Harvest Update 10-14-24

I’m excited to share that our 2024 olive harvest is officially underway!

Since 2009, I’ve shared both the highs and lows of each season with complete transparency—and this year is no different. We’ve faced many challenges over the years, but each one has only strengthened our passion.

Producing exceptional extra virgin olive oil isn’t just about freshness or quantity; it’s about translating the essence of a season while honouring nature and our community.

After all, we don’t merely extract oil—we craft it with the final experience in mind.   Today, our rescued trees are ready to share their gifts and as always, we’re reminded that from grove to table, countless things can go wrong—making each step both cumulative and critical to the final result.

And as one of my mentors Franco Pasquini’s would say “Even the finest, healthiest olives can produce bad oil—but from an unhealthy olive, greatness is impossible.”

We’re just getting started, and conditions are the most favourable we’ve seen in years, and we couldn’t be more excited!

The Heat

Our largest grove, La Torre, was severely impacted by an unexpected 10-day heatwave in April. The southwest-facing sub-section suffered the most, leading to a significant loss of olive flowers, and the surviving olives were heavily heat-stressed. As a result, we won’t be harvesting from this sub-section. While this reduces the overall yield from La Torre, we’re excited about the quality of olives in the other sub-sections of the grove. This highlights an important shift from the messaging that “single-origin” or “single-estate” automatically means higher quality. Treating the entire grove as a uniform entity overlooks these nuances—even if it sounds appealing.

The Rain

This year, unlike last, we received the much-needed rain at precisely the right time. It nourished our groves, preparing the olives for the critical harvest stage.

The Swings

We’re experiencing significant temperature fluctuations between day and night, which are crucial for quality. Cooler nights encourage phenolic compounds to accumulate and help balance sugars while prepping the olives for enhanced aroma release during malaxation. Meanwhile, warmer days support oil accumulation. A standout moment came on September 30th, when temperatures dipped to 7°C (45°F)—the lowest we’ve seen in 6-7 years!

The Fly

We successfully avoided the olive fly! Traps showed near-zero activity in the weeks leading up to harvest.  During our final monitoring trip last week, we found just one capture in our Osteria Grove and two in the Balatro sub-section of Il Poggino—reassuring us that our olives are as healthy as possible.

A Year of Recovery and Growth

Our San Donato Grove is a shining star this year. After zero production last year, it’s now thriving, it's still a bit too early to tell but we expect a selection of the Founder’s Reserve to come from this grove—a first in 4 years.  Our Osteria Grove, after its first harvest in 2023 following 25 years of abandonment, is thriving and more beautiful than ever. The 262 Moraiolo trees look healthy and strong, though we did lose one tree this year that wasn’t able to fully recover.

We’ve always harvested only what can be produced and delivered at its peak—without the pressure from external forces, trends or compromising our standards.

For that, I’m deeply grateful for your continued support and understanding of the thought and care behind each bottle. I can’t wait to share this harvest with you!