U-NA NUMA EVOO Olive Oil

500 ml bottle - Lazio, Italy

Tasting Notes 2024/5

To the nose, the first whiff is definitely olive oil. 

To the eye, it's a very delicate yellow green color that is quite enticing.

The first sip is light banana-eee, with some very light hints of artichoke and avocado With the overall feeling of a cloud.

It all disappears very quickly with hints of bitterness on the edges and then overall. That wonderful bitterness transitions to a nice, gentle but very present, tickle and a cough is produced in the back of the throat. This tells you a lot about the oil and its provenance.

This lightness with distinct olive oil flavors makes it a wonderful, special every day oil.

What's really fun about this oil is that as you taste it you experience it and then when it's done it's gone. That is a pretty special quality. Clarity. That is a nice quality to have.

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One of the best ways we have found to find, to meet in a sense, new foods, is when they walk in the front door!

Not just figuratively, either. In this case, this olive oil from the Lazio region walked in our door on four legs.

Michelangelo and Laura came in to "check us out" and, in turn, asked us if we might be interested in trying their olive oil that they had been growing for years now.

They left a bottle of their oil for us to try. Personally, I am always a bit reserved when it comes to olive oil. We have seen and tasted a lot of oil in our lifetime, and in the last 27 years or so we have tasted over a thousand oils. So, for one to jump out, to stand out amongst the crowd, is tough to do.

So, when we tasted the oil we immediately said yes.

And then we met back at the shop a week or so later and spent a couple of hours talking about olive oil, their oil, the state of the world of food, and we learned about their passion for their olive oil.

Both come from other worlds, she from writing and as a cook, and he as a photographer in the fashion world. Together, when the pandemic hit, they evaluated their lives and asked, "Why are we in this race to nowhere?” They left the world of glamour and went back to their roots. The farm and ultimately, the olives.

They shared with us that they were learning as they went, already knowing a lot, and blending the olives to create this amazingly delicious olive oil. An oil that is gentle, subtle, with a personality that you can really enjoy. Underlying it all is a spicy kick that tells you I am fresh and together. This oil is a reflection of Michelangelo & Laura!

This oil is a blend of 50% Canino, 20% Leccino, 20% Frantoio and 10% Moraiolo or "Fosco".

The orchards are north of Roma by about an hour and 45 minutes by car near Viterbo, which has the largest medieval city center in Europe—and Vetralla, in a region known for its rich biodiversity and natural beauty.

The farm follows a regenerative approach to agriculture. Michelangelo and Laura had an ornithologist come and map the bird population on the land, and then made handmade nesting devices installing them to meet the birds' needs and help increase their numbers.

No chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used on the property. Instead, organic material from the farm's own orchard trimmings is composted and returned to the earth, naturally enriching the soil.

To protect the olive trees from the olive fly, hormone-based traps are hung in the trees. These traps target only the olive fly, leaving all other insects and wildlife completely undisturbed.

Local flora is carefully managed to support biodiversity. Flowers, herbs, and grasses are only cut back after they have gone to seed, allowing a diverse range of wild herbs to grow back each year. The soil is never tilled, as this practice is seen as both invasive and counterproductive, disrupting the essential work of microorganisms beneath the topsoil.

Shrubs are planted along the borders of the orchards to provide natural shelter and further enhance biodiversity, creating a thriving and balanced ecosystem.