Do you think of olive oil as just a food item, or simply as “oil”?
In my case, I gradually became interested in olives while thinking of them as mysterious trees capable of producing oil.
Trunks that have lived for hundreds of years.
A life force that takes deep root in dry earth and bears fruit while enduring scorching heat.
In that form, there is a mysterious presence that cannot be expressed by the word ‘ingredient’ alone.
In the Mediterranean, olives have been cherished as sacred trees since ancient times.
They are plants that have served as symbols of peace, provided oil to light lamps for prayer, supported people’s lives, and sustained life itself.
The emotion I felt when I encountered a high-quality, freshly pressed drop is beyond words, and I can still feel the lingering impression even now.
Within this single bottle, nature, human activity, and a culture passed down for thousands of years reside.
And, before I knew it, I began to have a dream.
I wanted to create a bottle that allows one to feel the life force of that year more than any other olive oil, and deliver it to Japan.
I wanted to seal into a bottle the kind of drop that moved me so deeply.
In Japan, where there is no olive culture, I want people to know the true value that the olive plant possesses. This Early Harvest was born from that desire.
I want you to feel the mystery of olive oil
The reason I chose this land
The stage is the Coa Valley, a World Heritage site that spreads across the upper reaches of the Douro River in northeastern Portugal, near the border with Spain.
In this region, rock art from the Paleolithic era remains, and people have lived alongside this valley for tens of thousands of years, and the traditional lifestyle can still be felt today.
Olives are also one of the traditions that have been nurtured throughout this long history.
The CARM company, which I am indebted to, continues to protect the traditional cultivation methods that are rapidly disappearing in this area.
What the farm owner values is not increasing production volume. It is to preserve for the future the agriculture inherent to this land, living in harmony with nature.
The olive trees growing in the valley have no irrigation system.
The trees live by relying solely on winter rain and morning mist, extending their roots deep into the earth.
In recent years, severe droughts have continued, and the olives have looked as if they were struggling.
Even so, the trees have survived, and this year, blessed rain fell before the harvest, allowing them to bear powerful fruit.
I personally strongly believe that it is precisely because of this environment that olives with a flavor as close as possible to the old days are born.
Terraced fields spread out in the valley of the Kora Valley.
The day we decide, ‘This is the day for this year’
The harvest day is not something decided by a calendar.
We analyze the maturity of the fruit, assess the temperature and weather, and in the end, the owner, who has known this land for decades, and the staff, who walk the fields every day, make the decision.
‘This is the day for this year.’
To decide that one day, we spend the whole year watching over the trees.
The trees that produce the oil I am looking for are very limited.
In traditionally cultivated orchards, a single tree bears fruit of various levels of maturity.
Bright green fruit.
Fruit that has begun to color slightly.
Fruit that has matured to purple.
It is a mixed state.
Therefore, the first job that begins is finding trees that have abundant green fruit.
They do not necessarily bear abundant fruit every year.
While walking through the orchard, I look at each tree one by one and select only the trees that have the healthiest green fruit that year.
The most luxurious few hours of the year
The variety we primarily use is the representative native Portuguese variety, Cobrançosa.
A refreshing aroma reminiscent of green apples and herbs.
A verdancy that evokes the leaves of young tomatoes.
A pleasant bitterness followed by a powerful, spreading pungency.
That character is born precisely because the fruit is still young and green.
If we waited for full ripeness, the harvest yield would increase.
However, what we are seeking is not harvest yield.
We are seeking the aroma where the vitality the tree has stored over the year can be felt most richly.
That is why this oil is made only from green fruit before it has begun to color.
The harvested fruit is transported immediately to the oil mill.
This is to keep the freshness of the fruit in the best possible condition.
And what we request is the very first pressing on the first day of harvest.
First day of harvest
It is a phantom-like drop that can only be pressed for a few hours out of the entire year.
We press fruit that is almost entirely green in ripeness
We want to deliver the aroma of freshly pressed oil just as it is
Freshly pressed olive oil is surprisingly aromatic.
It is more like an extract than a fruit juice, brought to us by the olives from deep within the earth.
We want to deliver the excitement of this moment to Japan.
And, we dare to make this Early Harvest unfiltered.
Without filtration, we capture the rich, freshly pressed aroma and fruit flavor directly in the bottle.
We ship it to Japan by air so that you can taste it as soon as possible.
If we only considered transport costs, this would certainly not be an efficient method, but there is a delicate flavor and aroma that can only be delivered if we hurry.
It is the finest drop from the olive.
The same oil is never produced twice.
If the climate is different, even the same variety will be different.
The best plots and the best trees change every year.
Every year, together with the producers, we search for the best olive trees of that year.
It is a one-time-only olive oil created by that year, that land, that tree, that day, and those few hours.
We want to deliver to Japan the vitality of the olive and the mysterious, magical world that has existed in its background since ancient times.
Early Harvest ‘Quinta do Côa’
Because it is made only from the limited fruit of the first day of harvest each year, production is limited. Therefore, we offer it through a reservation system.
If you resonate with this story and would like to taste this once-a-year vitality, please feel free to contact us.