Finding Timelessness in the Grove

When walking in Venice over bridges and past stately buildings - all with their stories - smelling rich aromas and savoring classical music, our experience felt positively connected through time.
Like that, in this environment among these mature olive trees, full of wildlife sounds and fresh smells, a walk in the grove feels timeless - those to come in a thousand years will have much the same experience.

Fiat Oliva

Olio Nuovo: A Delight for the Senses

Now is the time!

Olio Nuovo, literally "new oil" in Italian, is from the very first olives milled during a new harvest. Truly one to be savored, Olio Nuovo is a chance to experience the fresh intense flavor and aroma that only new olive oil can produce. The aroma, flavor, and intensity are unique among all culinary oils.

Visit OUR STORE at BerkeleyOliveGrove.com while December 2011 stock is still in.

Heralding the new olive oil season, fresh - the fruit particles have not settled - and unfiltered, Olio Nuovo is potentially the healthiest extra virgin olive oil of the year with higher levels of polyphenols. Having a limited shelf life, its availability is fleeting. Still, use it.

Olio Nuovo Review: Yum, use it now!

Conviviality and Polyphenol Discussions

Recently Darro and I attended a class at UC Davis for Master Milling. At that time we made fast friends with a couple on Sabbatical from their labs at the University of Athens in Greece. Our olive oils were included in a project that Eleni and Prokopios have been working on at UC Davis. Monday we all met in the grove, had dinner under the canopy of an olive tree and shared lively conversation.

After dinner we talked about the study Eleni and Prokopios had just completed. They began with the statement that they recognized ours as a high quality, well made extra virgin olive oil. We were shown some graphs and they both explained just how special the information concerning our oils really is.

Our Mission oils 2010-2011 harvest still contain a very high amount of polyphenols.

The level of oleocanthal – a specific phenol related to anti-inflammatory activity - was 50mg per liter.

Included in a phenol study of about 100 oils, after almost a year in the bottle, our oils had “a very rich and unique chemical profile – very different from any of the other oils in the study”.

Darro is gratified but I, with my Libra tendencies, am THRILLED with their findings and their continuing phenols study which includes monitoring the unique aspects of our Mission oils.

We’re looking forward to our next time with them - perhaps dinner in Eleni’s father’s olive grove in Greece.

A Nice Time In the Grove

What a surprise today to have Harv Singh (who we pretty much think of as Mr. Whole Foods!) come by for a visit. We had a chance to walk the lanes and found ourselves chatting about . . . it turns out . . . olives, pruning, harvesting, a mill and oil.
During conversations Harv noted feral cats on a roof, looping deer in the orchard and met our little dog quick stepping about his feet. The horses sauntered over to meet him and Gabriel in particular continued standing about (as I regularly tell him "large and majestic") as one of the crowd.

Meeting Marco Magelli

Recognizing the glory

In 2004, we purchased a 400 acre olive orchard that had not had much attention for many years. The branches of most of the trees reached from 40 to 50 feet into the air.

In 2005, two days after our organic certification was in place with California Certified Organic Farmers, consultant Steven Dambeck introduced himself to us at our orchard gate. Besides purchasing several tons of our certified organic Mission olives, he began consulting with us on orchard management.

Ever expanding the quality of orchard culture and milling knowledge, we joined with Steven Dambeck at his home for dinner when first meeting with Marco Mugelli. Conversations included the orchard, mill concepts, mill location - and of course olives and oil.

With a translator at our orchard in 2006, Marco stated that nowhere in all of Italy was there an orchard of such size. While walking through the trees planted 65 per acre in 30 foot triangles, Marco stated, “This soil with great drainage, the spacing of the trees, and the alignment of the rows to the sun is exactly the method in which a grove would be planted with what is known about olive culture today. This grove deserves to be brought back to its former glory.”

Marco sent his land manager from Italy and, learning a lot, we had a team prune 60 acres.

In 2007-2008 when we first began milling our olives into oil, we experimented with four quality mills to learn what style works best with our olives. One of the mills was Marco’s invention in-the-works which incorporates a vacuum state during a portion of the milling process - reducing oxidation and protecting polyphenols in the oil. The oil from this milling won us a Gold Medal and carried on its label "selected by and bottled for Darrell Corti" to offer at Corti Bros. While we did appreciate the oil made from this mill, our Mission olives and this mill – the miller stated in a lively manner - were not entirely a match.

(Worked out okay though as the mill we did select to continue with the next year brought us the best possible award from the LA International EVOO 2009 Competition: Best of Show.)

Continuing with Marco in developing excellence, Darro met with a few other like minded people in taking Marco's sensory evaluation and milling knowledge class.

(It was though these meetings over several days during lunches where we first learned – along with other exotic to us food experiences - of a quality aged Balsamic Vinegar over ice cream. Since that experience, we have purchased for ourselves and for gifts such Balsamic from the locked cabinet at Corti Bros. And following the Italian style of amount of olive oil, it was the beginning of our custom of having olive oil shiny plates of food.)

Prior to meeting Marco we had heard of his vision and mission to have (like wine) olive oil on the menu to properly pair with the food. He, opinionated (e.g. olive oil should be bottled in stainless steel) in a manner close to Darrell Corti – who when I mentioned to him at an olive oil food pairing event that I thought he certainly had strong opinions, Darrell Corti replied, “What good is an opinion if it isn’t a strong one?” – anyway Marco certainly had strong and not necessarily of the norm opinions. And, it feels as if Marco’s departing so abruptly with his knowledge and passionate energy for highest quality olive oil leaves a tear in the Universe.

Here I hold a thought of deep appreciation for all that he has shared and from his inspiration feel there will be continuance toward his vision.