The New Olive Oil

These are the available unit formats and their prices (+ shipping):

Small tin 1/4 L (0,25 Liter oil ~ 8.45 fl oz) € 8,50

Medium tin 1/2 L (0,5 Liter oil ~ 16.9 fl oz) € 15,50

Medium tin 1 L (1 Liter oil ~ 1.05 qt) € 29,00

Large tin 2 L (2 Liters oil ~ 2.11 qt) € 55,50

Large tin 3 L (3 Liters oil ~ 3.17 qt) € 82,00

Extra large tin 5 L (5 Liters oil ~ 1.32 gal) € 135,00

For scale: 0.25L - 0.5L - 1L - 2L (note smaller tins than 250ml / 8.45 oz are no longer available!)

Depicted tins: 5L - 0.25L - 3L - 1L - 0.5L

Your mailed tin styles may vary from these

Order by October 31 midnight!

November 1 order cut-off date!

Freshpressed Olive Oil from Sicily. October 2024 Selection

It is with pleasure that I make the new oil available again this year straight from the producer! This year's best earliest extra virgin olive oils, of which I've selected two producers, hail, as usual, from Castelvetrano, the heart of the Belice Valley, in southwestern Sicily. The olives from both small producers originate from groves located in Contrada Seggio between Castelvetrano and Selinunte and are both surprising in terms of quality. The fact is that this area has practically seen very little to no rain in about three years. The olives were picked by hand during the first week of October. The harvest occurred on the same morning of their pressing. Both oil mills, one a time-honored venue in Castelvetrano and the other a brand new one with the latest technology in Campobello di Mazara, as per each of the producers' preference, were still clean and pristine for these farmers' "first" pressing (meaning they were the first to mill their olives there and the resulting oil is truly the first of the season), which sadly isn't a given at most mills weeks into the olive oil season. The way both of these modern mills from different manufacturers work: the olives make their way into the deleafer, then washer, crusher, malaxer, and finally the centrifuge. Any remaining leaves or twigs or shriveled subpar olives are removed by hand between the deleafer and the crusher, on the conveyor belt before and after the washer. All the olives were absolutely gorgeous, green, round, plump, and just perfect! After about an hour, the green gold flows out, ready for your new orders, to be filled and shipped to almost any destination. Though the olive harvest and oil production in Castelvetrano isn't yet over, and one can't exclude finding other stupendous olives from groves that ripen a little later, this is my first and best choice this season and there is enough production from my selected farmers for our New Oil Aficionados Club (NOAC?). Universally, though, as you've heard from me before, earlier October olives and oil are better than later ones - traditionally harvested from All Saints/Souls through November.

No panic: for any late orders of the 2024 season oil, once the current October ordering cut-off date has passed, see below.

Rain or no rain, my favorite month for everything Sicily here is definitely October: the temperature, the light, olives, oil, wine, sheep's and goat's cheeses, beach and sightseeing, wheat and baking, foraging, you name it! Inquire with me if you'd like to tour southwestern Sicily and meet people/producers/artisans I've discovered over decades, visit markets and historic sites, stroll across lovely towns, enjoy guided tastings, forage wild greens and heirloom fruit, hike for truffles, and do a bit of cooking together.

As you know this operation of making the new oil available as soon as I've selected a producer and mill is a labor of love for aficionados of the fresh green oil. The non-entrepreneurial scope is what allows me to keep costs low and I do it just for you, friends and friends of friends.

For USA deliveries by Thanksgiving, your order needs to be placed by Friday, November 1!
Latest deadline November 4 for other orders.
Shipping to USA, Canada, Europe, and UK as well.
Details on how to place your order, and calculate shipping: see Order & Payment webite menu page.

2024 Selection Labeling

Stickers on each bottle/tin will give you details and storage tips (cool & dark, tightly capped). The oil isn't analyzed in a lab for acidity and peroxide values but they are MUCH lower than the maximum allowance for oils labeled as extra virgin, plus HIGH antioxidants, GREAT taste, MANY health virtues and UNIQUE versatility of use you don't get from an older much mellower oil, from riper or less expertly grown, harvested, handled and processed olives.

