NAPA VALLEY SELECT
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Our Napa Valley Select Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is stone crushed at our estate “frantoio” (Italian for olive mill). The traditional stone-milled method grinds the olives into a paste using large granite stones, minimizing temperature and mechanical damage to the oil. Our oil is extracted from the paste using a state-of-the-art two-phase decanter. Awarded the California Olive Oil Council’s gold medal, our multi-cultivar blend of Manzanillo, Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino olives has a distinctive flavor profile.
PIERALISI STONE MILL
We are proud to have our own Pieralisi frantoio at our Mountain Estate. Pieralisi is one of the oldest family owned olive mill equipment factories in Italy, known for manufacturing the best “micro” mills (small production) for ultra premium oils. Processing olives as quickly as possible after harvest is a key step to producing high quality oil. The olives come off the trees and go straight to the mill, just a 2 minute tractor ride from the grove. Large Italian Alpine granite milling stones gently crush the olives, keeping the paste cool to preserve its integrity, resulting in an ultra premium olive oil.
LOW ACIDITY
The maximum international standard for fatty acid (oleic acid, specifically) level of extra virgin olive oil is .8%. Oils must meet the standard or lower to be deemed extra virgin. The oleic acid level is a proxy for how much the oil has been damaged by heat, light, or mechanical action. (Lower oleic acid levels mean less damage – or how “virgin” the oil is.) The very best olive oils in the world have oleic acid levels of about .25% to .33% or about one-half to one-third lower than the standard. The Napa Valley Select Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil has an oleic acid level of .05%, which indicates an ultra-premium olive oil (20 times below the standard). Our olives and our mill make it possible for us to achieve this very low oleic fatty acid level.
