Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Happy Earth Day – Harvest 2011/2012 Release

by admin on April 19, 2012

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As many of you know, the olive harvest in California was off by more then 30%. Although our harvest was down significantly, we’d like to honor Mother Earth on her day by celebrating what she did give us! The only property that we could harvest this year was Twin Sisters in the Suisun Valley. This is our second year harvesting Twin Sisters and we are grateful for the partnership we have formed with the Smith Family…a fifth generation Napa Valley family.

We let the crop hang a little longer this year as the cold weather slowed the ripening process…it got a little precarious at the end because the olives were still very green but allowing them to stay on the trees any longer would put them at risk of frost damage…so I finally called the pick. Because our crop was small….9 tons vs. 30….I decided to bring a mill to the property so we could produce the freshest oil possible. The magic of the extra virgin olive oil being bottled while the crop was coming in was indescribable….I wish you could have been there! For the next best thing, check out this video of the Twin Sisters harvest created by one of our staffers.

In honor of Mother Earth, we would like to openly thank her for the crop that we did get this year. A little tough love reminds us to continue to take care of the planet. A very dear Peruvian Shaman recently told me …  “NOTHING on earth is yours but all of it is here for YOU” … we need to remember not to take things for granted and that the Earth does need care, consideration, reverence and love so it can continue to bring goodness to our future generations.

Happy Earth Day!

Peggy

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A New Harvest from the Talcotts

by Emily Shartin on January 31, 2012

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The whirlwind of December’s olive harvest is done, and now all that’s left to do is wait.

We wait while our new crop of olive oils takes a breather. They need this time — usually a couple of months after they been pressed — to rest. The natural olive sediment settles out, leaving a clearer, more stable oil that is then bottled as the year’s vintage.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have any new oils to share. If you follow our newsletter, you know that we released our own “olio nuovo” just after it was pressed in December. It was made from olives grown at Twin Sisters Ranch in Suisun Valley, and had a thick, meaty texture and a bold finish — a perfect, delicious way to celebrate the olive harvest.

We have none of our nuovo left, but we do still have few precious bottles of new oil from Napa olive grower Jim Talcott. Like us, Jim bottled a small quantity of his oil, which was pressed in mid-December, and is allowing the remainder to settle before he releases it this winter.

Jim and his wife, Patricia, moved to southernmost Napa to grow olives about seven years ago. Surrounded by the famed vineyards of Carneros, they now tend about 3,000 olive trees, mostly Italian varietals. When Jim gives directions to their home, there is no street address involved. Instead, there is a series of landmarks — wineries, a pond, mailboxes, a gravel road. So when you do find your way to the secluded house — and to the magnificent olive grove that surrounds it — you feel almost like you’ve stumbled into some kind of secret.

But this beautiful landscape takes some seriously hard work to maintain. A surgeon by trade, Jim spent several years as a grape grower in St. Helena before making olives his primary focus. As organic growers, the Talcotts must be exacting about the methods they use to control mold and ward off pests, such as voles, which eat bark and destroyed half of the couple’s trees during their first year. After rebounding from that setback, Jim now spends much of the growing season pruning his trees to ensure all of their energy is going into producing fruit.

This year, the result is an new oil that is fresh and green with strong fruity flavors, and just a hint of the pepperiness that often characterizes Italian olive varietals. Jim proudly declares it “the best oil we’ve produced so far.”

The Talcotts were lucky to have a bountiful harvest this year. Many local orchards were affected by springtime rains, which stripped trees of the flowers that are necessary to produce fruit, leaving many with limited or non-existent harvests. While the Talcotts’ harvest was somewhat smaller than anticipated, Jim believes the relative youth of their trees kept it from being severely hampered.

Jim, like many of his fellow growers, is happy to keep the momentum going in favor of quality oil. He sees an increasing number of consumers turning toward fresh, small production, extra virgin oils both for their flavor and health benefits.

“I do think that more and more people are using good olive oil,” he said.

