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CALVISIUS, THE CAVIAR MADE IN ITALY
Roma - (Adnkronos Multimedia) - Its zoological classification is "Acipenser transmontanus", but it is its popular name which epitomises the elegance and luxury of great restaurants the world over: white sturgeon, evoking the Caspian Sea and the far-off rivers of the Caucasian republics and Iran. But actually, we needn't go so far afield. The white sturgeon is also at home in Europe. It always has been, especially in the rivers of northern Italy, but not in sufficient numbers to allow the production of caviar in the quantities and quality comparable to that from the Caspian. At least until the 1990s, when production started of one of the best caviars in the world, "Calvisius", collected from sturgeons farmed in the tanks of Agroittica (www.agroittica.it), in Viadana di Calvisano, a small town in the province of Brescia. This is how Italy became the third largest producer of caviar in the world, after Russia and Iran, and the leading producer in Europe, ensuring a product whose physical and aromatic features have nothing to envy of those of more exotic origin.
It all began in the 1970s, with an idea of Giovanni Tolettini, a businessman from Brescia, who realised that the enormous quantity of hot water produced by his steelworks could be used to heat large tanks for fish farming. He began with eels, moving on to trout and freshwater bass, and lastly the first specimens of white sturgeon. Then, in 1998, came the leap forward from experimentation and small-scale production to the international market. This was the year when the international Cites came into force, limiting the fishing of sturgeon, which is considered a species in danger of extinction. Thus began the mass production of caviar collected from farmed sturgeons.
This was a difficult task. Many, in the past, had already tried to obtain quality caviar from animals in captivity, but almost always with poor results. But Tolettini's obstinacy turned out to be successful. Using a system of tanks filled with spring water, heated by water from the steelworks as required, and developing a complex procedure of lot traceability, he was able to reproduce the ideal conditions for the development of sturgeon larva, their growth and the extraction of a caviar now considered one of the best in the world. The final step was the selection of the "Calvisius Elite": large eggs, over 3 millimetres in diameter, light amber grey in colour, with an extremely delicate taste, and "malossol", with a low salt content. The product is so exclusive that Agroittica decided to sell it only direct, on-line, through a specific Internet site (www.calvisius.com).
Today, Agroittica in Calvisano, led by the managing director Sandro Cancellieri, the business heir of Tolettini, who died before his time in 1998, is the undisputed leader in Italy in the production of trout, salmon and bass, and the only European producer of caviar. From the first steps in the 1990s, when in one year 100 kg of caviar were produced, production has risen to dozens of tonnes.
The growing tanks now number 150, covering an overall surface area of 600,000 square metres, using over 1000 litres a second of spring water taken from underground and another 250 litres per second of hot water from the nearby steelworks, through a heat-exchange system which makes it possible to maintain the temperature at the ideal conditions for the growth of the sturgeons.
For the future, the aim is to further develop production without compromising quality, and moreover achieve even higher standards. The dream is to see an entire shop window at Petrossian, the Parisian temple of caviar, dedicated to "Calvisius Elite".
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