Terroir in extra virgin olive oil: the Italian National Database of Monovarietal EVOO

With the term "Terroir" we include a set of environmental factors, including farming practices and other anthropogenic factors that collectively affect the phenotype of a crop. Originally developed in France for wine, approaches for defining terroirs are now being carried to other specialty crops, linking the uniqueness and quality of foods to the environment where they are produced. The quality and organoleptic properties of EVOOs depend on many factors such as variety, geographical origin, climatic conditions, agronomic techniques and processing technologies. The relationship between growth habitat and genotypes is consolidated in olive oil; for instance, olive orchards' geopedology, topoclimate and genotype can contribute to define aromas, chemical composition and determine olive oil appreciation. The Italian olive germplasm is estimated to include over 680 accessions. Knowledge and development of the characteristics of Italian monovarietal extra virgin olive oils will also lead to an improvement in knowledge of the areas where these oils are produced, in turn developing enogastronomic tourism, a crucial sector for the Italian economy. ASSAM and IBE-CNR have created and are managing a database of chemical and sensory profiles of labelled extra virgin oils participating in the Italian National Review of Monovarietal olive oils. For each monovarietal oil, chemical and sensory profiles were calculated and described, including the geographical origin. This study that considers labelled commercial extra virgin olive oils was taken in order to provide both the consumer and producer with information about the chemical and sensory properties of extra virgin olive oils which are characterized by a deep combination of geographic and climatic characteristics of a specific region with specific genotypes. Currently, the database includes more than 3600 oils produced from 185 different varieties from 18 different Italian regions in 16 consecutive years (starting from 2006). Data are available at https://www.olimonovarietali.it/en.