News

In the heart of the rugged Italian island of Sardinia, Giacomo Nieddu and his family have created a beautiful olive farm dedicated to respecting tradition while using modern practices to create the highest quality olive oil from their centuries-old olive trees. Giacomo began farming their land in 2017, recovering the abandoned olive grove – an arduous task.  Their grove now totals 2500 healthy and productive olive trees. All of the work in the grove is done by hand, from pruning to harvesting.  The olives are taken to the mill within hours of harvesting, and the mill uses state-of-the art technology...

I recently spent some time in Hawaii with our friend and mentor, Maria Paola Gabusi (affectionately known as Maripa), EVOO tasting panel leader extraordinaire and director of the prestigious and stringent Leone d’Oro olive oil competition in Lake Garda, Italy.  We were there at the invitation of some of the resorts on the Big Island for paired tastings and dinner with their guests and for guided tastings with their chefs.  Maripa is a world-renowned expert on olive oil, its quality, taste profiles, and defects (that remove it from the extra virgin category).  She brought that expertise, together with her sense of fun, to the...

I had the chance to speak with Maria Paola Gabusi (affectionately known as Maripa), leader of the prestigious Leone d'Oro olive oil competition, the other day to discuss the importance of cooking with a high-quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO). At Olioveto, we started importing and selling the finest finishing EVOOs, but we quickly found that we also wanted an excellent, healthy EVOO for cooking.  As Maripa says, what you cook, you eat. We decided to find high-quality cooking oils that are sold in larger packages (3 or 5 liters) at a reasonable price. EVOOs that are organic, of the...

Although our producers in Italy and Spain are under shelter-at-home orders like many of us here in the U.S., they have the great good fortune of being able to spend time with their olive trees.  This time of year that means pruning. We checked in with our original EVOO producers, Amy and Mirco, at Costa Digiano in Le Marche, Italy, to see how they’re faring and find out what’s happening on the farm.  Costa Digiano is a small biodynamic and organic farm producing EVOO, honey and wine.  Although they have not been able to produce their exquisite, green, single-varietal Mignola...