Every oil has its own dialect.

As you might be aware, my enthusiasm for extra virgin olive oil knows no bounds, and the more I learn about it, the deeper my passion grows, leading to our range of extra virgin olive oil getting bigger and bigger. I love olive oil because there are plenty of similarity with wine, even more, when made by small producers and one of them, during my visit to Olio Capitale in Trieste said something that really struck me, I never thought of olive oil like this.

I always said that each olive variety, each area, each soil, produces a different olive oil, like a chardonnay wine made from grapes grown in Sicily will be different from one produced in Piedmont or Aosta Valley even if the grape characteristics are visible in all of them, so would be for the Leccino olive variety, a Leccino from Abruzzo will never be like a Leccino from Lake Garda.

During one of my tastings - if when visiting wine fair I start tasting wine straight after breakfast, when visiting olive oil fairs is the olive oil; I wonder whether the people that say “I wish I had that job” when they learn about my “wine” profession would say the same if they knew of the extra virgin olive oil fairs - the producer, a small producer from Sardinia, said that “every oil has its own dialect”. I don’t believe there a better way to express the rich and diverse world of extra virgin olive oil.

In my pursuit for exceptional Italian extra virgin olive oil, I was looking for new regions and olive varieties, cultivars, and tasted plenty, including cultivars I had never heard of. Despite the very meagre 2023 olive campaign, I was very pleased to see that there is still plenty of passion and excitement amongst olive growers.

Unfortunately, the climate change is starting to impact olive growers as well and an immediate and noticeable consequence of the challenging 2023 campaign is the steep increase in supermarket’s olive oils prices. Surge attributed to the widespread impact of climate change on olive growers throughout the Mediterranean, including the largest European producing countries, Spain and Greece.

Yet, now more than ever, is the right moment to explore and discover high quality extra virgin olive oils and enjoy all its health’s benefits. The rise in prices for mass produced olive oil presents an opportunity to choose an oil with distinct flavours and, more importantly, plenty of health benefits whilst supporting small producers.

Why settle for a subpar, non healthy, olive oil at £10 when a slight increase can unlock the enjoyment of a superior product? I assure you that once you taste a high quality olive oil, there's no turning back.

If you want to learn more about extra virgin olive oil, check our guide, or to discover our range, click here.