From Our Family To Yours
HOLA, my name is Veronica and I grew up in a traditional Andalusian family, surrounded by olive trees and the smell of olive oil in my mom's kitchen. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is more than a culinary product for me, it is a way of living in my family and has been for generations. My hometown, Cazorla, is a small village in the south east of Spain, a region which has been home to olive harvesting for more than 800 years. The region is certified as a Protected Designation of Origin due to its unique geographical environment and natural and human factors; and is home to the second largest environmentally protected area in Europe.
Cazorla, my hometown, is located in the heart of the largest olive-growing area in Spain and the world. This region is 1,331 square kilometers and the 30% of it are olive trees.
I have 11 family members dedicated exclusively to their olive oil groves using techniques that are respectful of the environment in order to avoid soil erosion and degradation and to preserve biodiversity. Some of them have 1 grove, some have 2, and others have up to 5 small groves, inherited from my grandparents and great grandparents for countless generations.
My family owns a total of 10,000 centenary olive trees in the mountains of Cazorla which produce around 50,000 kilograms of olives every harvest and between 6,000 and 12,000 liters of olive oil per year. The output changes each year depending on the weather and when the olives are harvested, if they are picked unripe the amount of juice extracted from them is less than if they are picked when fully ripe.
"We are focused only in two varieties of olive trees: Royal and Picual"
ROYAL VARIETY comes from a wild olive tree that is native from Cazorla's mountains. This olive tree is more common to find in the mountains than in the valley. This variety has suffered a very drastic reduction in its cultivation due to the difficulty of harvesting it. The olives are firmly attached to the branches which means that they need to be harvested by hand otherwise we will damage the tree with other methods.
We have only a few royal trees, so we harvest them in early October. This is our Premium Royal Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil the most exclusive extra virgin olive oil we have due to its limited production.
Our goal is to keep this unique variety alive.
PICUAL VARIETY comes from a more common tree in the mountains of Cazorla. This variety is one of the major varieties of olive oil produced in Spain, mostly all of its production is in the Province of Jaen.
The majority of the trees that my family cultivate are the Picual variety. Even though 10,000 olive trees are not too many, we can't harvest them in only 2 weeks so we start harvesting in early October at an optimal state of maturity and continue harvesting until December.
The fruit produces real olive juice with some very particular organoleptic characteristics, bringing out the intensity of its fruity flavour and the complexity of its aromas: herbal and fruity, rising up in the mouth, with an exceptional balance between bitter and tangy.
We harvest the olives and transport them from the field to the mill continuously in short periods several times daily, so that they are milled in less than 6 hours from their harvesting. As a result of this urgency in the handling and processing of the fruit, we are able to ensure the freshness of our oil.
The oil is cold extract at a temperature that never exceeds 22°C and it is conveniently filtered.
In early October the olives are unripe and totally green. These olives are unripe and without much juice in them, but the juice from the unrip green olives is of the highest quality. From these olives we need to harvest 8kgs of unripe olives to get 1 litre of Premium Premium Picual Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil Professional tasters are the ones who normally recognize these olive oils and normally these are the olive oils that win international awards.
As the weeks are passing the olives are changing colour to a more purple colour and ripe state. This is our Picual Extra Virgin Olive Oil. In comparison, to produce 1 litre of this Extra Virgin Olive Oil we need to harvest just 4kgs of ripe olives.
We offer our product in 500 ml glass containers each with an anti-drip dispenser and a cap, which guarantees the origin and the purity of the product at all times.
We also offer a family size Picual 3L Tin Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Picual 5L Tin Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
OUR OLIVE OIL IS REAL
0% blended, this means that 100% of the juice in the bottle is Extra Virgin Olive Oil from picual olives or Extra Virgin Olive Oil from royal olives, from the top to the bottom of the bottle.
0% refined, this means that the bottle does't contain any percentage of juice from rotten olives. The olive oil that is refined is typically obtained from olives picked from the ground. As a result that olive oil is not good for consumption so it needs to be refined like other vegetables oils.
0% infused, so far we are focused on the extra virgin olive oil taste itself as a juice. The taste of juice from royal olives is totally different from picual olives.
It is called olive juice because the olives are fruits and the juice is cold pressed using mechanical means just like homemade orange juice.
Look at the quality stamp on the back label, the left bottom corner, this stamp corresponds to the Designation of Origin Sierra de Cazorla which means that it has the highest quality standards as per the European Union, see below:
Every single bottle needs to have its own code number, which means that particular bottle has been certified as an Extra Virgin Olive Oil by the Regulatory Council on behalf of International Olive Oil Council.
YOU GET IT FRESH
Look at the back label to know the harvest year and the packaged day.
Vezorla only imports small batches which make it easier to keep a fresh product every year. Probably one of the best olive oils you can find in Canada.