late (almost all over Italy, by now). But the field is still wide open.