Fresh olives are harvested as fall begins to break in the Italian countryside, picked by the hands of families who nurtured these olive trees and the land in which they have sent forth their roots for generations. Then they are crushed, ground and turned, which coaxes a green elixir from their pulpy flesh.  This liquid gold is bottled especially for us and put on a boat and is heading our way straight from the Cipolloni olive orchard in San Giovanni Profiamma, in the heart of Umbrian olive oil country.

Olio Novello – on its way to Via Umbria in time for our grand opening this November.

You will not want to miss this.  Georgetown has been waiting for this olive oil.

Olio Novello is the first pressed olive oil of the season, and offers the first taste of the season’s harvest.  Made from the earliest ripened, slightly immature olives, olio novello possesses a fluorescent green color and a pungent, strong flavor that reminds us what the word “fresh” really means.  It is to be used frequently and non-sparingly, with a heavy hand.  This oil is meant to be used when it is young, when it possesses the vigor of the plant it just came from.

Via Umbria owners Bill and Suzy Menard just recently returned from Italy, where they led their annual Fall Food and Wine Experience Tours with a small select group of foodies in tow.  There they shared the experience of the family olive harvest and olive oil pressing.  “We watched them pick the olives, smelled the air as they were being pressed, oh, my goodness what a crop!  It is hard to imagine anything any simpler or better than this delicious, elemental olive oil drizzled on anything at all and eaten with people you love.”

Cipolloni’s award winning olive oils come from a farm that numbers over 35,000 olive trees, but despite the abundance of trees theirs is very much a small scale family business.  Every taste of this oil reveals the bitterness and sweetness that is encapsulated by the earthy, grassiness of the oil, developed out of the soil and in the sun of this very farm.  Every olive oil should have a family lineage like this, and at Via Umbria, they do.  And you don’t have to travel to Italy to get it. Let us share the many ways to enjoy its flavor before it’s gone!

Ci Vediamo!

–Via Umbria