Jurassic Ridge Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is produced from carefully selected olives from small groves in or around Church Bay. The main varieties in our ‘Tuscan blend’ are Frantoio, Leccino and Verdale. The top quality fruit is harvested at optimal ripeness to obtain premium quality oil. The olives are hand-picked or shaken onto nets placed beneath the trees, collected and cleaned of any leaves before washing and draining. They are pressed within 24 hours of harvesting to maximise the oil quality and freshness.

Our small Italian press has been specially designed to produce small quantities of top quality EVOO. Large presses in Italy may achieve 30% extractions by heavy pressure and overripe olives. We average 12-14% by weight. Thus from 180k of olives we may produce only about 25 litres of premium oil. The olives are introduced into the hopper and pass through very gentle stainless steel cutting knives into a paste-making machine (malaxer) which gently and slowly cold-mixes the chopped olives into a smooth paste to break down the vacuoles in the flesh and release the oil. When the paste is at the correct consistency it is spread evenly onto stainless steel mats by the machine and the mats are hand-built into a stack in the press. The oil runs freely and is collected, settled and naturally decanted. After settling again it is racked once off any fruit sediments before bottling unfiltered under inert gas with a gentle vacuum bottling machine.

The bottled oil and the label are assessed by an authorised laboratory and a sensory panel at Olives New Zealand before it can be certified as EVOO and earn its red sticker. Oil from our press has won both gold and silver medals in competition and has  excellent keeping qualities. However all EVOO is best consumed young and fresh when it is at its best. Our bottles are all hand-marked with the pressing date, the batch number for traceability and the best before date.