Face to face with: LA CAVALLINA | SANA Partner

January 2026

La Cavallina farm, owned by Massimo Daniele Desideri, is located in the heart of a historic estate in Tuscany. For twenty-five years, it has been dedicated to producing premium extra virgin olive oils that transform oil from a condiment/food into a protagonist capable of changing a dish.

What inspired your participation in SANA Food 2026, and what goals or expectations are guiding you in this new edition?

We are participating in SANA Food 2026 because we believe it is the right place to meet buyers and operators looking for truly distinctive products, where quality, traceability, and food culture translate into commercial value. We want to offer tastings of our extra virgin olive oils—from multi-varietal to single-varietal—and build solid relationships with selected channels and discerning restaurateurs. The goal is to consolidate our premium positioning and open up new opportunities in Italy and foreign markets.

Today’s consumers are increasingly conscious about health and well-being. How has this awareness influenced your production choices or inspired new product concepts?

Today's consumers increasingly associate extra virgin olive oil with health and well-being, and this has made certain production choices focused on quality, integrity, and traceability even more important. For us, the first step is taking care of the fruit: we harvest the olives at the right degree of ripeness, anticipating the centuries-old tradition that aimed for maximum yield. In practice, we intervene at the beginning of veraison, when the fruit expresses its best aromas and quality potential. Added to this is strict time management: we harvest and process every day, and the olives enter the mill within about four hours of harvesting. It is a demanding organization, but essential for preserving the sensory profile and natural components that consumers today recognize as valuable. Finally, the organic approach is an integral part of this vision: agronomic practices that work on the balance of the soil and the plant, reducing unnecessary procedures and contributing to a product consistent with the idea of well-being.

Tradition and innovation often go hand in hand in a company’s growth journey. How do you manage to honor your roots while giving them a contemporary interpretation?

For La Cavallina, tradition and innovation are not two different paths: tradition is the identity of our olive grove, innovation is what allows us to express it with greater precision and recognisability. In the mill, we select technologies and solutions that guarantee process control, speed and repeatability of results, because in extra virgin olive oil, quality is built on details. In the field, modernity comes from an organic approach that is not just certification, but an agronomic choice: keeping the soil alive, protecting the plant naturally, and building balance over time. Finally, we believe that innovation also means creating a culture of oil: alongside our historic multi-varietal oil, we have chosen to produce three single-varietal oils to concretely enhance biodiversity and make the tasting experience clearer. Each cultivar, as in wine, produces a different oil and therefore a more specific gastronomic use. This process also includes the recovery of a cultivar rediscovered on the farm and enhanced to become a single-varietal protected as a Slow Food Presidium.

Transparency, sustainability, and traceability have become essential values in today’s market. How do you bring these principles to life in your distribution practices?

Transparency, sustainability and traceability are not just declared values for La Cavallina: they are criteria that also guide the way we distribute and protect our oil throughout the supply chain. Traceability starts with batch management: each production batch is identified and documented, so as to guarantee buyers clear and verifiable information on origin, vintage and characteristics. Another key element is the attention paid to protecting the product until it reaches the end consumer. This is why we choose dark glass bottles, carefully selected from a technical and sensory point of view, and adopt strict standards for storage and transport, with particular attention to temperature. Details also matter: we use solutions that reinforce the protection of the contents and the seriousness of the proposal in the Horeca channel. Finally, we work with selected channels: niche sellers capable of communicating excellence and restaurateurs who share the same product culture. In these contexts, the restaurant becomes a true tasting venue, where oil is not just a condiment but an integral part of the gastronomic experience.