60 bottles of Not Wine: Fresh, Tuscan Olive Oil!
And Now, Something a Little Different:
A fresh batch of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamico from Poggio al Sole
January is a time to take a bit of a breather. The non-stop pace of Holiday festivities, feasts, and libations can wear out even the most avowed wine and food lover. I’m sure by next December I’ll be ready to jump right back on that plate of holiday cookies, but the menu plan for the next few months is more simple, and dare I say, health focused (even if I still have a chocolate, now and again).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still enjoying a glass of wine… or two… with dinner. As a wine importer, you won’t find me signing up for Dry January, but I have been thinking more about another liquid that brings me great joy: Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And in a few weeks, my pantry (and yours!) is about to get a a huge upgrade: 10 six-packs of the latest harvest of EVOO from Poggio al Sole in Tuscany, along with its perfect complement, the intensely concentrated Balsamico, are about to arrive in our warehouse.
The first time I tasted real, fresh olive oil, I was living in South Africa, exploring the backroads of wine country near Cape Town, in a landscape that looks an awful lot like Tuscany (if you ignore the Zebras and Springboks). Yes, they grow olives there too, and tasting freshly pressed oil was a revelation; the vivid green flavors, the vibrant acidity, and the actual flavor of the olives coming through. This was nothing like the near-rancid, nondescript commodity olive oil, sourced from four different countries, I was used to. This was produced with care and attention, as specific and alive as the wines I was tasting. And since then, I’ve always tried to keep a bottle of olive oil like that in my pantry.
Over the years, we’ve done our best to make you familiar with the wines of Poggio al Sole. But this place is not just a winery; it is a complete landscape. To get there, one drives up a lengthy, single-lane dirt road, deep in the heart of Chianti Classico, passing by a smattering of vineyards, oak forests, and olive groves, and beyond the village of Badia a Passignano.
Johannes and Kathrin Davaz came to this property in the early 90s, fresh from enology school, Johannes' family having recently acquired the property from near abandonment. Over time, the Davaz family laboriously and painstakingly restored the vineyards, rebuilt the stone houses, and created a fantastic winery, in the process restoring the property to the vibrantly mixed landscape of forest and agriculture that is emblematic of Tuscany. And no Italian farm is complete without olive trees.
While wine production dominates the estates activities, the mixed landscape is not some throwback. The diversity of crops and wild areas are essential to the health of the whole property, and everything it produces - be that wine, wild boars or olive oil. Like their wines, the Poggio al Sole Olive oil and Balsamico are vibrant, alive and bursting with flavor.
Poggio al Sole
EVOO & Balsamico
These two special products, coming from this sunny landscape, are the perfect way to upgrade your pantry and add verve to your meals. The recent harvest of Poggio al Sole EVOO comes in a 0.5L bottle, and is ideal for drizzling oil on top of any meal (your morning eggs, roast vegetables, as a final garnish on pasta). The Poggio al Sole Balsamico comes in a 0.25L bottle, but don’t let its diminutive size fool you. This is highly concentrated, and a few drops will add a kaleidoscope of flavors to your dishes (a few drops along with the oil on those roast vegetables, a drizzle on your salad, a drop or two on your ice cream!). Each of these pantry staples goes for $32 a piece, but order the pair for just $58 on pre-arrival today. We’ve got just 60 bottles of each on their way to us, and once they’re gone, we’ll have to wait until next harvest.
Cin Cin!
Sébastien