You know how much pride we take in the real, honest, authentic ingredients that we import from Italy. When we add a food to the Gusti family, we consider ourselves married to a new producer (yes, we are that committed!)
That’s exactly what happened with the Gaudenzi family in Umbria and their Quinta Luna EVOO. And that’s why we were beyond thrilled to read the reaction of our friend and extra virgin olive oil expert Nancy Harmon Jenkins after she tried the 2019/2020 Quinta Luna harvest.
This is a spectacular oil and thank you for introducing me to it. It has a great fresh grassy aroma and then the flavors on the palate are extraordinary. I wasn’t surprised to see a strong influence from moraiolo with that cultivar’s high content of polyphenols. I suspect that’s what gives the oil such a profile of fresh artichoke and green tomato. But all in all it’s a fine balance of bitterness and pungency, tamed a bit by nutty flavors on the finish. I’m having it for breakfast this morning on a slice of toasted rye bread—my version of a breakfast fettunta. A wake-up call for sure.
I’m also increasingly impressed with the growing crop of really fine olive oils coming out of Italy (and to a certain extent also from Spain) which goes to show what intense care in the oliveto and the frantoio can do for this precious gift of the Mediterranean—treated with disrespect by far too many for far too long.