When Giuseppe Trapani contacted me to suggest selling his olive oil alongside my bread I realised how little I actually knew about olive oil. I generally bought it in supermarkets and didn’t pay too much attention to when the olives were harvested or even where they were grown.
Yet, as with all the best foods and wines, provenance and terroir are key not only for taste but also for sustainability. Globalisation has meant that in relation to many products commoditisation has obscured provenance, drastically lowered quality, and been harmful to nature. But gradually we are all waking up. Provenance, provenance, provenance. It appears that mass producers of olive oil are up to all sorts of tricks to speed production , cut costs and maximise profit.
By pure chance and through little endeavour on my part, I have been given the opportunity to supply you with this Sicilian olive oil made from century old olive trees harvested and pressed every October, when the olives are still unripe. Yields are lower but the unripe olives give complexity and depth to the flavour, as well as maximising the health benefits.
The Ogglio story:
OGGLIO, started in Oxford by Giuseppe Trapani after he inherited an ancient olive grove in Sicily, planted more than 100 years ago by his great-grand-father. With the help of a friend, he started making an artisanal extra virgin olive oil produced from olives grown, harvested, and pressed locally, on the same day of picking, within a five-mile radius from the grove. The olive trees are of the Nocellara cultivar, arguably one of the world’s finest varieties, were planted more than a century ago, and are still tended organically today without the use of any pesticides or artificial irrigation systems.
He started OGGLIO originally for fun and it has now become a social enterprise: he is in fact collaborating with farmers in Sicily, who also produce amazing small-batch olive oil, trying his best to help them in these difficult times. Not only that, but we have just received the results from last year’s competitions. OGGLIO is ranked the No.1 Nocellara del Belice Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the World for the second year running, but most importantly it is now the No.2 Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Italy! The EVOO World Ranking is an aggregator that takes into account all the extra virgin olive oil competitions around the World. Last year our extra virgin olive oil performed really well with awards in 18 competitions and as a result, we are now recognized as one of the best extra virgin olive oils in the World in our categories: that’s massive if you think that it’s really just me and a friend working on this tiny project that’s just 4 years old, and we are out against giants with decades of experience, many employees and a very large production. The olives used for OGGLIO are harvested entirely by hand and collected early in the picking season when they are greener and not fully ripe, thus yielding a smaller quantity of oil, which as a result is more intense in flavour.
There’s small batch and there’s small batch:
Only about 1,000 bottles are produced each year, and they normally sell out by the Summer.
How to buy this piece of Sicily
Giuseppe only sells the most recent harvest: the new October 2023 harvest has just arrived, and can be bought by simply messaging me: 500ml bottles are £19 each and 3L bag-in-box are £57 each (you can keep the bottle and refill it from the bag-in-box, don’t throw it away!).
Introductory offer with new subscription:
As an introductory offer I am giving one free bottle of Ogglio to new bread prepayment subscriptions of £120 or greater, and a 3-litre box for £600 or greater. For a limited period only.
For more info you can check out their profile on Instagram and they are also on Twitter and Facebook. Or simply google them and see all the fantastic individual customer reviews.