Turning Oil into Wine

[rhythmaning]

Someone on my f-list has just posted about olive oils, which I had been thinking of doing for a couple of days, when I went to the local, famous Italian deli, V&C’s, earlier this week. Primarily, I wanted to see if they had wines on sale. (They did, but normally they have a whole room full of fine wine at discount prices; this time, they had only a couple of lines on offer.) But I also needed some olive oil: we were completely out.

The more I use olive oil, the more refined my tastes get. It is a long time since I was happy with supermarket olive oil; generally, I now buy single-estate Italian olive oil, often from Tuscany, but sometimes from Puglia or Sicily. If I am feel cheapskate, I may settle for V&C’s own brand (which I think is Puglian or Sicilian).

One of the interesting things about single-estate oils is that the olives are grown in the vineyards; so you can buy the oil, and you can buy the wine. (Hence so many of the single-estate oils being Tuscan.)

One of my favourite estates is Selvapiana. They do some delicious wines, and their oil is great too.

Looking at the shelf of oils the other day, I ummed and ahhed as I tried to make up my mind: seeing what they had, comparing prices, and deciding how poncey I was feeling. (They Poggio Lamentano – a delicious oil – bottled from a single vineyard, and from a single olive variety. At a price.)

I plumped for a bottle of Selvapiana, which is boxed.

At home, I was cooking; I opened the box. To find it contained a bottle of wine.

Rather nice wine – Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine. (In Tuscany, it is often served with biscotti for dipping in the wine.) This was a surprise – Vin Santo wasn’t what I expected at all, nice as it is. You can’t really cook with it…

On the other hand, I had paid for oil, and I got wine. This could be a good deal. Their website didn’t list Selvapiana Vin Santo, so I called them up. I had indeed got a bargain; so I let them know that they had bottles of wine in the boxes for olive oil (both to help them – I like the shop – and to help anyone who is after oil rather than wine!).

But I am keeping hold of the wine, too.

I back to the shop later, since of course I did still need oil. Only this time, I opened the box, just to make sure.

Comments

[white_hart]

Coincidentally, the Food Programme on Radio 4 tomorrow lunchtime is about olive oil...

[kittenexploring.livejournal.com]

My sister and her spawn live in wine country (as evidenced by the vineyard in front of their house (and more vineyards stretching off into the distance until you reach the far distant hills)). While looking after their place for a month and in need of oil to cook with I bought vegetable oil - the cheapest in the supermarket. They were quite shocked at my behaviour when they returned and discovered my crime.