Michael Lamb travels to the home of extra virgin olive oil, Spain’s Andalucia region, to find out how it’s made, how to spot a dud one, and discovers New Zealand is poised to be the next big star of olive oil.
Borja Sanz’s brown Spanish eyes regard me with a
My journey to creating Olivver, New Zealand’s first store devoted solely to extra virgin olive oil, has brought me all the way here to his remote olive mill near Bobadilla, in deepest Andalucia. The huge former farmhouse is guarded by a giant cone-shaped stone, a nod to bygone days of olive crushing. Inside, I sit with Borja as he ponders this “extranjero” (foreigner), clearly wondering where I get the temerity to ask for his precious extra virgin olive oils, and whether the crusher might be the best place for me too.
On the other side of the cramped Finca La Torre office, Victor Serrano, the Jedi Master of the mill, works intensely and quietly at a stack of papers. Probably agonising over olive oil readings like acidity levels and peroxide values, I think to myself. He keeps half an ear on the conversation as Borja, the commerce manager, grills me on my olive oil knowledge.
“Is colour an indicator of quality?” Borja asks.
I gulp. I know this, although his intense gaze is making me hastily review my facts. His Spanish inquisition is fair enough. Finca La Torre is routinely listed as one of the very top extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) in the world, and they ain’t going to let any old walk-in represent their product.
Attaining such lofty status in the olive oil pantheon is punishingly tough. Hundreds of brands battle at awards shows from New York to Japan to London, and to rank in leading guides like Flos Olei and Evooleum.
The stakes are high because demand for the best-quality EVOO is growing as its powerful medicinal properties become more widely understood. Masters like Victor Serrano know how to coax the maximum micronutrients from their olives, especially the polyphenols, like oleocanthal, a powerful antioxidant that studies have shown kills cancer cells. Add cardioprotective, neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties to what premium EVOOs can do, and you have a formidable substance. Recent studies suggest it may help prevent dementia diseases like Alzheimer’s.
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Advertise with NZME.A superfood you can cook with and drizzle on your favourite dishes to add a flavour bomb? Absolutely. But for every farm like Finca La Torre, where butterflies flutter through biodynamic groves, hustlers elsewhere conspire to make a fast buck.
The tricks are as old as time: from adulteration to simply peddling inferior olive oil as the good stuff. Bulk producers know if they harvest later, the blacker olives release more oil, which means more money but much-lower quality – for example, 3kg of olives to yield 1 litre, versus say 10kg of polyphenol-rich green olives to obtain 1 litre of premium EVOO. While there’s a role for cheaper, lower-quality olive oil oils, you want to know what you’re paying for. Sadly, the dodgy moves are not unknown here either: in 2022, Consumer found some local olive oils labelled as “New Zealand” also contained imported oils.
The ultimate loser is the consumer, left standing in the supermarket aisle, staring at the ever-increasing price tags, trying to work out what to buy.
How to spot a dud oil? Taste for one thing. Inferior oils taste fatty and lack complexity and the peppery kick of premium EVOO. But acidity is your prime data point: it must have a free acidity of under 0.8%, a simple index of quality and how carefully the olives were handled during production. If that info isn’t on your bottle or available from the producer, red flag.
Provenance is also key: go for single-estate monovarietals and premium blends from trusted producers, or only the most highly reputable co-operatives.
Sharp practices aside, extra virgin olive oil is marching to the top of foodie consciousness. Olive oil sommeliers are now a thing: sniffing, swirling and sipping to help chefs and diners match EVOOs to dishes. Starbucks is betting big on its Oleato, coffee with a dash of Sicilian olive oil. It will “transform the coffee industry”, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz has declared.
As awareness grows around what constitutes a top-quality EVOO, names like picual, frantoio, picudo and dozens more, all with their own flavour profiles, are being heard around dinner tables. Terroir, climate, skill of the makers – remind you of another gorgeous liquid?
Just like wine, New Zealand is well placed to make its mark on the global extra virgin olive oil scene. We craft extremely good EVOO, and now more and more producers are sending their oils for laboratory testing. Like Peter Crelinsten at Puketī Olive Farm in Kerikeri, who sends his all the way to the World Olive Centre for Health lab in Athens, considered a global leader in this complex science.
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Advertise with NZME.This year, Peter produced one EVOO certified with an astonishing 811mg/kg of polyphenols that sold out in nanoseconds. He’s not alone, with many local producers obtaining exceptional results in polyphenol levels and overall quality. And as climate change bites in the Med, the more benign growing conditions in Aotearoa might just position us as one of the boutique olive oil gems of the world.
Back in my exam at Finca La Torre, I tell Borja, “No, colour is not an indication of quality.” “Correct!” he declares, “but why?”
“Because unscrupulous operators may add green dye to their oil?” I venture. He is pleased with his student.
Eventually, I pass the test and Borja agrees to supply Finca La Torre to my extra virgin olive oil store. As we head out to the groves he is emphasising how much hidden effort goes into merely cleaning the processing equipment. Weeks it turns out – any stray particles could damage the next batch of oil.
Intriguing as that is, my focus drifts to the butterflies zig-zagging through the tranquil olive grove. Because one thing’s for sure, there is magic in those hardy, life-giving trees.
Michael Lamb is founder of Olivver.co.nz, New Zealand’s first store devoted solely to a curated collection of local and international extra virgin olive oils.
Sizzle or drizzle: 5 great extra virgin olive oils
Leafyridge Olives (NZ)
Craig Leaf-Wright knows a thing or two about crafting top-quality olive oils, having headed up producer body Olives NZ for over 10 years. Now he tends to 4000 trees at his grove in the Wairarapa, making premium EVOOs from varietals such as picual, frantoio and leccino. This medium peppery one has only 0.1% acidity and high polyphenols of 462mg/kg, denoting a super-premium EVOO.
Leafyridge Medium Peppery $35 (500ml)
Rincon de la Subbetica (Spain)
Possibly the most awarded extra virgin olive oil on the planet (with more than 720 awards since 2004 to be precise), this is an organic PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) masterpiece; the Hojiblanca make for a lovely buttery quality, with a complex bouquet of green apples, tomatoes, freshly cut grass; 0.14% acidity and 348mg/kg polyphenols.
Rincon de la Subbetica Organic Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil $65 (500ml)
Narbey Extra Virgin Olive Oil (NZ)
Leon Narbey has combined a career as one of New Zealand’s premier cinematographers (Whina, Desperate Remedies, Whale Rider) with creating an idyllic olive grove and press near Waipu. An acidity of just 0.1% (acidity under 0.8% is a key data point to look for when buying EVOO) shows Leon’s gorgeous, unfiltered olive oil is as much a star as the ones he worked with on set.
Narbey Frantoio Novello $40 (500ml)
Bio-Orto (Italy)
Extra virgin olive oil aficionados love to get into the different varietals, and the Peranzana is a signature olive of Puglia in southern Italy noted for its delicate fruitiness without too much bitterness or pungency. Hence this is a medium fruity olive oil with fragrances of unripe tomato, notes of aromatic herbs and artichoke. Acidity 0.1-0.2%.
Bio-Orto Peranzana Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil – $60 (500ml)
Bella Olea (NZ)
Gaining full organic certification is no small task, but boutique producer Chris Penman from Greytown in the Wairarapa has done it – and it shows in his fine extra virgin olive oils, like this cold-extracted and unfiltered leccino, a medium fruity oil with lovely woody, grassy aromas.
Bella Olea Leccino Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil – $24 (250ml)
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