IT’s EVOO TIme!
Dear Friends,
I am delighted to tell you that we were rewarded for waiting out the storms to pick our grapes. Little compares with the retrospective relief of having made the right decision and the daily pleasure of slowly becoming acquainted with the young 2022 vintage. Fermentations are complete, our new wines are “safe” in barrel and already showing great promise.
As predicted, between picking our Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon, we “squeezed” in the start of our olive harvest. Greener olives yield less oil, but of infinitely higher quality.
It’s here!
Our 2022 Extra Virgin Olive Oil is finally available to order online.
Total availability is just 800 bottles, with a second smaller release planned for Spring.
Some things never change; once you have tasted newly-pressed, high polyphenol oil there is no going back, for either taste or nutritional reasons.
This year we are shipping directly from Tuscany to your doorstep, for a speedy and more sustainable delivery. Click below to place your order and do make haste to avoid disappointment. Our precious bottles in their signature gift box will travel in bespoke recycled and recyclable packaging. Fingers crossed that everything goes “liscio come olio” - as smooth as oil!
As always, our oil is made from Leccino, an indigenous Tuscan cultivar known for its hardiness at low temperatures and for the relative delicacy of oil (compared to some of the more fiery cultivars). Our oliveto is over a hundred years old and numbers fewer than 200 trees. Overlooking our vineyards, it saw the skirmishes of World War II in this area and outlived the devastating freeze of 1985 when, in Venice, the lagoon froze over and, in Florence, temperatures were as low as -9.4F. Around 90% of Tuscany’s olive trees were damaged irreparably but our special little grove survived intact.
Leccino has a very brief window of perfect ripeness. From September onwards we send olive samples for weekly analysis and await the green light from the Florence lab in order to time our early October harvest perfectly. Had we waited until November to pick it would have meant a higher yield in oil per olive but of a lower quality. We pick by hand which is labor intensive, but we prefer to gather the olives from each branch rather than tree-shaking that is quicker but can bruise the delicate fruit.
Bottom line, if you thought our wine was a labor of love, our olive oil redefines the concept.
In Ode to Olive Oil Neruda describes olive oil as a miracle that sings to us just as wine does. It is impossible not to think in these terms when tasting our latest harvest and we look forward to uniting you with your own bottles.
With gratitude and warm regards from Tuscany,
Margot