Australian olive oil
"Beset by inexperienced growers, poor choices of tree varieties, too many hobby farmers, weather events and insufficient profits to invest in marketing and branding, the local olive industry has worked hard for its reputation over the past 20 years." Mark Abernethy AFR
I don't know that I would regard myself as a patriotic shopper. I'm probably more price driven even though I don't need to be. I just don't see a reason to pay more for some things just because it's got fancy packaging and a 'name'. Olive oil is a good example of this. I mostly buy cheap Spanish olive oil - don't like the Greek one on offer in Woolworths. I buy it in bulk you see because I use a lot of it. So I concentrate on the ones you get in big tins. In the past the Australian olive oils on offer, either didn't come in bulk tins, or was horrendously expensive. However, the price has been coming down and whilst it's not the cheapest on offe these days , it's not much more and so then my patriotism kicks in.
So today I bought some Squeaky Gate extra virgin olive oil and the one I am using at the moment is Red Island. I have also bought Cobram Estate in the past. These are the ones you will find on the supermarket shelves.
As I had bought the Squeaky Gate I thought I would combine a little bit about Australian olive oil with a company profile of Squeaky Gate, but you can't actually find out a lot about Squeaky Gate from their website. They have a page called Our Story but it doesn't tell you anything at all other than that they care about their product. Well that's the gist of it. And also interestingly the photographs on their website show empty fields rather than olive groves. Very curious. The website has a folksy feel to it - they are obviously trying to make you feel that you are helping 'real' farmers by buying their product, but I really don't know who they are or indeed where they are. I investigated a bit further and found that they are distributed by Conga Foods - a Melbourne based - Italian origin - private company who also import Moro Olive Oil, which is the brand I usually buy. But I don't think they are producers - just distributors. I also saw that when Choice did their last testing of olive oil the Squeaky Gate samples they tasted didn't do too well. Oh dear - maybe I've done the wrong thing.
Cobram and Red Island however, the other two brands you will find on your supermarket shelves are actually owned by the same company. Cobram Estate has won major awards overseas, particularly at the New York International Olive Oil Competition. Best in class in fact. I think the highpoint was in 2016 when Australia won the highest proportion of awards for a country of any of the competitors and Cobram Estates was one of the big winners. In 2018 there didn't seem to be as many big wins for Australia (I was intrigued by how many winners were from Croatia), although Cobram Estate were still up there. As was Cape Schank Estate.
There are of course many, many other smaller growers producing olive oil - almost all of it extra virgin olive oil apparently, but you might have to go to more specialist foodie shops, farmers' markets or the growers themselves to taste them. The picture at the top of the page is of some of the Australian olive oils at the New York show, so there are obviously lots who think themselves good enough to compete. And I do know that some of these small producers' oils are delicious. There is one that I have bought from a winery in the Yarra Valley and another that I bought at the Heathcote Wine Show. So do keep your eyes out for them.
But maybe we shouldn't get too excited too soon. Apparently there have been booms and busts before. Today's surge is apparently driven by technology (like wine), and the speed with which it is processed. And ironically the stuff that is left over and not good enough is sent to Europe where it is blended and sent back to us as olive oil (without the extra virgin). They apparently don't let their best stuff out of their respective countries. If you really want the best Italian, Spanish, French or Greek olive oil then you will have to go there. I actually have some from Puglia which I must use. I've probably let it go off. Another example of my non gourmet credentials.
