2025 Harvest Notes
Balatro
A single-varietal Leccino shaped by the quiet restraint that makes this cultivar sing.
What is in this bottle was made with intention, from a grove we have tended for more than a decade, in a season that asked a great deal of the land and gave back something worth holding. It is a single-varietal Leccino, released only when the season supports a complete and balanced expression. 2025 was that season. We are not working toward a formula. We are working toward the best the grove has to offer, and not every year earns this.
The Season
Winter into Spring
The coldest December since 2017 reset the vegetative cycle across the groves. Heavy spring rainfall replenished soil moisture in these non-irrigated hillsides, but slowed pollination and early fruit set.
Summer
June and July brought heat that stressed the trees and reduced fruit counts, particularly in recently restored areas. Rain followed, easing drought pressure but increasing exposure to fungal risk. This was a season that asked us to stay close.
Autumn
Day and night temperatures swung nearly 20 degrees during harvest weeks, dropping close to five degrees overnight. That variation is what drives phenolic development and preserves aromatic structure. We harvested under cool, overcast skies: the conditions that allow for careful, controlled extraction. Yield came in at 13.51%, a significant increase over the previous season despite reduced fruit counts.
The Oil
Balatro is 100% Leccino. Of the Tuscan cultivars, Leccino is the quietest, and in the wrong hands that restraint can read as absence. In 2025, Balatro showed what it looks like when that restraint is a choice rather than a limitation.
The aromatics center on green almond and green apple, fresh and composed. On the palate, bitterness and pungency are moderate and measured, the structure balanced and clear from entry through finish. Nothing forces itself. This is an oil for preparations where the ingredient matters as much as what surrounds it: white meats, steamed vegetables, and dishes where you want the oil present without it taking the conversation.
The Care
Harvest ran October 8 to 15. Olives were milled within hours of leaving the trees, in a nitrogen-sealed mill with temperatures held below 22 degrees. The oil was double-filtered, laboratory tested, and stored in stainless steel tanks under nitrogen at 17 degrees.
Through the season, olive fly pressure was monitored weekly by hand across every subsection of the grove. No practices were used to stimulate growth or increase yield. Pruned material returned to the grove floor. The grove set the pace. We followed it.
2025
The Record
Balatro
100% Leccino
Fruitiness
6.3/10
Bitterness
4.8/10
Pepperiness
5.5/10
Polyphenols
640 mg/kg
Free Fatty Acids
0.23%
Peroxides
6.9
Monounsaturated FA
>75%
Pesticide Residues
Not detected