Novello olive oil and Vin Santo from Capezzana
Grapes, freshly pressed, often need a good bit of time to be enjoyed as wine. For olives, I was reminded the other day, freshly pressed is A-OK.
I tasted the “novello” 2008 oil from Tenuta di Caezzano in Tuscany, where 26,000 olive trees grow on 145 acres. As is visible in the photo, the new oil just popped with lively green compared to the one year old extra virgin on the left. The olives are hand harvested and pressed that evening to ensure freshness and a low acidity. Indeed, the novello has great intensity of flavor is a great treat. I briefly thought about becoming a modern day sharecropper when I learned that the harvest workers receive about half the oil made from olives they harvest. Hmm, how long to earn my weight in olive oil?
The property also has 100 acres of vines. At a tasting at the offices of the wine’s US importer, LVMH, I chatted with Beatrice Contini Bonacossi about their wine that particularly caught my fancy, the unctuous sweet 2002 vin santo (find this wine). The delicious, caramel colored wine is rich and thick, with notes of hazelnuts and sultanas, but surprisingly light given the 15.5% alcohol.
The grapes, mostly Trebbiano but wth some San Colombano and Canaiolo, are harvested in September and then dried on straw mats in their own, large climate controlled room until about March, when the concentrated juice is finally pressed pressed out of them. They ferment in chestnut and cherry casks and continue to age in barrel for five years.
She recommends having it by itself. But if you do pair it with food, she recommends biscotti, fruit tart, or a hard cheese like pecorino adding that panna cotta is a total flop. I’ll take her word since it seems like a lovely finish to a wintry meal to me all on its own.
On December 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm ,Joe wrote:
I love the wines of Capezzana, especially the Villa di Capezzana, which seems to me like a Chianti of yesteryear. Never had the Vin Santo, but it is your comments on their olive oil that really have me interested – you conveniently left out the estimated retail price for those oils…
On December 4th, 2008 at 10:19 am ,Sam wrote:
On a visit to Napa last spring my girlfriend and I visited Round Pond, an olive oil/ wine producer. I never got to tasting the wines. The two of us took an olive oil tasting seminar with a great professorial gentleman whom within five minutes was discussing Waldorf Style education, his bee hives, and the history of Roman Olive Oil. It was one of the highlights of the trip. We tasted four oils out of offical tasting cups – a translucent blue cup of about five ounces with no stem. Tasting olive oil is just like exagerated wine tasting, except as you vigorously airate the wine the number of coughs you respond with tells of the strengh of the oil. (3 is extra virgin of the finest quality.) It was an eye opening experience, one I reccomend to all.
On December 4th, 2008 at 3:23 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Hey Joe-
Glad you like the wines. Yes, the nuovo/novello 2008 (!) olive oil is really great. I just looked around and apparently the market thinks it is about $38 for 500 ml great. I seem to remember the quoted price being less, but it is really good.
markethallfoods.com is one vendor online; Whole Foods, Eli’s and Dean & Deluca stock it in the City.
Sam — Sounds like fun! It’s interesting with vintages and tastings that olive oil is certainly moving in on wine turf–and with the pricing too!
On December 6th, 2008 at 2:15 pm ,Dylan wrote:
That’s really neat. I’ve grown up with olive oil as a staple in my life. My mother even had me try it straight from a spoon every now and then when I was younger. However, I’ve never had it pressed as fresh as the one in your photo, to the point where it’s still green. Really great!