Las Virtudes, S.C.A. - Cooperativa Agraria

1. GROWING PHASE OF THE OLIVE

The growing phase is crucial; the condition in which the olives arrive at the almazara, oil press, will influence to a great extent the quality of the olive, that is why the technicians carry out a rigorous controls on plagues and diseases in the olive GROVES in order to avoid the fruit from deteriorating with a lower quality of the harvested olives. Other aspects to take into account are the varieties of the area, which are above all Lechín, Verdial, Manzanilla, Hojiblanca, and Picual which give the characteristic flavour and aroma to our Superb Virgin Extra Olive Oil.

2. RECEPTION OF THE OLIVE

The reception of the olive occurs indoors by means of 8 stainless steel unloading hoppers. It is extremely important to leave written evidence of the origin and the characteristics of the olive to facilitate the traceability of the product in each of the olive batches delivered by our farmers. Furthermore, in this phase and under the supervision of a technician, an exhaustive separation of the olives will be effected according to the potential quality of the oils to be produced.

3. CLEANING, WASHING AND STORAGE OF THE OLIVE

Once the olive is received and selected according to the quality of the fruit, a cleaning process is carried out during which all leaves and sand is removed upon which the olives are sent to the storage hoppers where they are kept for a maximum of 24 hours before they go to the olive press, this way the olive is saved from “atrojado” or going fusty provoking further loss of quality.

4. MILLING OF THE OLIVE AND SHAKING OF THE PASTE

The oil press of Ntra. Sra. De las Virtudes S.C.A. has 6 independent lines for the extraction of oil in which the different fruit categories are processed in order to keep differentiated the oils of different quality.
The pressing of the oil is carried out in hammer mills to break the vegetal tissue and free the olive drops.
The pressed olive goes to the shakers were the paste is shaken, this shaking allows for the smaller olive drops to gather in bigger drops.

The oil press has 6 extraction lines to separate the oil from the solid part, for which an ecological 2-phase system is employed, resulting in oils of better quality as well as in a less pollution thanks to a reduced quantity of process waters.
The shaken paste is submitted to a first horizontal spinning in the so-called decanter, which separates the oil from the waste product alpeorujo. The olive pits are removed from this alpeorujo by means of two pulp-pit separators, the pits are later used as an appreciated heating combustible. The obtained olive oil still contains impurities of olive pulp and is then submitted to a second and vertical spinning to which water is added, this way oil without any fine impurities is obtained.

5. STOCKING AND PACKAGING OF THE OIL

Once it has been separated and decanted any possible fine particles, the oil is then sent through stainless steel pipes to the oil cellar with a capacity of 4,200,000 Kg and composed of 80 stainless steel open-air tanks. Then the characterisation of the contents of each of the oil tanks is started, the oils of the highest quality are selected to be sold directly to the consumer under the trademark label Soberbio.