An aromatic oil with spicy and green banana characters. Some tomato leaf characters with a touch of fresh grass. A pleasant pepper sensation rounds off the complex fruity tastes of this premium oil."
Environment
The environment in which olives are grown must be pristine, free of disease and isolated from any form of industrial activity likely to pollute the surrounding atmosphere. Dandaragan is in the heart of the Moore River region, one of Australia's most renowned agricultural areas producing fresh seafood, prime beef and lamb, succulent fresh fruit and premium wheat all of which are exported around the world.
Grove Management
Tree management is critical to fruit quality. Trees must be constantly monitored to ensure optimum health. A detailed fertilising, irrigation and pruning programme are required to ensure the trees produce only the finest fruit.
The trees must also be shaped to allow for overhead harvesting. This ensures that the fruit can be picked at the optimum time and not left to degrade while waiting for slower traditional central shaking harvesters. Once harvested the fruit must immediately be taken to the mill and turned into oil.
Processing and Storage
Ultra premium EVOO is first and foremost a food product and must be treated with all requisite care. This can only be achieved by processing olives in a food grade facility and storing oil away from heat, light and oxygen. When ready for bottling, oil should be placed in a dark bottle with the neck space between the oil and the capsule evacuated of oxygen to reduce oxidisation.
Throughout the entire production process detailed records must be kept to ensure that every bottle of oil can be traced back to the trees from which it was made.
Blending
The blending process can be simple or complicated. Many high volume suppliers use detailed chemical analysis to determine which varietal oils to combine.
One of the secrets of Dandaragan Estate is our unique approach to blending. Dandaragan Estate gathered the who's who of the fine food trade, including chefs, industry experts, oil connoisseurs and food identities from across Australia to blend our varietal oils destined for sale under the Dandaragan Estate ultra premium extra virgin olive oil label. The group gathered in Perth in June 2002 and worked through 17 individual varietal oils to determine the best blends. 19 potential blends resulted from the event and, after refinement, three master blends emerged.
This blending event has now become an annual celebration of the harvest at Dandaragan Estate and each year a growing list of connoisseurs will join in.
100 per cent EVOO
At Dandaragan Estate we give you the commitment that all our oil is 100 per cent EVOO grade and not a combination of EVOO and virgin oil or refined oil. While much of the oil on the market is a blend of cheap refined oil with a small quantity of EVOO that adds taste and colour, our oil is 100 per cent EVOO quality with an average free fatty content of less than 0.3 per cent.
Extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO as those "in the know" call it, is the most prized of all olive oils. As the top grade of olive oil, extra virgin olive oil is made from the first pressing of the best olives and represents the most natural and premium form of olive oil, extracted using the cold-press method where no chemicals and little heat assistance is used. Extra virgin olive oil is essentially 100 per cent olive juice filtered to remove any vegetable matter.
When something goes wrong other grades of olive oil result. Lots of things may cause a problem including harvesting at the wrong time, leaving the harvested fruit too long before pressing, leaving the fruit in the wrong conditions before pressing, errors during pressing and not storing the oil properly after pressing. Real EVOOs deserve special credit because with so many pitfalls it takes an extraordinary effort to make a truly premium extra virgin product.
