Sold out for 2010. Please feel free to preorder for early 2011 delivery

12.7 oz - 375 ML - Organic -Suisun Valley, California

Albert Katz made me a liar for the third year in a row. This is one good oil and perhaps the best it has ever been! Even so, this year's Meyer Lemon Olive Oil is something of an anomaly compared to previous years.

Every year I think that Albert can't possibly make an oil better than he did the year before. And, though this years oil is not a sharp tongued as it has been in the past, its flavor profile is a wonderful experience when it first enters your mouth and exits down your throat.

If there is a common profile this year in almost all the 2009 oils, whether from Italy, Spain or California; it is that buttery feeling. This Meyer Lemon Olive oil is good and, for sure, one of my favorites of the last five years ….

Special note:
Thanks to Mother Nature, olive oil is in short supply this year. 50% fewer lemons and 35% fewer olives this year. So, don't wait, don't be late ….. order now.

about the product:
The inspiration for Katz Meyer Lemon Olive Oil is rooted in the Italian culinary tradition of pressing fresh lemons together with the last batch of olives. (The lemon juice is quickly taken out.) This brilliant technique produces an oil coveted by the mill owner and the mill workers...traditionally, there usually isn't even enough leftover to sell.

Here, Northern California wine country's Suisun Valley shines as organic Meyer Lemons are wedded to organic Taggiasca olives, and a tumultuous year-long gestation gives birth to a deilght for the senses.

Serving Suggestions
This gorgeous oil is perfect for drizzling over fresh or grilled vegetables or fish - it perectly enhances halibut, sea bass and even wild salmon. It can even stand alone as a salad dressing with a pinch of fleur de sel and a grind of fresh pepper. Try it with an Israeli-style chopped salad: diced shallots, cucumber and tomato tossed with lemon oil and salt and pepper.

Flavor, Flavor, Flavor: Above the Rest
The Meyer Lemon is a hybrid with a thinner skin, much less pith and a sweeter, more aromatic flavor than ordinary lemons. There is a plethora of Meyer lemon olive oil coming out of California these days, most made with quiet, buttery late-harvest Mission olive blends, in which the flavor of Meyer lemons overwhelms the the mild oil.

Katz's oil, on the other hand, is made from olives harvested earlier - picked at the peak of flavor, not when they're so ripe that the flavor is greatly mellowed. It's full of flavor and great olivey bouquet. The oil comes from a blend of Casaliva and Taggiasca olives. Native to Liguria, the Taggiasca varietal is relatively rare in California, and the trees for this oil are planted in Suisun Valley, a designated AVA (American Viticulture Area) on the eastern border of Napa County - it is the largest of only a few Taggiasca plantings in the state.