The “Pure” Truth About Olive Oil

The first part of my Harvest trip I spent in Dry Creek Valley working at Mauritson Wines. The second half of my trip I was in Napa working with Orin Swift, and Anne Vawter.

On one particular day, Kevin and I finished early, and Kevin recommended a bunch of different places to check out, knowing how much I love olive oil and salumi! Kevin Fox is the assistant winemaker at Orin Swift even though he wants to remain off the grid, I can’t help give credit where credit is due. He is the number 2 in the dynamic duo of the Orin Swift team uncorking those fantastic, almost cult wines, along side Dave Phinney. I must add, what a great team they are too, all of them.  One thing is for sure, I met some of the humblest people and the Orin Swift team is one of them. Some of the most unpretentious people in the winemaking industry!

But I digress, back to the olive oil. I’m a food geek. Let me clarify what I mean by that, I am no chef, I don’t even eat that much, let alone cook, but I’m a conscious eater and I’m a geek about trying to eat the best food possible…even if it is only in small plates or bites. When I returned from my trip a friend of mine asked me if I brought anything back, like shoes, clothes, purses? I chuckled and didn’t say anything. Yeah, I brought back a lot of stuff, but it was foodie treasures. I brought home a couple of books by Michael Chiarello, another book called Good Meat by Deborah Krasner, the meat bible of today–but that is for an entirely different blog–in addition to meat rubs, sea salts, and salumi from Napa Style and of course wine, and a few other treasures I gathered along the way.

Did you know that not olive oil is created equal? In Wine Spectator’s October 15th issue a recent study touches on this truth in their article When is Extra-Virgin Not Extra-Virgin? In another article, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: Finally, The Truth and Nothing But The Truth, I found on InItaly.com, the writer exposes the truth in detail on why it is difficult to find good olive oil, let alone true extra-virgin, undiluted, unprocessed olive oil in North America. In his book Flavored Oils and Vinegars, Michael Chiarello gives you quite the education on olive oil, how it is made, how to use it in cooking and how to make your own flavored oils and vinegars!

One thing I loved about Northern California is that many of the people I worked with and stayed with were completely self-sufficient, meaning they could live of off their own land, including making their own olive oil… enough to share with their friends and neighbors! Like everything else, quality prevailed over quantity and I got to taste some of the purest, unprocessed olive oil in North America! Since they don’t sell their olive oil to the public, I ventured to find a farmer who did, and I did.

The Napa Valley Olive Oil Manufacturing Co., is a little house/shop is tucked away on the back streets of St. Helena and unless someone refers you or points it out to you, you’ll never know it exists. They’ve been around for generations with the original mill and press inside the store. They don’t advertise or market themselves, have no website, and are strictly walk-in or referral based. Their olive oil is fresh and pure as olive oil comes. It is like getting the best quality from Italy, but without the price tag.  Because the terms extra virgin, and virgin olive oil no longer carry the meaning they once did, you will find some of their labels reading “pure” olive oil. Don’t be dismayed, I encourage you to go back and read the article by InItaly.com.

The best part is how reasonably priced their Olive Oil is. They offer flavored Olive Oil as well as their handcrafted and homemade vinegar’s too. Additionally they carry a variety of salumi and cheeses. Additionally, they  ship direct and will private label on a case by case basis. Call 707-963-4173 to place your order today!

***On a side note, I happened on this article, The Truth About Olive Oil on TheVegetarianSite.com and it was an interesting read regarding some of the so-called health benefits that Olive Oil has. They really bring to light that olive oil in and of itself isn’t heart healthy and how it isn’t olive oil that makes the Mediterranean diet so healthy but rather their overall diet and lifestyle in general. The article is worth reading and considering.

Screw Caps, Plastic Stoppers and Corks: The Great Cork Debate!

Listen to interview with Patrick Spencer, director of CorkReHarvest.org!

Screw Caps, plastic stoppers and Corks. This major debate goes on and everyone is a bit tossed in the air about it. Most of my wine drinking friends are stuck on the idea that wine just isn’t wine if it isn’t corked and then there are people like me who are less concerned about the way the bottle looks and more concerned about the ramifications screw caps and plastic stoppers will have on people’s livelihoods and the environment.

Recently Wine Spectator published an article, Cork Screwed: Screw Caps Ace Test, backing up the screw caps and how they out perform, not only the cork, but all the various closures on every level. Apparently the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) did a 10-year study testing a variety of closures, 14 total, with thousands of bottles of 1999 Clare Semillon wines made at Leasingham and the results were unanimous that the screw cap beat every other closure. Peter Godden, group manager at AWRI, concluded that most of the wines sealed with closures other than a screw cap were completely undrinkable.

The Other Side Of The Cork:

Last week while in Whole Foods, I picked up a little article put out by the organization CorkReHarvest.org, Willamette Valley Vineyards, Whole Foods  Market and The Rainforest Alliance. Even though the piece of paper wasn’t fancy and didn’t have much printed on it, what it did have was a message that was pretty powerful. There argument, I have to admit, was much more compelling than a bunch of researchers in white coats who while improving wines drinkability aren’t considering the environment or the people who would stand to suffer from loss of work.

