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<pre>> To take your analogy one step further, ask yourself who produces the top
> wines in Australia. I doubt that many would argue that wines such as
> Penforld's Grange, Rosemount Roxburgh Chardonnay, etc are the top of the
> line, and produced by the biggest companies.
>
> With a huge operation, there is bound to be more resources to draw on,
more
> potential to produce excellence. It doesn't automatically mean that big
> means bland.
>
> Smaller growers may only have one batch of fruit to process, so their
> eventual oil quality may well not be reliable.

A timely reminder Mike. We must not get too precious about what we do.
Certainly we smaller processors aspire to produce high quality product but
it is not always possible.

Processing mature Manzanillo this season for example has been a mixed
blessing but a worthwhile nonetheless. All of the fruit, from 4 different
growers of 4 year old trees, resulted in 3 different types of oil. One (at
21%) was bitterly bitter, another (at 15%) was worthy only as a soap effort,
the final two (also at 15%) produced a remarkable oil in organoleptic terms.
The previous year I had processed the fruit from these same (latter) trees
that ended up with an oil that Judy Ridgway adjudged worthy of inclusion in
her new edition.

Now it may be that the other trees (because of a variety of factors) may
produce a good oil in the future or it may be that we could blend said oil
with another to produce a well balanced oil but... there is no guarantee.

Regards
Peter Caird
www.victorianolivegroves.com
0418 392 157



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