 Not far south of the Ebro valley, in an area where a number of artificial reservoirs were created in the last century, olive trees---chiefly of the Arbequina variety---grow on high mountains where they were planted centuries ago. Some of them are 350 years old. Following a period of neglect, those forgotten old trees are now being nurtured once again, and young trees are being planted as well .
Since modern agrochemicals have never been put to use there, some of those olive groves have earned the Certificate for Organic Farming, which is strictly monitored by the EU. Of course it helps that the olive groves at such altitudes have had little or no trouble from the infamous 'olive fly' (Dacus Olei), which prefers being near the water in the valleys. The insect is the terror of every olive farmer: it tunnels into olives while they are still young and lays its eggs there, which then hatch precisely during harvest time. And without modern pesticides they are practically ineradicable.
  The organically farmed olives have added value and bring back a modest prosperity to the area. Now, younger people who have gone to live in the big city return to the villages in the regions of Ribera d'Ebre and Ribera de Cinca to help their parents and grandparents harvest the olives by hand.
The taste of the oil is characteristic of the Arbequina olive: fruity and aromatic with scents of nuts, apples and green grass. One can also distinguish the sweet almond taste of the Empeltre. But the oil has more 'pique' due to the age of the trees and the arid microclimate of the plateau. It also reflects the traditional milling and pressing techniques. Some connoisseurs notice that immediately in the taste and swear by it.
Can Solivera wild organic extra virgin olive oil is pressed exclusively in the traditional way, in one of the few mediaeval mills still left in Spain. Nonetheless, we have made a few mini-concessions to the modern age. The hinnies that once turned the three conical mill wheels of carved granite have now been replaced by an electric motor, for example, and the round straw mats are now made of synthetic fibres. The oil is still decanted from the watery olive juice (alpechín) in large brick basins. This traditional method of pressing leaves a considerable amount of residual pulp in the oil, which will sometimes settle at the base of the bottle. Connoisseurs see this as the ultimate sign of top quality.
 
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