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Never Say Never

by admin on November 18, 2011

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100ml bottles
For those of you who followed our journey in Italy, you will remember the crazy Italian glass distributor that I met in Certaldo. Well, for months after my return to the States, Mr. Cervantes and I tried to work together to import the 100ml bottle that stole my heart. Time passed, things got busier and I decided to shelve the project. I gradually lost touch with Mr. Cervantes, and all that remained of the memory was this really sleek, sexy 100ml bottle that was the baby to our 375ml. [click to continue…]

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How To Taste Olive Oil

by admin on November 11, 2011

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I was planning on writing a post on tasting olive oil until I came across this article written by a very respectable individual in our industry, Nancy Ash. It was written for another entity that I also have great respect for…The Olive Oil Source. When I read the article, I realized that I really couldn’t improve much on the information…it’s well written, on point, and all I will add is “bravo!” [click to continue…]

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What Is Extra Virgin Olive Oil?

by Peggy OKelly on August 10, 2011

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Extra Virgin Olive Oil?  You can see the answer in our pictures above.  It comes from caring for your trees from birth….harvesting with reverence and care……processing in a top flight facility……storing properly……honoring the earth.    It’s always great to know the technical aspects but just as important is to know the heart and soul…so for all you visual learners…your answer is in the pictures of our 2010 harvest above.

But now….on with the class……..

Does everyone use an Extra Virgin Olive Oil?.  Ah…. I can hear the resounding yeses falling from cyperspace.

So what is an Extra Virgin Olive Oil?  What…where did you go…wait…I hear some murmurs…..”first pressed”….”cold pressed”….”the best”.

If these were your responses, you are not alone.  I have yet to conduct a sensory evaluation class where anyone knows the true definition of an extra virgin olive oil.  There are confusing terms on the market as well so I hope to clear it all up for you in our series on “Unraveling the Mysteries Of Extra Virgin Olive Oil”.

First, before we do anything, I need to get “cold press” off of my chest.  The term actually stemmed from long ago when the norm was to press olive paste between mats to extract the oil.  The second (hot) press would squeeze out more oil from the paste producing a low quality oil which was eventually refined or burned in lamps.  Under European standards, the term “cold press” can ONLY be used if the oil was extracted using mats.

Most olive oil in America is produced using the centrifuge process….NOT mats.  Therefore, the term, “cold press” doesn’t even apply.   Also, to be categorized as an extra virgin olive oil, as noted below, the processing must take place under 86F.  So, technically, all extra virgin olive oil is processed at lower temperatures making the term “cold press” redundant at best but really just simply irrelevant.

TEST QUESTION

Two olive oils are sitting side by side on a store shelf.  They both call themselves Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  One puts in bright letters, “Cold Press”  and the other does not.  Which olive oil is higher in quality?

ANSWER ………who knows?!!!!!   Get it?!

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Now let’s get into the actual definition of an extra virgin olive oil.

  • Olives are only pressed once
  • Oleic Acid content is under 0.8%
  • No defects are found in the olive oil

Paul Vossen, UC Davis Cooperative Extension, gives us a more detailed description of an extra virgin olive oil:

  • Must be made from fresh olives — extracted from the fruit solely by mechanical means
  • Fruit must be of high quality, processed soon after harvest, and with clean equipment
  • Temperature during processing can not exceed 86ºF (30ºC)
  • No solvents can be used in the process
  • Must not be mixed with oils made from seeds, nuts, or pumace (milling leftovers)
  • Must meet specific standards for over 20 laboratory tests
  • Free fatty acid level can not exceed 0.8% and peroxide value must be
    < 20 meq O2
  • Contains naturally occurring antioxidants and polyphenols
  • Must be able to pass a taste test by an International Olive Council (IOC) recognized panel indicating some fruitiness and zero defects

So this gives you the technical details on an extra virgin olive oil and in my next post, I will attempt to make the definition consumer friendly…so you can navigate the sea of extra virgin olive oil with a decent GPS.

If you have any questions or need clarifications, please don’t hesitate to post them in the comments so everyone has a chance to benefit.

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