The olive harvest has now started in most olive growing regions of the Northern hemisphere, a period of hard work and celebration for all producers. The timing of the harvest varies depending on the terroir and the olive cultivar : some cultivars, such as the Biancolilla, are ripe as early as end September while others, like the Coratina or Picual, are usually not ready to harvest before November. Also, oil quality is optimal at a slightly different stage of maturity for each cultivar, so this is not an easy call!

It is expected that the volumes harvested will be very contrasted: relatively low in France, Spain and the South of Italy but robust in Greece and Northern Italy. There are promising signs of high quality as the prolonged drought has tended to increase polyphenol levels and the olive fly has been mostly absent.

Olive oil vs wine

Producing a litre of olive oil requires a lot more work than producing a litre of wine. This is firstly because olives are difficult to pick, particularly in the older groves where this cannot be mechanised. Secondly, the yield is vastly different : a kilo of olive will give 120-180 ml of oil while a kilo of grape will yield around 750 ml of wine! Remember this next time you buy olive oil 😊

We’ll keep you updated on the new vintage in the coming weeks as we will start receiving the first samples 😋