Increase font size

Decrease font size

Print

Email

A Guide to Australian and New Zealand Olive Oils – Jenny Birrell with Margi Kirkby

Looking for the good oil? Find it here

Robyn Lewis

The olive is booming in Australia

Over the past two decades the growing of olives and making of olive oils has proliferated in Australia and New Zealand like the preceding wave of grapes and wine.

Also like grapevines, olives were first introduced by the early settlers, particularly those of Mediterranean origin. However olives remained a somewhat ignored crop until the 1980s saw a move away from butter and saturated fats in our diets, and a trend to firstly Italian and then other rustic provincial fare, again centred around the Med, where olive oil is used in many recipes and is the foundation of cooking in lieu of animal fats.

Thus the olive shed its medicinal image and took off towards the mainstream. Legends abound about neglected CSIRO olive trees near Adelaide whose varieties were saved from bulldozing by budding growers, keen to try out these endangered cultivars in all states and climates. Olive growing spread to all States like wildfire.

But here we are nearly 30 years on, and our olive oils remain largely unknown to most Australians, even to many foodies, due to their limited distribution, their cost, the complexity (or sometimes scant information) of their naming and labelling, and also simply to lack of consumer knowledge. In that regard it’s still like wine in the 70s.

All that may be about to change with the publication of this pocket-sized guide by Jenny Birrell, who was first introduced to the wonderful styles and flavours of olive oils on a visit to Italy nearly two decades ago, and who has long been fascinated by its many culinary and health benefits.

Birrell launched australianoliveshop.com in 2000, followed by Oliv in Melbourne in 2003. Oliv stocks over a hundred different oils from Australia and overseas as well as other olive products, and Birrell conducts regular tastings and olive oil appreciation classes.  She is also involved in production at her family’s small olive grove at Huon in North Eastern Victoria.

Her extensive knowledge is about to become more accessible to those who don’t live in Melbourne, along with that of Margi Kirkby, one of Australia’s most experienced olive oil tasters and judges. Kirkby and her husband and partners formed the successful Gwydir Grove label in Moree NSW, and she specialises in olive oil blending, based on experience gained on wide travels in many olive-oil producing nations.

A Guide to Australian and NZ Olive Oils will help to demystify the olive. The book starts with a brief account of how and when olives are harvested in Australia (April to July), the difference between green and black olives (early vs late picked, i.e. ripeness) and how they are pressed to yield their oil (ideally within 24 hours of harvest). Approximately 4-5 kg of olives yield 1 litre of olive oil, and after a period of settling the oil is bottled and sent off to distributors. Sounds simple, really.

However it is here that things get a bit more complicated. Birrell tells us that there are four different categories of olive oil retailed in Australia and New Zealand, the premium of which is Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), which is essentially ‘the juice of the olives with the water removed’ without the use of chemicals or excessive heat. EVOO is the best in terms of health benefits and flavour, and all oils in this guide are Extra Virgin.

Other categories include Virgin, which like EVOO is unrefined but of slightly lower quality, then Olive Oil, which is a blend of refined and some virgin oil, but it still of relatively high quality. Birrell states that ‘refined’ means that the oil began its life as unfit for human consumption – although why she doesn’t say (one imagines that the olives might be older or in some way maltreated) – and has to be put through a refinery to make it edible, ‘during which process most of the nutritional benefits … are lost’.

Further down the quality scale come ‘Pure’ and ‘Light’ olive oils, which are misnomers – they are not more pure and do not mean lower in kilojoules; both are highly refined and stripped of their natural antioxidants. (Some people prefer these for cooking as they are less strong in flavour and less likely to burn, plus of course they are cheaper to use in quantity – Birrell recommends a less expensive EVOO for this purpose, however). These are the cask or bulk wine equivalents of the industrial end of the olive oil trade.

Lastly there is Olive Pomace Oil, made from residues and virtually tasteless; I haven’t tasted ‘two-buck chuck’ wine in the United States but this is probably its olive companion. Perhaps fortunately there is little Olive Pomace Oil sold in Australia or NZ.

Only EVOO and to a lesser extent Virgin olive oils need or deserve a guide, as the others have no complexity of flavour, and little variation. Indeed like commercial teas, cheaper wine and some other agricultural products, they are blended to produce year-round uniformity, with no hint of vintage, regional or varietal variation.

So, onto EVOOs. Each oil in the guide has been tasted by Kirkby, and categorised in the following styles: Delicate ‘with a sweet, mellow taste … very subtle’, Robust ‘intense in flavour, having either strong pepper and/or bitterness … (with) immense depth and … strong herbaceous and vegetal characters’, and in between Medium, which exhibit a broad flavour range ‘varying from sweet fruity oils to ones with the flavour of aromatic herbs and grasses’. Favours range from vegetal (reminiscent of tomatoes, artichokes and herbs through to grass, hay and tobacco) to fruity (from apples through bananas to ripe berries). There are also oils that taste like nuts, cream, fudge and even chocolate.

