Italian estate creates one of the world's best oils under cover of darkness

In the early evening of fall, olive pickers at the Domenica Fiore farm begin their work under the lantern light. This Domenica Fiore olive oil is located on a gentle slope overlooking the ancient city of Orvieto, in the green heart of Italy, halfway betweenRome and Florence.

Last year in late September, owner Frank Giustra and director Cesare Bianchini hosted an al fresco dinner to celebrate a new tradition, a nightly olive harvest called Novello di Notte. Enjoy rustling glasses, swirling pasta and draping cashmere shawls as the sun sets behind an incredible horizon that turns from dreamy blue to starry indigo. This is la dolce vita at its finest, until the tranquil setting turns into''a fantastic scene from a Ridley Scott movie. A tractor roars to life, carrying a powerful tower of lanterns beside it, professional gardeners emerge from the shadows. They begin to gently brush the tree crowns and carefully lower the fruit to the ground, the juices from which are immediately pressed and hermetically packaged in stainless steel containers with no access to light. "This is where it all starts," says Giustra, founder of Domenica Fiore, a Vancouver-based ore mining magnate and founder of Lions Gate Entertainment (production credits include Scott's "Blade Runner 2049") and pours wine for the farmers, after which everyone sings the popular Chinesese song "Brndisno." Some of his Italian guests are puzzled because it's too early - more than a month earlier than usual,''as in this region the olive harvest usually starts after the Giorno dei Morti holidays on November 2. The fruit isn't ripe yet, the harvest isn't very big yet, and the weather is too warm too.

B''Complementing their many culinary ventures such as Modern Farmer magazine and the Million Gardens movement, farm co-owner Giustra and director Cesare Bianchini take their passion project seriously. They harvest and grind all of their olives for four hours to reduce the risk of fermentation and free fatty acids. Nitrogen-filled stainless steel bottles and containers eliminate oxidation and access to light, and reduce free radicals. Early picking lowers quantity but increases quality, improves bitterness, spiciness and other desirable flavor characteristics, and extends shelf life by capturing more polyphenols. And by carrying the limits of early picking into September, as is the case with''By the Novello di Notte process, they reduce heat by picking the fruit under cool darkness.

Another delicious tradition at Domenica Fiore Farm.