<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>>
>
> Roberto,
>
> just remember what happens with wines: An estate can produce both
> monovarietal wines and also blends of different grapes - both may be
> excellent or poor. The same happens with olive oil.
>

It is always tempting to draw a parallel between the emerging olive industry
and the growth in the wine industry, especially here in Australia. As one
who lives and works in the Hunter Valley, and with strong connections to the
wine industry, one very noticeable trend catches my eye.

In the wine industry, we went through a massive boom in the 80s when wine
drinking became fashionable. This coincided with the emergence of varietal
labels. Traminer-Riesling was a lot more popular than Moselle. Chardonnay
outsold White Burgundy, Cabernet Sauvignon was a lot more marketable than
Claret.

In other words, the marketing department became every bit as important as
the grower and winemaker. Is this the way to go with Olive Oil? Can we
market 100% varietal oils as being in some mysterious way better than
blended oils? Should we?

There is no doubt that the Australian wine industry is one of the great
success stories of the 80s and 90s. Will their methodology work with olive
oil?

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley.
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Dear Peter:

I loved your question.

I received a request for samples last week from a potential client -
retailer - here in the US who has a shop specialising in single variety and
single estate olive oils. According to him, this is the only store of its
kind in the US.

I, personally, like single estate oils, blends included. The reason is that
with single estate oils you can achieve total quality control. I have found
that many blends have such excellent organoleptic qualities that make them
an important part of the olive oil community.

I will keep you updated on the progress-success-of my client with his single
variety and single estate olive oil marketing efforts.

A little update on us. When we entered the olive oil business, my wife and I
were scared about our possibility of success. Being new and small, no
distributor wanted to talk to us. It is for this reason that we decided to
enter both the internet retail and wholesale fields. Our wholesale sales had
a healthy growth and we have decided to exit the field of internet retail
sales. It is very time and energy consuming. We are upgrading our site (that
project should be completed in four weeks)and we are going to concentrate on
wholeseling. We recently moved from Pullman, Washington, (near the Idaho
border) to Connecticut. This move made us a few thousand dollars poorer but
at the same time cut our product transport cost in half (we are expecting
our prices to drop for this reason) and in one month it has increased our
client base by 20%. We are going to be importing a new olive oil soon from
Portugal, the ROMEU from the Tras-os Montes region. It is a certified
organic, single estate, blend, extra virgin olive oil-one of the best I have
ever tried.

I have been extremely busy lately and I apologize to the group for not
contributing more often. I enjoy reading the excellent contributions of all
the members and I thank everybody for making our egroup such a wonderful
source of information. With some of you I feel as if I have known you for
years. I read about your experiences in the cultivation or marketing of the
olive oil and I share your passion for it. I am looking forward to sharing
these experiences with you in the years to come. Learning from each other is
the best way to avoid making the same mistakes and sharing in the successes.

Best regards,

Constantine
http://www.PapasHaven.com




__________________________________________________ ______________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Mike

> In other words, the marketing department became every bit as important as
> the grower and winemaker. Is this the way to go with Olive Oil? Can we
> market 100% varietal oils as being in some mysterious way better than
> blended oils? Should we?
>
A thoughtful contribution the subject of which I have pondered as some
length as well. Our local association has about 250000 trees in the ground
of various ages but most getting toward harvest - probably next year. In
addition there are more significant plantations occurring (5000+ trees) at a
great rate.

The first 1/4 million trees are a real bee knees of planting - roughly 40%
table, 40% oil and 20% so-called duals. More serious consideration has been
applied over the past 2-3 years.

The upshot of all of this is I do believe we will do varietal blends a la
wine industry. As Marco pointed out in a recent posting, most European (et
al) countries have a hotch potch of trees in their respective groves and all
is tipped into the press (except at Western Liguria) . We have an advantage
that (our association) can market individual varieties as a result of a
comprehensive audit of our varieties. I
am also interested in organically managed groves which the majority of
members are practicing.

Without doubt this is a significant marketing edge that we may have and
certainly one which I would want to exploit. Let's just not see genetically
modified olives on the lists please.

In short, varietal oils from specific areas will be able to be marketed.
And I have no problem with same. One oil I have done this year comes from
55 year old UNKNOWNS from Swan Hill which is truly a great oil. We shall
get better!

Regards
</pre>
</td></tr></table>

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Only kind of its store yes, but there is a website that was started three
years ago that offers the same concept in cyberspace.


----- Original Message -----
From: Constantine Alexander <papashaven@hotmail.com>
To: <OliveOil@egroups.com>
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2000 8:36 AM
Subject: Re: [OliveOil] Olive / wine parallel


> Dear Peter:
>
> I loved your question.
>
> I received a request for samples last week from a potential client -
> retailer - here in the US who has a shop specialising in single variety
and
> single estate olive oils. According to him, this is the only store of its
> kind in the US.
>
> I, personally, like single estate oils, blends included. The reason is
that
> with single estate oils you can achieve total quality control. I have
found
> that many blends have such excellent organoleptic qualities that make them
> an important part of the olive oil community.
>
> I will keep you updated on the progress-success-of my client with his
single
> variety and single estate olive oil marketing efforts.
>
> A little update on us. When we entered the olive oil business, my wife and
I
> were scared about our possibility of success. Being new and small, no
> distributor wanted to talk to us. It is for this reason that we decided to
> enter both the internet retail and wholesale fields. Our wholesale sales
had
> a healthy growth and we have decided to exit the field of internet retail
> sales. It is very time and energy consuming. We are upgrading our site
(that
> project should be completed in four weeks)and we are going to concentrate
on
> wholeseling. We recently moved from Pullman, Washington, (near the Idaho
> border) to Connecticut. This move made us a few thousand dollars poorer
but
> at the same time cut our product transport cost in half (we are expecting
> our prices to drop for this reason) and in one month it has increased our
> client base by 20%. We are going to be importing a new olive oil soon from
> Portugal, the ROMEU from the Tras-os Montes region. It is a certified
> organic, single estate, blend, extra virgin olive oil-one of the best I
have
> ever tried.
>
> I have been extremely busy lately and I apologize to the group for not
> contributing more often. I enjoy reading the excellent contributions of
all
> the members and I thank everybody for making our egroup such a wonderful
> source of information. With some of you I feel as if I have known you for
> years. I read about your experiences in the cultivation or marketing of
the
> olive oil and I share your passion for it. I am looking forward to sharing
> these experiences with you in the years to come. Learning from each other
is
> the best way to avoid making the same mistakes and sharing in the
successes.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Constantine
> http://www.PapasHaven.com
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________ ______________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Big Groups = big savings @ beMANY!
> http://click.egroups.com/1/4112/1/_/137757/_/961159012/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> TODAY'S FEATURED SITE: http://www.egroups.com/database/OliveOil
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To see more olive related sites visit:
http://www.egroups.com/links/OliveOil
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ~~~~~~~ Life is healthier with OliveOil ~~~~~~~
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
</pre>
</td></tr></table>