{"id":2503,"date":"2025-11-21T12:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2025-11-21T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:03:09","slug":"the-new-super-tuscan-isnt-a-wine-its-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=2503","title":{"rendered":"The New Super Tuscan Isn\u2019t a Wine, It\u2019s Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh off the press, these oils tell a story of hillsides, harvest and the makers behind them, finds Alice Lascelles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"olive<\/div>\n

Every November, one of the UK\u2019s leading Italian wine importers, Liberty Wines, hosts a tasting of new-season Tuscan olive oils (and corresponding wines) over lunch at London\u2019s River Caf\u00e9 \u2013\u00a0an event attended by the producers and a roll-call of well-known chefs (guests at this year\u2019s lunch included Jamie Oliver, Henry Harris, Tomos Parry and the River Caf\u00e9\u2019s own Ruth Rogers). The oils are, genuinely, straight off the presses and there\u2019s a vitality, a vibrancy to them that I find absolutely thrilling.<\/p>\n

Every oil, like each wine, has a distinct personality that\u2019s shaped by terroir, vintage and olive variety. \u201cThere is as much diversity among olive oils as there is among wines,\u201d says Liberty Wines\u2019s chairman David Gleave, who first began supplying the River Caf\u00e9 almost thirty years ago, when good olive oil was still almost unheard of outside of Italy.<\/p>\n

\"poggiotondo
Poggiotondo olive groves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This annual event is one of my favorite tastings of the year \u2013\u00a0and the producers love it too, by all accounts. \u201cTasting the new-season oils is very special for us,\u201d says Beatrice Contini Bonacossi of Capezzana, an estate to the west of Florence. Capezzana\u2019s olive pickers prize the oil so much they take it as payment instead of cash. A family of five, says Conacossi, can get through around a litre of top-quality olive oil a week.<\/p>\n

The 2025 vintage was a mixed bag \u2013\u00a0the harvest, which began in the second week of October, was on the early side. \u201cBut the quality is very good,\u201d says Gleave, \u201cwith some excellent examples characterised by spicy, intensely perfumed notes.\u201d All the oils mentioned here are organic.<\/p>\n

Really pro olive-oil tasters use black tasting glasses, says Gleave, so the oil\u2019s colour doesn\u2019t prejudice their notes \u2013\u00a0but for me the fabulous hues, which range from olive to a jewel-like Chartreuse green, are part of the joy of this stuff.<\/p>\n

\"poggiotondo<\/figure>\n

When tasting, one noses olive oil and aerates it in the mouth in a manner very similar to wine. The flavors and piquancy are so intense, Gleave recommends sampling a maximum of eight in one flight.<\/p>\n

First up at the tasting was the oil from Chianti\u2019s Poggiotondo estate \u2013 it was silky and rich, with a green olive fruitiness characteristic of the Frantoio olive, which constitutes 40 percent of the blend. There was also some creamy white almond in there and a fine spiciness on the finish. Poggiotondo\u2019s boss, Albert Antonini, is a renowned winemaker and oenologist who consults for wineries across the world. With lunch we drank his Organic Chianti Superiore 2023 \u2013\u00a0a dense, supple mouthful of juicy red and black fruits and soft, fine tannins.<\/p>\n

It’s surprising how often the style of the wine and oil correspond \u2013\u00a0a result not just of the terroir, one suspects, but also the personalities of the people that make them.<\/p>\n

The wines and oils of Fontodi, in the heart of Chianti Classico, were particularly in tune \u2013\u00a0united by a style that was quite assertive and complex, but also elegant. Fontodi\u2019s flagship oil is 70 percent Correggiolo, an ancient Tuscan olive variety (also known as Frantoio) that produces intensely green oils with a grassy, peppery flavour. At lunch, after the tasting, we had it drizzled over ricotta and raddichio. <\/p>\n

\"Selvapiana\"
Selvapiana olive groves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fontodi also makes \u2013\u00a0more unusually\u00a0\u2013 a single-variety Correggiolo oil from three of its best groves, that\u2019s packed with verdant notes of wild rocket, green apple and herbs. A great partner for Fontodi\u2019s Flaccianello della Pieve 2021, a powerful 100 percent Sangiovese with a sweet-and-savory complexity. (The family has also bottled a 2025 oil for the River Caf\u00e9, from another of its groves, I Canonici \u2013 coming to the River Caf\u00e9 online shop shortly).<\/p>\n

The Tenuta I Bonsiestate (ships direct to the US) has been owned by the Budini Gattai family since the 19th century \u2013\u00a0it produces Frantoio-lead blends that are intensely fruity, fresh and balanced, rather than overtly spicy. I can imagine the 2025 oil, with its notes of green pea, cucumber, tomato and soft piquancy being wonderful with salad or crudites.<\/p>\n

Capezzana\u2019s house style is on the gentler side \u2013\u00a0grassy, almost meadow-y, with notes of tomato and artichoke. I particularly love the hazy, unfiltered oil which has a textural creaminess. Just beware the short shelf-life of unfiltered oils, says Gleave \u2013\u00a0they\u2019re best used in the first couple of months after pressing.<\/p>\n

\"Capezzana
Capezzana’s Chartreuse oil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Selvapiana in Chianti Rufina makes some of the finest wines in Chianti Classico \u2013\u00a0\u201cthe cool breezes that blow down the Sieve Valley create exceptional wines with finesse and definition few others can match,\u201d says Gleave. And Selvapiana\u2019s bright-green olive oil is similarly vivid. Derived almost entirely from the herbaceous Frantoio olive, it combines juicy green tomato and artichoke notes with fresh cut grass and a wonderfully peppery finish.<\/p>\n

The estate\u2019s top wine, the single vineyard Vigneto Bucerchiale Chianti Rufina Riserva 2022 is lush and delicious with vibrant raspberry and spiced cherry fruit; the tannins are supple and silky with a long, fine finish that\u2019s the hallmark of the estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a revolution in winemaking in Italy in the last fifty years,\u201d says Gleave, \u201cand now we\u2019re seeing a revolution in olive oil too \u2013 fruit selection has improved massively in wine and that\u2019s now also happening with olive oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Production of these oils is very limited \u2013\u00a0think of them just like fine wines. They\u2019ll be hitting the shops in December and January, so keep your eyes peeled. The River Caf\u00e9 also often has a selection on its online shop, and also runs an olive oil subscription service for those in the UK. I can think of no better gift.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresh off the press, these oils tell a story of hillsides, harvest and the makers behind them, finds Alice Lascelles.\u00a0 Every November, one of the UK\u2019s leading Italian wine importers, Liberty Wines, hosts a tasting of new-season Tuscan olive oils (and corresponding wines) over lunch at London\u2019s River Caf\u00e9 \u2013\u00a0an event attended by the producers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}