We have eagerly been anticipating the arrival of our 2013 extra virgin olive oil from Amelia, imported directly from the farm in Umbria, since the harvest in November/December. It’s arrived early this year!Umbria produces excellent tasting oil and is as good, or even better than Tuscan oil. On a visit to Montefalco in Umbria, we tasted and bought a gorgeous oil produced by Romanelli. It’s so difficult, because on the one hand you want to keep it for “best” but on the other hand, the new oil is meant to be used and savored for its’ freshness.
The arrival of the “new oil” each year is a really big deal in our house. I mean, we haul bottles of EVOO home from Italy for God’s sake! OK, maybe some wine too! This is why we take an extra, mostly empty, carry-on and bubble wrap with us! Sagrantino di Montefalco and Passito, the dessert wine made from the same grapes that have been dried, is considered to be one of the best dessert wines of central Italy, impossible to get here and impossible for us to pass up!
Today’s the day for the sampling of the oil. This is exciting! Out comes the bread from Rise Artisan,** some coarse sea salt, a glass of wine to cleanse our palettes and a few olives. All we do is dunk some bread into the oil and sprinkle with a bit of salt (or not). The first sensation in the mouth is fruity, almost flowery, then a slight bitterness hits the palate followed by mild pepperyness but not too much, ending with a lovely rich, buttery finish. Yum, yum. I’m going to go and dip more right now!
Thanks to the EVOO gods and Amelia Oil!
**If you would like to buy some bread from Rise Artisan, please go to My Source List.
Sounds fantastic! So what size did you buy? We’re so lucky in Vancouver to be able to get ultra fresh olive oils like that from Amelia and I know that Vancouver Olive Oil Co. brings in incredibly fresh olive oils as they follow the harvests around the world.
Sure beats that lemon yellow stuff we used to get that was a year old if you were lucky….
No kidding…it really does beat the heck out of that stuff that has no harvest date and so on…but we were young then and didn’t know any better and anyway, I wonder where you would have been able to access it? Maybe if you had an Italian family living next door, they might have been able to help out! The new oil seems such a simple thing but once you have had it there’s no going back is there? We got 3L to start with. I order a L every year for my foot Dr. He travels to Italy so knows the deal!