Vintage Olive Oil

originally posted by Lou Kessler:
Good oil used for cooking is a waste of money.
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at a risk of being teh retard, this is the fork the inmates impale teh disorderly feets on.

we inmates is sad, ornery folks, and can barely amass enough friends to fill a single hand. so we buys teh fanzy oilz, and we sniff and ptuh and appreciatez, and then we serve a salad to our "friend" in teh cellar, and then we wonderz what teh fuck to do with it.

and all the time, teh fatsink purrs.

my own porky suggestion is to pour teh shit on what you will, whether it be frying teh entrails of some summelier you dragged home to feed on, or whether you is trying to recreate teh cheesey, anchovie, olive-oil-n-pepper shitz that you has wolfed down with teh top hooch at cave septime.

in every case, it is more of a win than half a bottle of teh carefully preserved special occasion stale cooking oil.

(this post sponsored by, "friends of fb.")
 
I buy an annual stash of oil from RWC and sometimes find that I still have a bottle from last year when it's time to order. It just gets moved to the front of the line. Oils are in the wine cellar lying down. I use them to cook, to finish, to dress. Summer is coming - fresh borlotti beans cooked with onion, garlic, and rosemary, smushed to a rough paste with a bit of oil and schmeared on a thick toasted slice of good italian-style bread from my favorite local baker, dressed with great oil and, when available, topped with a slice of local heirloom tomato (preferably aunt ruby's german green) and a grinding of pepper.

Best dish in the world.

Kevin Harvey sent out a bottle of Rhys olive oil with the spring purchases - anyone tried that yet?
 
originally posted by maureen:

Kevin Harvey sent out a bottle of Rhys olive oil with the spring purchases - anyone tried that yet?
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I didn't get one. Not surprising, even combining my orders with the vlm they've been way down. I just don't have enough storage, and I need to economize on wine more these days now that I'm going on vacations. Unfortunate since in many ways I think they keep getting better. Certainly the last Horseshoe syrah was head and shoulders above all their previous syrah releases.
 
Popped one of the 2011 Cornelissen Munjebel olive oils last night. Although it had decent richness, it was almost devoid of aroma and was starting to take on the color of an aged white Burgundy. Done. The 2012 Cogno, which had been open for several days, soared from the glass and its color had hints of absinthe. Gorgeous.
 
originally posted by John Roberts:
Popped one of the 2011 Cornelissen Munjebel olive oils last night. Although it had decent richness, it was almost devoid of aroma and was starting to take on the color of an aged white Burgundy. Done.
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My god. His oils are oxidized too?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I never acquired the taste for those peppery Tuscan oils. Am I just lucky to have one less thing to spend money on?
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Yes Jeff. Very lucky. I'm not a big fan of the big pepper also and wonder what to do with the oils. "Finishing?"...yes, but how much extra fat does it take to 'finish' a dish? I like it best for pasta sauces, added toward the end of cooking and for a dash to salads. I've kept oils for 2 years or so but there is a nuance lost, not clear at what age exactly. In many ways, I am a bigger fan of Spanish oils as I like the olives they use there, and they lend well to cooking too.
 
Kevin Harvey sent out a bottle of Rhys olive oil with the spring purchases - anyone tried that yet?
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Guess I don't get the bling, must not be Academy Award type material :(

ps - *where* do the olives come from? I thought there were no olive groves in the SCM (none that I've seen, anyway). And I think the Bearswallow site doesn't have any either. The best olive oil I've had from a vineyard in CA has been BR Cohn, who had some ancient trees (150 yrs. old or so) on their property before.
 
Apparently it's from their Alpine vineyard.

"Due to an abundant harvest in 2012, for the first time we had some extra Alpine vineyard olive oil. I thought it would be nice to gift the wine to our best customers but after looking at the numbers it became apparent that we only had enough for people that had been with us since 2006 and had bought at the highest level."