Birrell advises that Medium EVOOs are ‘good for everything’ and that if you were to have only one olive oil in your kitchen, Medium Extra Virgin is the style to select. She also suggests food pairings, for Medium being pasta, salads, grilled vegetables, bruschetta, rice, chicken and dipping, with Delicate being more used for risottos, cakes and desserts and Robust for grilled meats, tomato salad, hearty soups like minestrone and lentils, game, raw and cooked vegetables, and dipping.

You see? Not so hard after all. Now, to find one that you enjoy: fresh and lively on the palate, and full of body and aroma.

Ultimately, and just like wine, it’s all about your own taste – my medium might be your strong, or vice versa, and you might prefer fruity to vegetal flavours. The guide lists a range of producers by Australian State and island of New Zealand; there are listings of some producers and more detailed information on the (presumably larger) producers, with contact details, varieties grown, styles of EVOO produced, labels and stockists, plus other products such as infused and agrumato oils (lemon, lime and blood orange are examples). Not surprisingly, some also produce wine, such as Ten Minutes by Tractor in Victoria and Coriole in South Australia.

Quite how they are selected for inclusion is not clear – there are well-known producers that are not in the guide – membership of the Australian Olive Association may perhaps be a prerequisite. They have however all been tasted by Kirkby, although there are no tasting notes in the guide, or discussion of yearly variations. (But in comparison with wine, remember that olive oils are in their infancy in the Antipodes).

However with this guide in hand, a trip to your local deli, enoteca, David Jones, Simon Johnston – or a farm gate or farmers’ market purchase - will be far less mystifying when it comes to selecting the good oils, and knowing what to do with them when you get your chosen ones home.

Don’t buy too much or many at once – Birrell recommends 3 or 4 max at any time for home use – as they do go off, especially if kept incorrectly. Again, it’s like wine: the main no-nos are storing in sunlight and in areas of temperature fluctuation, especially heat. Dark bottles are best; keep them in a cupboard and away from heat and light sources. EVOOs are now being sold in casks, which is a great use of this technology, as it keeps out light and also oxygen which causes oil to deteriorate over time – the oil will remain fresh to the last drop and casks are great if you are using large quantities.

A Guide to Australian and NZ Olive Oils also contains a section of cooking with EVOO, including how to use in cakes and even ice cream. Birrell’s rule of thumb is to use 75% the amount of EVOO that you would of butter or margarine when you bake – she gives a handy conversion chart on p 15. Olive oils assist in retaining freshness, and also cut preparation time, as there is no need to cream the butter and sugar, which would make cake mixing far simpler for children, too.

One of the nicest features of this guide is the recipes contributed by the producers, from dips and dressings, pastas and rices, mains (fish, poultry, meats, game), salads, vegetables and vegetarian, through to a quite large selection of desserts and cakes. I’ll be trying the Bracu Olive Estate Walnut and EVOO Cake as soon as our walnuts fall from the tree (assuming the hungry cockatoos leave us any), and my daughter has her eye on the Jingilli cheese and chive scones and Torbay chocolate cake already.

Birrell also contributes some of her own, including porcini-crusted lamb chops with minted pea mash and a flourless chocolate hazelnut cake. The guide is illustrated with photos by Andrew Lloyd, with clear pictures of every oil label featured and some of the olive groves, although not of the culinary creations.

There’s a long list of stockists in both countries. 2010 promises to be a whole lot healthier if the wellbeing claims attributed to olive oil are even half true. But even if you cook and buy for taste alone, EVOOs are an increasingly essential larder staple in Australian and New Zealand kitchens, just as they have been throughout the Mediterranean for centuries. Moove over dairy, the olive is here to stay.



A Guide to Australian and New Zealand Olive Oils edited by Jenny Birrell is published by Ryan Publications, South Australia, RRP A$14.95 (plus postage). It is available from Oliv in Melbourne (www.oliv.com.au) and a number of stockists of olive oils nationally.

NOTE: the use of the acronym EVOO in this review means Extra Virgin Olive Oil and is not associated with any brand or label of oil which may use this abbreviation. 
 

Subscribe now - for news and reviews, our newsletter (optional), to join our forums, and more.

Enjoy exclusive experiences and benefits when you visit cellar doors, restaurants, provedores and more. Become a VisitVineyards.com Member today »

Browse

Advertisement

Jancis Robinson introductory discount offer »

Jancis Robinson

Le Figaro calls her "the undisputed mistress of the kingdom of wine". Receive an immediate introductory discount on Jancis Robinson's exclusive 'Purple Pages' membership »