Tenuta Maso Bòtes

The mill, told properly

Tenuta Maso Bòtes is the farm of the Santuliana family — registered as Azienda Agricola Santuliana Renato — at Località Olif de Bòtes on the Varignano–Padaro road above Arco, in the Garda Trentino at the northern tip of Lake Garda. The entrance is guarded by the olive that names the place: the Olif de Bòtes, a tree the producer's page puts at an estimated 800 to 1,000 years, quoting Professor Mauro Grazioli's description of the olive as 'la pianta che ha creato la civiltà del Garda Trentino' — the plant that created the civilisation of the Garda Trentino.

The groves run to about five hectares, farmed organically since 2010, with 1,500 trees of the Casaliva variety that the producer describes as secolari; pomace from the mill returns to the soil as amendment. Harvest falls between October and November, taken early with mechanical shakers into nets and perforated crates, and the olives are milled within twelve hours on a continuous-cycle line under temperature control for certified cold extraction. The estate bottles an organic monocultivar Casaliva, and its Millenario the producer describes as a medium-light fruity oil, gentle and elegant; the farm also produces honey and mead.

The farm stands inside the Slow Food Presidium for the extra virgin olive oil of this shore: the regional Slow Food listing names three producers — Maso Bòtes at Varignano di Arco, Laghel 7 at Arco and OlioCRU at Riva del Garda — and sets the Presidium's terms, groves of autochthonous cultivars managed without synthetic fertilisers or chemical herbicides, with at least eighty per cent of the trees more than a hundred years old.

From the public record: agriturismomasobotes.it · slowfoodtrentinoaltoadige.com