2024 Selection Tasting notes

New olive oil, especially fresh-off-the-press, when the olives are green yet ripe, and extracted cold, is characteristically very smooth and fluid, and my choice is always unfiltered. For the third year, this year's oil is not as bitter and peppery as one would expect from such a green oil. This year's fresh oils show softness just like last year's due to a lack of rain and a lack of starker temperature excursions in early Fall. The taste variations from year to year reflect the environmental conditions among other factors. Thus, we have little pepperiness and a bit less of that lovely and light, fleeting bitterness connoisseurs know to ascribe to polyphenol (antioxidant) content in the olive fruit. Yet, they're herbaceous and perfectly balanced. The character and richness of these oils' profiles truly make for a splendid harvest product... that I can't stop pouring over everything. Since a drizzle of new oil really goes a long way, longer than a riper oil... that's a lot of food with a decently contained oil consumption.

Here are their characteristics and suggested uses in more detail:

Francesco's

Very deeply green and with an agreeable bitter kick and lots of zing. Perfect for focaccia, quiche and torta salata, aperitivo and antipasti platters, bbq, grilled meats, braised and baked savory dishes, bean and dark leafy vegetable soups and salads, pestos, vinaigrettes and character-laden sauces.

Stefano's

Very balanced, subtle for a zesty just-pressed oil from early-early green-green olives (!), fresh and just the right amount of pepperiness. Elegant, smooth, delicate... has integrity and stature. Drizzling over seafood, vegetable pasta and rice, steamed greens, a light salad, sweet baked goods, chocolate mousse and vanilla-maple gelato.

No matter the subtle differences, the oil from the olives and mills I select is reliably fantastic! All the olives were green, and of mixed calibers: medium to large. All whole and healthy, clean and fresh off the trees, into the mill without lingering. You can find my posted video of me tasting my freshpressed oil selection from year to year on my social media, on Instagram mainly @gabriellasicily. More visuals from October 2024 to come on IG as soon as I find a minute to be posting them.

Instagram @gabriellasicily

In my Instagram Highlights, you can find a series of episodes illustrating many aspects of growing olives, why the Castelvetrano olive is a special one, how the oil is made, my tasting several new and older oils; or search the following hashtags: #oliveharvest2024 #oliveharvest2023 #oliveharvest2022 #oliveharvest2021 #grandoliva

Note that my Facebook page doesn't have Stories Highlights. For further olive oil recipes or tips to make the most of the product: contact me. Or follow me on Instagram.

Francesco "Ciccio"

In 1993 Francesco left Switzerland where he'd emigrated as a high-paid skilled mechanic to return to his hometown of Castelvetrano, Sicily, with his wife. She had lost her parents and as an only child felt she had to take care of her family affairs. Ciccio followed her and once here, he found his calling in purchasing land and olive groves and starting to produce prized Nocellara del Belice olives, sticking to the traditional basket-hand-harvest method both for his #castelvetranoolives and his olive oil production. His farm, located in Contrada Seggio, spans 10 ha (25 acres) and comprises 2500 olive trees. Ciccio mills his olives for oil in nearby Campobello di Mazara, in a brand-new state-of-the-art Pieralisi mill early in October, before anyone else begins picking their olives for oil around the area, so the machines and space are pristine and maximum hygiene guaranteeing the taste of the olive fruit and that alone is what you get when you taste his extra virgin olive oil.

Stefano

In 2006 Stefano's father passed away and he decided to change careers and lifestyle moving from being a pharmacist to farming his family's land in Contrada Seggio in Castelvetrano, Sicily. He met Gabriella and discovered a uniquely supreme way of making olive oil. Gabriella's family had been alone since the 1980s in producing olive oil a certain way. What inspired and impressed Stefano was the cleanliness of their privately owned, non-cooperative, and non-third-party milling oil press, following what was considered too early a harvest, by hand with baskets which was a method traditionally reserved only for the plucking of table olives aka the production of Castelvetrano Olives (the cured table olives for eating). He learned from Becchina by observation, and by asking for his olives to get pressed at their mill and then the next year, in 2009, bottled there as well under his newborn brand label. Stefano doesn't own an exclusive mill, but 30 ha (74 acres) and 6000 olive trees later, he's currently pretty close to making the best olive oil in the area! Stefano milled in an older mill in Castelvetrano, but being first in line he got to use the clean and fresh machine all for his production which results in a subtle, perfect, pristine oil!

