To produce the elite Flor de Aceite, the handpicked olives are channeled
through beveled chutes into the underground crusher where they are ground to
mash by three-ton granite cones (tuned by a specialist before each season).
From the crusher, the oily paste rides a conveyor to the Núñez de Prado’s
prized contraption, the Thermofilter, invented in Malaga last century by the
Marquis of Acapulco. The Thermofilter consists of two giant stainless steel
rollers covered in a tight wire mesh, one atop the other, which lift and
turn at a snail's pace. Oil from the crushed olives drips by gravity,
strained through tiny holes—50 per square millimeter—and runs out through a
trough at the bottom to a separate decantation system. What results is called the
Flor de Aceite (Flower of the Oil). This oil is not pressed, it drips from the fruit naturally.
Normally, a pressing yields a kilo of oil for every five kilos of olives;
however, it takes eleven kilos of olives to make one kilo of Flor de Aceite.
To qualify as extra virgin, olive oil must contain less than one percent
acidity. Fine Italian oils hover near 0.5 percent. On average, Núñez de
Prado ranges from 0.09 to 0.17 percent, the low acidity minimizing the
disturbance of the flavor compounds.
Núñez de Prado Extra Virgin Olive Oil is available in either glass or
porcelain 500 ml bottles and each individually numbered bottle has a label
with an invitation to visit the mill in Spain.
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