While I see both sides to the cork controversy, the thought of people losing their livelihood when it is all they know…well that is taking someone’s way of life away from them and the thought of throwing people into poverty seems crazy to me. We now take away all that they know and make them dependent on their government, and cripple them which in my opinion, I am willing to take my chances on a few bad bottles of wine than to take away a people’s way of supporting themselves.

Here are some facts from CORK REHARVEST

Environmentally Friendly Harvesting
Cork is a 100% natural, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable material that is obtained through an environmentally friendly harvesting process

Hand-Harvest for Long Life
Trees are not cut down to harvest cork, rather, the bark is stripped by hand every 9-12 years. Cork oak trees can live up to 300 years!

Supporting Great Biodiversity
Approximately 6.6 million acres of Mediterranean cork forest extend across Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia and France. These oak forests support one of the world’s highest levels of forest biodiversity, second only to the Amazonian Rainforest.

Providing Livelihood
Opting for screw caps and plastic stoppers directly causes the loss of sustainable livelihoods as the cork forests are a vital source of income for thousands of families.

Utilization of A Great Resource
There is enough cork in the cork forests of Portugal and Spain to last more than 100 years. The introduction of new products, such as composite corks, allows even better utilization of existing cork resources, using granulated cork that can be obtained from smaller pieces of raw cork otherwise unusable in the production of conventional punched cork.

Alternative Closure Information
Unlike natural corks, many synthetic wine corks are made from materials that are not biodegradable and are not sustainably sourced. Disadvantages of synthetic corks include; a difficulty in extracting them from the bottle, the inability to use the plastic cork to reseal the wine, and that some can also impart a slight chemical flavor to the wine.

Aluminum screwcaps are not currently being recycled due to the plastic sealer and adhesive attached to them. The production of screwcaps gives off over 10kg of CO2 per ton compared with 2.5kg of CO2 per ton for corks, according to tests conducted by Cairn Environment for Oeneo Bouchage in France. Taken from CorkReharvest.org

My conclusion: While the the screw cap seems to be a great alternative to the cork according to the AWRI researchers, I will stick with corks whenever I possibly can and support corks by recycling them. Of course I’m not going to turn down a bottle of great wine because it has a screw cap but it will make me think about those people who might be losing their jobs. Additionally, I will go to great measure to recycle my screw caps.

Listen to interview with Patrick Spencer, director of CorkReHarvest.org!

The Prisoner

This week’s wine recommendation is fitting to my personal journey. So many times we don’t recognize we are a prisoner to our own beliefs, opinions and conditioning that it takes something to awaken us to a deeper understanding and give us that helicopter perspective about life.

I feel like a prisoner that is being set free from my old way of limited thinking that was keeping me stuck. Even the label is speaking to me. What a great marketing team that Orin Swift Cellars has because it was the combination of the label and the name that had captivated my curiosity. I couldn’t help but wonder what the story was behind this man on the label and the wine itself. It sounded like a very intense wine and I just had to have it regardless of the cost.

Ah, you guessed it: this week’s wine is called The Prisoner. Where and how Dave Phinney and his team thought up this name–I have an email into him–is beyond me, but I love it!

For the past three months, I have walked by it time and time again while perusing through the wine racks of Whole Foods always pondering, “Hmmm, I wonder what that tastes like?” Until about two weeks ago when I finally asked the wine guy at Whole Foods what it tasted like and he kindly opened a bottle for me, just for me to taste! It was as delicious as I imagined it to be.

This wine explodes with an abundance of flavors and to that end I will post their write up because it is exactly what I would say: The 2007 blends the lush berry flavors of Zinfandel, the power and concentration of Cabernet Sauvignon, the dark black fruit of Syrah, the intensity and structure of Petite Sirah, the flesh of Charbono, and a hint of Grenache – all combined for a decadent wine with great complexity.

You can pick up 2007 The Prisoner at your local Whole Foods or order directly from Orin Swift Cellars for about $40.00 per bottle depending on the year.

50% Zinfandel
24% Cabernet Sauvignon
14% Syrah
9% Petite Sirah
2% Charbono
1% Grenache

Also, I have been invited by Orin Swift Cellars for an exclusive tasting which I am going to put on my bucket list.

Kevin from Orin Swift gave me the story on the label of The Prisoner: “Prisoner evolved over many years, Dave Phinney (Owner/Winemaker) received an original Francisco Goya etching for his twelfth birthday.  He had requested a skate board …  This etching was the inspiration for his first label many years later The Prisoner.”

Ciao Bella!

My Very First Ménage à Trois!

I knew I would get your attention! Oh, get your mind out of the gutter! I didn’t share my toys when I was a kid and I ain’t about to start now with my man! I digress…

Last week I was introduced to this fabulous 2007 California red wine by my wine guy at Whole Foods. Why is it called a threesome? Well as you probably guessed, it is a blend of three grape varietals: Zinfandel, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon! In short this wine is fruit forward, explodes with an abundance of flavors. It is juicy, jammy, plummy and just downright good to drink with anything at anytime: morning, noon and night. Okay, it is recommended to have with meats of chicken, but if you are lush like myself…grapes are a fruit, Right? Well, aren’t you supposed to have fruit for breakfast…. (Nutrition by Freda)

This 2007 Menage a Trois by Folie a Deux is a steal at $9.99 a pop! Put it on your list this weekend! Enjoy!

Ciao Bella!