What constitutes “fancy” or “luxury” can be a bit fickle when it comes to food. Back in the ‘80s, the farther away from which something was imported, the greater its aura of luxury.
We’ve largely moved away from that in recent years – thanks to all sorts of newer, hopefully improved ideas about seasonality, local produce, carbon footprints, and “farm-to-table” – and these days, for the most part, hyperlocality is king.
Yet here in the Central Valley, it seems we still have a bit of an inferiority complex as it relates to local products.
What this olive oil blind taste test presupposes is: maybe it’s time to stop?
One thing that’s hard to miss when driving around the Valley, beyond the grape, nut, and citrus orchards, are olives. And if you think about most of the places olives are traditionally grown in the world – Greece, Italy, Spain, the Balkans, Argentina, parts of the Middle East and North Africa – chances are, they have a reasonably similar climate to ours.
Passing all of those olive rows on your daily commute, the question naturally becomes: How good is that olive oil? Does it stack up to the more acclaimed regions and the national brands?
This also raises a number of related questions, about testing criteria and what makes a “good” olive oil.
Obviously, olive oil is a staple. A kitchen without olive oil is almost as rare as one without salt, and for good reason: Oolive oil is versatile, delicious, and healthy (full of good fats; not a “seed oil,” whatever that means). With that ubiquity comes a wealth of options. So the question of “does Fresno olive oil rate” is part of a larger one: Iis it worth buying “nice” olive oil or are they all more or less the same?
Certainly, a rancid olive will spoil just about anything you use it for (and olive oil can “skunk” the same way beer can – through exposure to oxygen and light – only even faster). But as to whether the fancy stuff is better than the cheap stuff, if you’re only using it for frying or sauteeing, the answer is probably no (as long as that oil isn’t rancid or actively skunky). Most of the more nuanced and delicate flavors in extra virgin olive oils will evaporate, break down, and otherwise be rendered undetectable at temperatures above 375°F.
But for room- temperature uses like salads, bruschetta, pesto, pan con tomate, gazpacho, or just dunking bread (and definitely don’t add balsamic to it, the foodies are very specific on this point lately!), a nice olive oil is a must. Once you’ve recognized the value of olive oil as a major flavor component, you’ll want to have at least one bottle of the good stuff lying around.
As for what to look for, a spokesperson for local producer Verni Gold suggests, “Something that tastes smooth going down, with a little bite at the end.”
That “bite” comes from the polyphenols, the presence of which are said to be a sign of a quality product. By contrast, a rancid olive is often described as smelling and tasting musty, or “waxy.” If your olive oil smells anything like a crayon, it’s time to throw it out.
For our taste test, we tasted blind, pitting all the local product we could find against some mid-shelf and fancier Middle Eastern oils, plus some even higher end stuff straight from Lucca, Italy. We sipped plain, and dunked, with some small pieces of French bread.
Some overall conclusions
Possibly the main conclusion we came to is that yes, our local olive oils do stack up to the fancy imported stuff.
Every taster had one or two locals in their top three. Which means that you can feel good buying local not just out of a sense of altruism or homerism, but because it actually tastes the best too. As the old foodie adage goes, “what grows together goes together.”
The Competitors
Fresno State Olive Oil, Fresno
Enzo’s Table, Clovis (we tested the “bold” and the “delicate” labels)
Rankings
1. Bari Traditional Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Tasting Notes
According to their website, Bari, have been growing and producing olive oil in the Central Valley since 1936. Brothers Kyle and Ryan Sawatzky took it over in 2007, adding new machinery and expanding the operation. They offer a few different labels –Traditional, Organic, Arbequina, Arbosana, and Koroneiki. The traditional was the only one we could get our hands on as of press time, sadly, but it was certainly a damn fine olive oil, easily a match for high-end olives from elsewhere in the world.
Final Thoughts
Not super pungent on the nose, but leans toward grassy and nutty. On the palate, the grassy nuttiness of the nose gives way to a much more buttery, fruity taste. Pinches the back of the throat a little on the finish. Especially good on bread, with a buttery and pleasant mouthfeel.
2. Enzo’s Table Bold
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