Olive Oil Lesson of the Week #2

Single Estate Olive Oil

Definition: Olive Oil made with Olives from 1 Property and the Olives are pressed into Olive Oil on that same Property

Today’s Lesson stems from a recent video I posted on Trader Joe’s Spanish Olive Oil. The video is linked at the bottom of this post.

On the bottle, Trader Joe’s claims the oil is “estate grown and bottled.”

The term “estate” triggered me.

Its use undermines the hundreds of olive oil producers who opt to take full control of their production, A to Z, to ensure they produce the highest quality oil for their customer. Many of these Single Estate Oils are amazing — unfortunately the majority of which do not make it to the US market in their peak form.

Also note, just because an oil is single estate, doesn’t mean it’s good. I’ve had PLENTY of terrible single estate olive oils.

From a trustworthiness standpoint, Single Estate Olive Oil is best. The estate has full control over the way the olives are grown, harvested, pressed, stored and eventually bottled.

Are most olive oils single estate?

No. In the world of olive oil, these estates are quite rare but have become more and more apparent as olive oil production quality has increased.

The classic business model is farmers bring their olives to a group pressing facility (owned by a separate entity) and get their oil made there. But as I wrote about in the last post, the incentives are misaligned for high quality olive oil production at most of these pressing facilities or mills.

Why you need to know about single estate oils

As a consumer, the best way to make informed purchases is via making proper assumptions. Understanding the business model of the brand and how they produce their oil will provide more accurate assumptions about quality. Look for key elements missing in the marketing. Many brands show off “early harvest” or “family owned” or even “high phenolic” but skimp out on the important details that ultimately uncover quality such as acidity, harvest date, and varietals.

Case Study: De Carlo

De Carlo — Italian Olive Oil producer since the 1600s. Based in the Puglia Region of Italy. They have their well-known De Carlo Tunuta Torre Di Mossa oil that carries both a strong pungency and bitterness — characteristic of Puglia’s Coratina Olives. When I was in Bari (city in Puglia) I dined at a restaurant serving this olive oil. My typical appraoch to bread dipping is drench the bread with oil and eat.

However, with this particular oil, that’s the wrong approach. A very light drizzle will unlock all the flavor you need. Too much oil and you won’t even taste the bread. This type of oil pairs great with strong flavored foods such as anchovies but would overpower a Burrata dish.

But DeCarlo also produces lower quality lines used for private labels. One could associate “De Carlo” with extremely high quality oil but in fact they, like many olive oil producers, reserve their best olives for their top line of oil and are more quantity driven for bulk brand deals.

So while De Carlo makes a Single Estate oil, in fact a high quality Single Estate Oil, much of their oil production is rather mid.

This concept goes for all olive oils

There is no one specific detail that determines whether an olive oil is good or not. However, when a producer prioritizes quality and has complete control over the operation, the company is well-positioned to produce high-quality olive oil.

As always please comment any questions about this article or about olive oil in general.

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I’ll drop another lesson next week.

-Jack (@extravirginguy)