Day 21 - The Olive Oil Journey

At this point I am in Bari (in Puglia) until Thursday morning. And note, this is the start of a stream of producer visits in Italy. Out of respect of the producers, I only provide a certain level of comments [in the blog] to each meeting.

Day 21

Bari, Italy | November 14th, 2022

When I woke up I spent time researching and reaching out to producers in the region. Then I attempted to go on a run but immediately got distracted upon running by shipping offices and went door to door asking for "English English"

A muffin and Croissant later I get ready and head over to the airport to rent a car - I couldn’t have another Lucrezia happen to me. And the cars were surprisingly cheap: 50 Euro for 3 Day rental including the underage fee.

But getting the car was a complete hassle.

I get to a train station to the airport and after the 20 minute train delay I board and get off at the station Apple Maps indicated - the station before the airport. I then walk 25 minutes to the supposed location only to find out the pinned location was smack in the middle of highway - nowhere near rent-a-car. Just cars waiting before driving into the circle of passengers getting picked up.

Hitchhiking was NOT happening.

I then change directions and go 20 minutes to the seemingly proper Noleggiare location, only to learn it was their corporate office. I had enough...I walk into the hotel and pay for the information / ride - 10 euro "free shuttle" to the airport and successfully rent my car. I have no idea what brand the car was it was white and small.

At that point it was time to drive over to my first producer visit in Puglia: Sabino Leone.

This was my first high-end production facility I've seen in Europe and was pretty blown away.

The drive up occurred during the early sunset surrounded by Olive Trees, White wine grapes and various fruit trees. I pulllup to this beautiful modern-looking facility and got a full facility tour from Simone.

I was very impressed to the attention to detail of each step of the process. It was evident throughout the tour that quality control is super important to this producer. After walking through the mill, bottling & labelling, and storage we made our way to the tasting room where we spent some time tasting the different varietals - were great.

The final destination was meeting Mr. Leone himself - who only speaks Italian (& perhaps other non-english languages). Full 15 minute conversation through Simone as translator. Had an amazing first visit.

I leave on a completely empty stomach and try hitting the local town for dinner, but I had trouble finding the restaurant and opted for a ham sandwich and a piece of Venchi dark chocolate.

When I finally got back home I relaxed and had some Spaghetti, Anchovies, and tons of bread at the local Italian restaurant. Then bed.

1 Olive Oil Takeaway

Most olives are either table olives or olive oil olives.

Castelvetrano Olives are unique in that they are used as both: Castelventrano on the table, Nocellara del Belice in the bottle. Castelvetrano is also a city in Sicily - all the olive oil you find there is Castelvetrano, as expected.

This variety has grown more popular in California for its balanced flavor profile and general consumer popularity.

I personally enjoy this varietal, but not all Castelvetrano's are equal, just like not all Cabernets or Chardonnays are equal.

I was in a bit of a mood here...

-Jack

Thank you for reading and welcome to the blog! I'm traveling through Europe on a quest to find great Olive Oil.