Empordà oil always enjoyed great prestige, centuries before the DOP was created The centuries-old olive trees bear witness to the great age of the oil industry, and there is evidence of its existence from the Bronze Age. However, it was not until 2008 that the Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) for Empordà oil was created. This covers Alt and Baix Empordà, three municipalities in Pla de l’Estany and five in Gironès, although olives were grown in La Garrotxa and Montseny, where work is now being done to recover the old local varieties.
There are three varieties of native olive trees: Argudell, Corivell and Verdal or Llei de Cadaqués. The most characteristic and widely cultivated are Argudell, considered the best for making oil as they produce this in abundance. The Corivell olive is grown only in small amounts, while the Verdal olive marks the difference in Cadaqués oils. However, the regulating board also allows oils which contain up to fifty percent of Arbequina oil to bear the DOP Empordà label.
On this side of the Mediterranean, the use of oil is is culturally ingrained: one cannot imagine a table without a bottle of oil to dress salads or vegetables, enhance the flavour of meat or fish, or or slowly cook onions to make a traditional sofregit.
Oil with the 2016-2017 Girona Excel·lent seal
Oil from Pau.
Produced by Empordàlia, a combination of three cooperatives in Pau, Roses and Vilajuïga, this green, fruity extra virgin olive oil is produced from only two native varieties: Argudell and Corivell.
Serraferran extra virgin olive oil.
Thanks to experience built up over generations, farmers can blend Argudell olives from the hundred-year-old trees in Ventalló with Arbequina olives, to produce a balanced, fresh-tasting, green oil.
Oli Picual Brugarol.
This amazing oil is obtained from olives produced exclusively according to organic criteria. The olive trees are grown in Palamos, at Mas del Vent and especially at Mas Salvà.
Category: Girona extra virgin olive oil without DOP
Company: Explotaciones Agrícolas y Forestales Brugarol, SA
The judging panel of the olive oil tasting.
Josep Sucarrats
Director of Cuina magazine
Pere Planagumà
Chef at ROM restaurant, Roses
Lluís Guerrero
Technical researcher at IRTA
Salvador Garcia-Arbós
Journalist and food critic
Pep Nogué
Chef and gastronomy consultant
