The Great Distillery

The Great Distillery of Casalvento

Production officially began in 1962 with a small Zambelli distiller. Professor Giovanni Dòmini installed this small system in the kitchen of a tiny apartment in the estate's main house. The scent wafted everywhere, and as is often the case in Tuscany, the use of the place gave it its name. In the Dòmini household, the key that opens those rooms still has a tag reading "La Lavanda" (Lavender).

In the 1970s, production began to increase with the installation of a Frilli copper distiller in new premises. A few years later, it was joined by a much larger one with a separate steam generator.

With the new millennium, new regulations and new processes for transforming new botanicals had to be adapted. We design the distillery with a focus on limiting galvanic currents, improving energy recovery, saving water, and making the systems (designed with chemical process CAD) flexible and electronically controllable. A true revolution.

We currently operate a great distillery featuring 14 extractors utilizing various technologies and differing in size, shape, structure, and mode of operation. The systems have been specifically designed to suit the processing requirements of specific flowers, roots, leaves, twigs, wood, or seeds.

Sophisticated electronic control of the physical parameters of temperature, pressure, flow rate, and agitation monitors each extraction and ensures the highest production quality.

Access to the extraction rooms is prohibited during processing and any type of filming is prohibited.

How we verify correct operating procedure.

Every production has its own magically different progression from time to time.

Packing the botanicals more or less tightly inside the still, distilling moister flowers if picked in the morning or drier ones if picked in the evening, is different. Cooling the escaping vapors more or less quickly, modifying the shape of the Florentine Jar to facilitate the separation of the essential oils from the hydrolates, and applying cyclical heating phases are all factors.

Casalvento has a testing laboratory adjacent to the distillation facilities. Spectrophotometers, gas chromatographs, and gas mass spectrometers are our guides, our eyes inside the product. Only these instruments perceive the vibrations of the distillates and tell us what to do, how to act to change something for the better.

Increasing specialization has allowed us to add Hyper Hydro products to our traditional processes: highly concentrated in active ingredients and chemically stable, making them extremely safe to use.

Essential oils and Hydrolates are available for almost all the botanicals grown on the farm. Some, however, are not suitable for obtaining them and are solvent-extracted.

All production processes are certified organic and have been perfected over years of work, following technical insights applied with artisanal skill by modifying the systems.

Concretes are products with a waxy (or buttery) consistency obtained by solvent extraction. A particular type of concrete is Iris butter, obtained by steam distillation of the plant's roots; it is therefore considered an "essential oil."

Absolutes are obtained only by solvent extraction and concentrate the most natural identity of the botanical.

Our "Classic" Plants - STEAM EXTRACTION

It would be more appropriate to call our production facility an Extraction Plant rather than a Distillery: by definition, the plants we process are called "Medicinal Plants".

The term "medicinal" (officinale) derives from the centuries-old use of plants in ancient PHARMACEUTICAL FACTORIES for the production of active ingredients. Plants were used to obtain pharmacological remedies called simplicia or composita (if composed of one or more essences) used to treat human and animal ailments.

Some processes in our Extraction Plant are performed primarily using simple steam. This is produced at controlled temperature and pressure and is distributed to the plant material using various application techniques. Our processing systems include direct and indirect steam, at ambient, increased, or vacuum pressure. The extraction process is not standardized, but adapted to each type of plant being processed.

In our traditional systems, vapor condensation occurs with various refrigeration systems, always using water for heat exchange, while regulating the amount of reflux.

The extracts are collected in Florentine Jars, specially modified to ensure airtightness when processing under vacuum or positive pressure.

All certified organic essential oils, hydrolates, and hyperhydro products are aged before analysis and sale.

Our "Special" Systems - SOLVENT EXTRACTION

Specially designed for complex processes, they allow us to obtain Resinoids, Concretes, and Absolutes for the fine perfumery, cosmetics, and liqueur industries.

We use steam only in the final stages, as we must necessarily resort to other types of extraction as required by the technique.

Tuscan Iris, Damask Rose, Chianti Lavender, Helichrysum, Broom, and Casalvento Oakmoss achieve their highest quality at the end of this process.

Absolute production is extensive and can be customized to meet our clients' needs.