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| 04 February 2010
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There’s a revolution happening in Spain. Actually, it’s been raging for well over a decade, if not two. Old ways and ideas are being tried, judged heretical and executed. A new religion based on quality and character is driving out the old, the tired, the bland. Where quantity ruled, quality is usurping. Fresh, distinct and individual are the new sacred verses. Though it’s not an ecclesiastical upheaval per se, it is altering (pardon the pun) the nature of one of Spain’s most revered consumables.
Wine, you say? Been there, done that. Spain nailed (ahem) the wine thing eons ago. It’s the nectar of another fruit: a juice that is treated with the same reverence, the same intense passion and, in fact, the same degree of experimentation and technical ingenuity lavished on the country’s finest vintages. We’re talking extra virgin olive oil — the new Spanish doubloon. Spain’s 2.3 million hectares of olive groves (encompassing some 350 million individual trees) were first planted during the time of the Phoenicians who landed in the country around 1050 BCE. Today, over 1,700 producers press about 90 million kilograms of olives per harvest year. The bulk of production lies in the southern areas with the region of Andalucía accounting for almost half of the total output.
pressing for quality
Having secured the lead in terms of quantity (Spain produces more olive oil than any country on earth — yes, more than Italy and more than Greece), the country’s oil barons proceeded to set their sights on quality. Experimentation with yields, density of plantings, harvesting techniques and extraction methods have combined to make the olive oils of Spain (and we’re talking the primo stuff — extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO from this point forward) among the best anywhere.
“There has been a dramatic evolution in the elaboration of olive oil in Spain resulting in greater variety of natural flavours,” reveals Ramón Puglar Lopez of the Asociación Nacional de Expertos en Cata Aceites de Oliva Virgen (you can get by with ANECA). “Agricultural research into optimal irrigation, rapid harvesting, the use of extremely clean stainless steel machinery and precise tracking of the olives from harvest to processing” are a few of the innovations Lopez cites as pivotal to the dramatic increase in the quality of Spanish EVOO. Add to this ongoing research into the specific properties of individual olive varieties, the effects of high (40.5 to 142 tree per hectare) and super-high (243 to 364) density plantings and the application of cold processing and the whole business starts to sound more winey than oily. staying single or mixing it up In fact, comparing olive to grape is probably the best way for a neophyte EVOO connoisseur — albeit with a decent understanding of wine — to get up to speed on the stuff, from production through to tasting.
Olive varieties such as Picual, Picudo, Hojiblanca, Arbequina and Cornicabra are to Spanish EVOO what Tempranillo, Garnacha, Viura, Verdejo and Palomino are to Spanish wine – though in both cases, these examples represent but a smattering of what can be found throughout the country. Each olive variety brings individual flavour components to the palette of the almazara maestro (the master of the olive mill). As with wine, the maestro can craft a “varietal” oil from a single type of olive or create a coupage incorporating a mix of varieties.
And it’s no coincidence that vineyards and olive groves are often seen planted in close proximity. Both thrive in soil that wouldn’t support crops requiring a higher nutrient level. In the field, grapes and olives are subject to similar influences. “The amount of hydration and light, the climatic conditions at the time of fruit maturation and harvest and the incidence of pests and disease all affect the quality of the end crop,” explains Isidro Palacios Negueruela, agricultural engineer at Bodegas Roda, a winery in Rioja that specializes in both award-winning wines and olive oils from two estates, one on Majorca and another northeast of Barcelona. “Sunny days and cold nights, only some rain followed by more sun and a little wind make for great vintages in both crops,” adds Roda’s export manager Gonzalo Lainez Gutierrez.