While I've been with them since 2006 I certainly haven't bought at the highest level.
 
originally posted by MarkS:
Yes Jeff. Very lucky. I'm not a big fan of the big pepper also and wonder what to do with the oils.
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Heh. I once bought some RWC oils and had this exact problem.
"Finishing?"...yes, but how much extra fat does it take to 'finish' a dish?
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The only 'finishing' oils I have now are toasted sesame and a lovely butternut squash oil from The Filling Station.
I like it best for pasta sauces, added toward the end of cooking and for a dash to salads.
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I have not augmented pasta sauces; I'm usually trying to keep them thick. I agree about using them on salads of various types; also on 'plain' things like a pile of roasted mushrooms or grilled asparagus spears.
I've kept oils for 2 years or so but there is a nuance lost, not clear at what age exactly. In many ways, I am a bigger fan of Spanish oils as I like the olives they use there, and they lend well to cooking too.
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Agreed. I have also occasionally encountered a good French oil. I now have my eye on a black olive oil (...almost never done, I read).
 
I haven't opened the Rhys olive oil yet, but will pass on my impressions once I do. I found a tweet from Rhys to a certain diminutive unrefined simian stating that they have olives at Bearwallow as well.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

Agreed. I have also occasionally encountered a good French oil. I now have my eye on a black olive oil (...almost never done, I read).
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Most is from Moulin Jean Marie Cornille in the Vallee de Baux. I like it only for certain applications, mostly salad and some warm preparations. Totally different animal compared to a Tuscan oil. Rather intense and olivy. Also quite expensive, with prices in the US completely absurd (it is actually cheaper to fedex it directly from the mill than buying US retail).
 
originally posted by georg lauer:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Agreed. I have also occasionally encountered a good French oil. I now have my eye on a black olive oil (...almost never done, I read).
Click to expand...

Most is from Moulin Jean Marie Cornille in the Vallee de Baux. I like it only for certain applications, mostly salad and some warm preparations. Totally different animal compared to a Tuscan oil. Rather intense and olivy. Also quite expensive, with prices in the US completely absurd (it is actually cheaper to fedex it directly from the mill than buying US retail).
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The one I was looking at is "Fruite Noir by Castelas".

I like the sound of 'intense and olivy'. I look for oliviness in my olives.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by georg lauer:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Agreed. I have also occasionally encountered a good French oil. I now have my eye on a black olive oil (...almost never done, I read).
Click to expand...

Most is from Moulin Jean Marie Cornille in the Vallee de Baux. I like it only for certain applications, mostly salad and some warm preparations. Totally different animal compared to a Tuscan oil. Rather intense and olivy. Also quite expensive, with prices in the US completely absurd (it is actually cheaper to fedex it directly from the mill than buying US retail).
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The one I was looking at is "Fruite Noir by Castelas".

I like the sound of 'intense and olivy'. I look for oliviness in my olives.
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Almost neighbors (a few miles). Castelas is the newbie. Cornille is the very old coop. From Castelas I only know the green oil. If you can get it easily certainly worth a try. Here in Boston I have only seen Cornille.
 
Here in CA the first person to import Italian olive oil was concerned only with Tuscan oil, which I find of narrower utility than just about any other, because of that very peppery quality. I prefer Garda, Liguria, Sicily or good Puglian oils. If anyone's interested I can post the arrival of any fresh bottlings, at cost (the other problem with good oil is the margin taken, food margins are higher than wine margins generally and good oil is bloody expensive anyway).

Storage is tricky. One producer just showed me a bag-in-box, which might help to avoid oxidation.
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
Here in CA the first person to import Italian olive oil was concerned only with Tuscan oil, which I find of narrower utility than just about any other, because of that very peppery quality. I prefer Garda, Liguria, Sicily or good Puglian oils. If anyone's interested I can post the arrival of any fresh bottlings, at cost (the other problem with good oil is the margin taken, food margins are higher than wine margins generally and good oil is bloody expensive anyway).

Storage is tricky. One producer just showed me a bag-in-box, which might help to avoid oxidation.
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If the Politburo doesn't object, yes, please do post those oil arrivals. I totally agree with you re Tuscan oils. And we can never get enough of good Ligurians.
 
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