CLASSIC MANI OLIVE OIL

Classic Mani olive oil is purchased directly from farmers in the Mani peninsula of the Southern Peleponnese in Greece. It is pressed from the Koroneiki variety of olive which is picked between November and February/March. Slowly the superb quality of the oil from this region is getting the recognition it deserves. Mort Rosenbloom, in his definitive book, 'Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit' (published by Absolute Press), rates the oil from the Mani as one of the finest in the world but points out that it “is difficult to find outside the region.” This is because there is no history, experience or backing of large scale marketing in what is still an economy of small farmers, whose olives are pressed in small scale, family owned presses. This has meant that most of the oil has been bought by middlemen and sent to Italy to be packaged and marketed by large scale firms.

What we would most like to emphasize is the purity of this oil - it comes to you exactly as it comes from the press, neither refined nor blended. We are not in the business of denigrating any other oil but as Tom Mueller pointed out in the New Yorker of August 13th 2007 (Slippery Business) “In 1997 and 1998, olive oil was the most adulterated product in the European Union." He goes on to say that it prompted the EU’s anti-fraud to establish an olive oil task force, but that this did not eradicate adulteration because of weak enforcement. One of the reasons for this, he points out, is that the Italian government, like the Greek government, has not supported small farmers but “consistently encouraged quantity over quality, to the benefit of large companies that sell bulk oil.” Pure Mani oil has been used to improve the quality of bulk oil, but deserves to be known and consumed in its own right.

The labeling of olive oil leaves a lot to be desired. The main claim made for most oils is that it is extra virgin. What this means is that its acidity (free fatty acids-oleic acid) is less than 1%, and that is all it means. Classic Mani olive oil is all Extra Virgin with an acidity level that averages 0.5%. This is achieved in part because of the farmer-press relationship which means that the collected olives do not sit about in the fields for long periods but are pressed quickly. Nevertheless, Extra Virgin, though an important measure is in no way a complete guide to the quality of the oil. For one thing, inferior oils can have their acidity level chemically reduced. Rape seed oil for example is difficult to detect, and an especially crude method involves the use of caustic soda. Another labeling claim is that the oil is cold pressed. In fact less and less oil in Europe as a whole is cold-pressed, a labour-intensive system using mats and a hydraulic press which we show in our film. Increasingly the oil is pressed by a centrifugal method which involves high water temperatures. The argument about the two methods is as follows:

-the genuinely cold-pressed method is at risk of a potential mustiness of taste if one farmer’s olives have been left too long in the field or the trees badly maintained. We do not feel able to say confidently how true this is generally, and there may be variations in how the mats are cleaned after a press, but we have confidence that in the one press in our area where this method is still used that standards are high. It is, we should emphasize more labour-intensive.

-the ‘modern’ centrifugal method is more ‘risk-free’ but it seems to be the case that the heat involved destroys some of the volatile flavour compounds, aerates the oil and separates the glucosides too quickly.

In both cases the local mills of both types used by producing farmers are of the highest standard. We will always distinguish to customers which process has been used, but there is no difference in price as both types of press take the same 10% of the product as their fee. We do however emphasize the point that as labeling, cold-pressed is not a guarantee that this is the case. What matters is the taste which, if kept out of sunlight, should last for 18 months to 2 years. Here it is necessary to address the matter of organic olive oil. We believe that this is of far less importance than genuine purity when it comes to the quality of the oil. Most farmers are naturally organic, because they have used the same organic fertilisers as their fathers either because as consumers themselves they want the best, or because of the high price of synthetic fertilisers. But increasingly farmers are going through the lengthy process of getting organic certification. Here again we are clear about which oil is and isn’t certified as organic. In this instance there is a premium on the price because of the costs involved in certification. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and we believe that this oil speaks for itself. We have though tried to be clear about what is what when it comes to labels and claims, and to be scrupulous in our own as outlined above. The health merits of olive oil are increasingly known, it is, we believe, the purity of the oil that makes this especially so