On our last trip to Tuscany, Maria (my business partner) and I could not help but notice that wherever you found grapevines, you also found olive trees growing. It appears that both fruits thrive on the same “terroir” (see note below), whether you are in Tuscany or Northern California. In the Molise region of Italy, a quaint and rural region located in the south-central part of the country, just southeast of Rome (where some of my family still lives) you’ll find an agricultural region famous for the production of olive oil, cheese and wine. It was here that a small family business was born. This family operated a stone mill for crushing homegrown olives, used to produce fine extra virgin olive oil. That was four generations ago, and today that company, Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil, is alive and thriving, firmly grounded in its roots with production facilities in the same Molise region (as well as a facility in nearby Pomezia).

Over the years, the Colavita family became masters at the craft of blending extra virgin oils from different types of olives grown in Apulia and nearby regions. Different varieties of olives ripen at different times. As a result, growers often mill batches of single varietals separately. As Fran Gage tells us in her book, The New American Olive, “This lets them blend olive oils to their liking, mixing greener oil from an earlier harvest with oil that is riper and mellower, or mixing oil with a stronger taste profile together with a more delicate one. A skillful blender, working with good lots of extra virgin olive oil can produce finished olive oils with complex character.” What an art!

Colavita is no stranger to Americans, who have seen it on their store shelves for years. However, it seems there has been an awakening to fine extra virgin oils grown in THIS country recently. California extra virgin olive oils, like California wines, are making a splash on the international scene. California oils are taking gold medals over oils from Italy, Greece and Spain. And every year those medals grow in number. In the 2007 Los Angeles International EVOO Competition, one of the most prestigious in the world, 396 oils were received for competition from 274 producers from 16 countries, including Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Israel and France. California oils garnered 101 medals – 34 of them gold. Just a year later, in 2008, in competition with 510 oils from 334 producers, California received 169 medals, 53 of them gold. Do you see a pattern? And with all of this competition, you and I are the benefactors. Shopping for fine, artisan, extra virgin olive oil made in the USA is not difficult these days. They are popping up at farmers’ markets, online shoppes and gourmet food stores everywhere.

Invite a few of your foodie friends over one night. Crack open two or three different bottles of fine, California born, extra virgin oil. Add some crusty Italian or Portuguese bread and start dipping. And have yourself an olive oil tasting – California style! Works for THIS Philly girl! No designated driver necessary…