Francesco's Oil

On the left, greener, and with more spice and bitterness. It's 100% Nocellara del Belice olives.

Stefano's Oil

On the right, lighter in color, more nuanced in flavor as it comprises a few cross-pollinator varieties besides his 99% Nocellara del Belice: Biancolilla, Cerasuola, and Giaraffa.

Printout Leaflet for Your Gifts

GrandOliva New Oil Leaflet 2024.pdf

After November 4

After November 4 you may order your 2024 new oil in several convenient, easy or fancy formats and sizes, from a local farming and oil production company I've teamed up. The young couple from Castelvetrano whose groves are located mostly by the Triscina coast in Contrada Bresciana near the sea are producing excellent Bio IGP (organic and Sicilian certified) lines of oil, tasty patés/tapenades, and snacking olives aka table olives aka #castelvetranoolives cured and seasoned in different ways. They blend their late-October to mid-November oils, and sadly don't harvest for oil in the first days of October since they harvest olives for curing then - their CASTELVETRANO OLIVES #castelvetranoolives in glass jars and vacuum-sealed pouches are delicious by the way! Purchase through their online shop with code GAB2023 for a €10 discount at checkout with a minimum order of any product of theirs of €100 (shipping cost excluded): www.terreinfiore.com. Please note their new oil "harvest 2024" won't be available for sale until late November, but you can now pre-order it on their website.

Depicted: Terre in Fiore's online shop as of October 12, 2014

Wish to order more oil from Gabriella's 2024 Selection later in the year?

To order Francesco's and/or Stefano's oil after November 4, contact me. Maybe there is some of that first-October week production left and I can double-check with them. This year I have reserved enough of my chosen lot of oil (first week of October production only) with both producers to fill my buyers’ group estimated needs. It’s still a limited quantity, therefore available on a first come first serve basis. These producers then keep on producing (= pick olives, mill into oil, pick olives and mill, day in, day out) through the rest of October and into early November. Whereas I am certain that these mid-October through early November oils are excellent too, they'll likely differ in some way or other, slightly, from my EARLY HARVEST selection. Early harvest is a term my family coined back in the 1980s and it means olives picked from the first day to mid-October, and ideally no later than the third week of October). Early harvest oil is in principle always better than later oil, specifically in the geo-cultural context of Belice, with the local variety of olives and given the milling premises. However, Francesco's and Stefano's mid-harvest oils will be available to anyone wishing to acquire them online soon. I'm helping them set things up as I've done for others before, with translations, labels, and international shipping. Will post those online shop links here once they're ready, and with tasting notes of mine for these "later" oils of theirs.

Order anytime as long as supplies last... buy 3 get 4!

Terre In Fiore's 2023 "regular" label was my selection last year, specifically as a late-October harvest oil. Call it an experiement and the olive oil was delicious and still is! It tasted grassy, tight, and spicy due in part to a slightly different milling process. It still is a great e.v.o.o., just somewhat mellower than freshpressed new oil. More for stewing, braising, shallow frying, sauces, savory baking and cooking, than for raw drizzling over food or baking delicate sweet items. It comes only in a US-labeled 1/4 Liter tin (250ml-8.45 oz), being a special and unique 2023 coproduction of ours.

Pay €17.55 and get 4 tins, a value of €36 + shipping!

Don't miss this opportunity

Order this still-very-delicious 2023 oil and you get a 4th tin free for every 3 you purchase. This special deal can only be unlocked by emailing me once you've ordered at least 3 of these specific tin-bottles on their website which are now also discounted down from €9 to €5.85! Also, I can ship your 4 tins together with your 2024-Selection-New-Oil but only if you order both types of oil until November 1 (for Thanksgiving delivery or Nov. 4 for later deliveries)! You don't need to order from their website and thus get to save on shipping costs.

Idea 💡 Experience your own vertical taste workshop during the holidays with friends and family, comparing a freshpressed Belice-Nocellara oil with its year-older counterpart. I'm demoing a brief version of it on my social media. Message me if you can't find it on @gabriellasicily on Instagram.

Looking forward to your feedback,

Gabriella @GrandOliva

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