In Chile there has been a major increase in good quality, low-acid extra virgin olive oil production in the past couple years, although still only a fraction of it is being exported. That picture is rapidly changing and soon, I imagine that many Chilean oils will end up on the shelves of goodie stories like Dean & Deluca in New York. In the mean time, those of us down here in Chile are also enjoying discovering these delicious olive oil gems!
A couple months ago I was invited to sit as part of a tasting panel of freshly pressed oils from the 2006 harvest with around 14 different producers from all over the central valley of Chile (from Ovalle in the north to Talca in the South). In general, the overall quality of was excellent, but within this bunch, there was one olive oil that caught my palate’s attention: Las Doscientas (200). I was smitten at first whiff and sip with its herbaceous aromas, slinky feel in the mouth and a lot of green peppery notes (think arugula). We tried the Arbequina (a slightly more suave variety of olives) at the tasting but a couple weeks later, I received the samples of the 2006 press with a welcome addition: Picual, my hands-down favorite olive oil variety.
The idea of the samples was simple: taste to see how it works with food because as with wine, olive oil becomes a different animal when food enters the equation. And just like with wine, the more you get to know olive oil, the more you recognize the different varieties and their characteristic aromas and flavors that can range from cut grass to bitter almonds to pepper or even smoke. I tend to gravitate towards more medium-weight, balanced, peppery, pack-a-punch oils that still versatile enough to go with everything from stir-fried veggies to “meat” protein to cheese. I have found that in blind tastings this many times translates to Picual. Hence, you can understand my bliss when I found and tried this oil sample. To give you some background on Las Doscientas, the name of the oil is derived from parcel of land where the olive grove is planted in the area of Pencahue located in the Maule valley, about 100 miles south of Santiago. The olives were harvested in May and recently pressed with no filtering Basically, what you are getting is pure olive oil, straight up. The oil has garnered a lot of awards from its excellent quality including the Gold Medal at the LA County Fair in 2005 and 2006 for the Arbequina variety.
If you can find this gem, remember, now is the best time to try this fresh-pressed oil as the curve is DOWNWARD with oils over time—that is, they do not get better with “aging”! It is absolutely worth the effort to procure some other this lovely oil. At press time, we know it is available in the US via the Olive Oil Lover’s club in the Rosengarten report, www.rosengartenreport.com. Good luck!
