NEW SEASON OIL NOTIFICATION
We offer new season Extra Virgin Olive Oil just once a year, when it has just been pressed to ensure it arrives with you at its freshest and healthiest. Leave your email address here for notification of when the sale goes live for the next harvest.
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Our Philosophy
Our philosophy is to supply you with the very best Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil immediately after the annual harvest (which typically takes place in October and November) when the oil is at it’s freshest and most delicious and has the highest level of antioxidants.
For this reason, we open the sale in early autumn when we are sure how the harvest will be and have therefore been able to discuss pricing with each of the growers. The sale closes at the beginning of December and we ship to arrive with you in time for Christmas.
Our Commitments
• Only from families who own their own frantoio (mill) ensuring full control from grove to bottle
• Only available once a year directly after pressing for delivery before Christmas
• Only the absolute best quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Only Italian
Key Influences on Olive Oil Style and Quality
There are over 600 different Olive Cultivars in Italy alone, many of which are used for Olive Oil. Similarly to grape varieties in wine, the Olive cultivar influences the flavour profile of your oil. Different cultivars, depending on size of fruit, thickness of the skin, size of the pit, composition of the pulp can produce different yields, varying concentrations of anti-oxidants and overall different quality levels.
As you might expect, olives grown in cooler areas where there is more moisture (rainfall and dew) exhibit leaner, more restrained characteristics. This doesn’t however mean that great oil can now be made in Iceland – you need a minimum amount of sunshine to make your Extra Virgin Olive Oil taste remarkable, similarly to tomatoes or stone fruit.
Olive trees are sensitive to winter freeze (the Casaliva cultivar for example, is more resistant to cold, and is grown at the foot of the Dolomites). They are pretty resistant to dry warm weather although if the summer is too hot for too long, the ripening pauses, as do we all.
Where the groves are planted also influences the final oil. Olive trees tend to thrive in very poor soils but the outcome can be quite different depending on the exact soil type, the altitude of the grove and the exposure of the land.
Here’s the thing – all olives are green. When they become fully mature, they turn black.
Olive maturity at the time of harvest is a major factor in flavour and quality: olives harvested earlier (green olives) feature more bitter, grassy characteristics, with lower yields and with the highest anti-oxidant content. The oil is a much more intense green colour and has a longer shelf-life. In terms of production, milling can take longer with green olives (a longer malaxation – the action of slowly churning milled olives to release droplets of oil – is needed and can be more complicated) but the results are far superior! Don’t choose olive oil from over mature fruit: it lacks all the potential goodness and flavour.
People who care passionately about what they make and follow it personally every day have the capacity to create products with far higher quality, with integrity, and that taste of where they come from. They are also able to do this by caring for the environment they inhabit.