Gourmet Cooking And Living’s, “Italian Olive Oil Of The Month Club”…Meets One Of Their Special Producers.

During our Holiday in Italy in December we visited one of our Olive Oil producers (my favorite part of the job!) Vetrano Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made exclusively from olives that grow three hundred meters above sea level, in the foothills of the Alburni mountains, near the Greek Temples of Paestum and the famed Amalfi coast.  For our Italian Olive Oil of the Month Club, we seek out amazing olive oils, that have special characteristics and are usually not imported in the U.S. yet. Vetrano is a certified D.O.P. Colline Salernitane extra virgin olive oil.  D.O.P. stands for Denominazione D’Origine Protetta (Protected Denomination of Origin), which means that this product is certified by the European Community to meet the high standards they entrust.  

Lucio, Angela and Nazzareno

We met with owner Angela Marino and her father Lucio, who obviously have a strong passion for olive oil and a strong sense of business. We were fortunate to be able to try their Novello, which was just harvested in the previous weeks.  It was absolutley divine! You could smell the scents of apple and olive with a slight spicyness.  This oil is strong and able to stand on it’s own or accompany other flavors.  They have already won several awards for their oil in Italy. Their oils have gained a tremendous amount of praise from Germany, which does’nt surprise me.  Germany is a big supporter of Italian Imports.

See below as Angela gives us sample from their recent harvest.

Angela Sampling The Novello

Being able to meet the Olive Oil producers that provide the oil for our Italian Olive Oil of the Month Club, is extremely important to us.  Besides building strong relationships with the producers,  we feel it’s important to put a name with the product.  These oils are not massed produced in huge factories.  Most of them are small companies and managed by families who have been making olive oil for decades.  These families or small business owners take extreme pride in their work and their olive oil is reflective of this.  

Meeting with Lucio and Angela that rainy day in Basilicata we felt the strong bond they not only have with their  Olive Oil but with eachother.  

To learn more about Vetrano visit their website: http://www.oliovetrano.com