`Early Harvest Release Brings Fresh Oils to New York - Olive Oil Times
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Early Harvest Release Brings Fresh Oils to New York

By Michael Goodwin
Dec. 20, 2013 11:34 UTC


Remy Reboul presents Château d’Estoublon early har­vest olive oils at an event in New York hosted by De Medici Imports

New York’s first ​“early har­vest release,” hosted by De Medici Imports at the head­quar­ters for the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, wel­comed olive oil pro­duc­ers, experts, chefs, and writ­ers to taste new oils from the Mediterranean’s first har­vest this sea­son.

Food jour­nal­ist and tele­vi­sion per­son­al­ity David Rosengarten opened the event’s panel dis­cus­sion by defin­ing the ​“dense state­ment of early har­vest release” and the tra­di­tion of using ​“under­ripe olives, pro­duc­ing a green, won­der­fully fruity, pep­pery oil.”

The event fea­tured extra vir­gin olive oils from four pro­duc­ers. During the open­ing sem­i­nar, each pro­ducer had the oppor­tu­nity to speak about ter­roir, pro­duc­tion meth­ods and the qual­i­ties that make his or her oil unique. Rosengarten observed that the pro­duc­ers, pri­mar­ily estate oper­a­tions, were boldly ​“com­mer­cial­iz­ing early releases” to give con­sumers a taste of the fresh­est oils avail­able. All four pro­duc­ers had oil sam­ples flown in for the event.

The fifty or so atten­dees first heard from Gerard Veá, of VEÁ Olive Oil, in Lérida, Spain. In con­ver­sa­tion with Emilio Mignucci, an owner of Philadelphia area spe­cialty food mer­chants, Di Bruno Bros., Veá explained the care­ful tem­per­a­ture con­trol involved in pre­serv­ing the fla­vor of early release oils. He also spoke to the role of weather in sub­tleties of fla­vor and oil qual­ity with each new har­vest. VEÁ’s early har­vest extra vir­gin olive oil is 100 per­cent Arbequina, a cel­e­brated Catalan vari­ety.

Olive oil expert and edu­ca­tor Nicholas Coleman then spoke with Emanuela Stucchi Prinetti, from Badia a Coltibuono, a Tuscan pro­ducer of great his­tory and tra­di­tion. Discussing the evolv­ing role of tech­nol­ogy in olive cul­ti­va­tion, Prinetti described the chal­lenges and rewards of pro­duc­ing olive oil and wine on the same estate. Illustrating the role of alti­tude on cul­ti­va­tion, Pinetti shared the vision of her father, whose inno­va­tion would even­tu­ally lead to the com­pletely organic pro­duc­tion at Badia a Coltibuono. ​“The health and integrity of the olives is of the utmost impor­tance,” she remarked. Only 8,000 bot­tles of Albereto Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the estate’s early release, are avail­able each year.

world-production-early-harvest-release-brings-fresh-oils-to-new-york-olive-oil-times-rallostucchi
Vic Rallo, host of the tele­vi­sion series ​“Eat! Drink! Italy!” with Emanuela Stucchi Prinetti from the Badia a Coltibuono estate

The sem­i­nar also saw Remy Reboul, pro­ducer of the Provençal Château d’Estoublon, in con­ver­sa­tion with Curtis Cord, pub­lisher of Olive Oil Times and founder of the New York International Olive Oil Competition. Cord recalled tast­ing Chateau d’Estoublon’s Grossane mono­va­ri­etal in a small shop in St. Tropez 20 years ago that was his first expe­ri­ence with a ​“great olive oil.” Though the estate’s pro­duc­tion tech­nol­ogy has evolved since then, the care­ful cul­ti­va­tion has not. The estate has only 6,700 trees, and their olives are har­vested by hand for opti­mal ripeness. Though he pro­duces five mono­va­ri­etal oils, Reboul’s early har­vest, AOP Vallée des Baux de Provence is a blend that includes all five French olives.

Xandra Falco, in con­ver­sa­tion with Jeffrey Shaw of the Trade Commission of Spain in New York, spoke about Marques de Griñon in Toledo — another pro­ducer with hun­dreds of years of his­tory. Whereas the estate’s olives were once ​“crushed” at the mill, mod­ern tech­nol­ogy more del­i­cately ​“slices” the olives, Falco explained. Falco’s pro­duc­tion line is able to cre­ate and bot­tle olive oil in just 30 min­utes, opti­miz­ing fresh­ness, fla­vor and health­ful­ness. Her early har­vest oil, Oleum Artis Extra Virgin, com­bines Arbequina and Picual vari­etals.

The tast­ing, which fol­lowed the speak­ers, allowed pro­duc­ers to share the robust fla­vors of their early har­vests with sem­i­nar atten­dees. A cel­e­bra­tion of small, high-qual­ity olive oil mak­ers, the event aimed to give much-needed pos­i­tive press to olive oil imports. Steve Kaufman, Executive vice pres­i­dent of De Medici, and one of the orga­niz­ers of the event, stated that the event was an oppor­tu­nity to ​“demon­strate that bet­ter olive oils come from early har­vest­ing and show off great oils.”

All four pro­duc­ers explained that embrac­ing tech­nol­ogy was crit­i­cal to the preser­va­tion of their his­toric estates. As Reboul stated, ​“we have to stick to strict rules to pro­duce the high­est qual­ity olive oil.” This dis­play of European com­mit­ment to small pro­duc­tion and qual­ity was wel­comed by American palates. As Rosengarten noted, with an increase in American con­sumer knowl­edge of olive oil, any oppor­tu­nity to grow ​“American trust in extra vir­gin olive oil” is a great one.

More articles on:  , ,

Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles