Out near where the buttes erupt and foothills undulate toward the mountains, the Sacramento Valley hums in an ancient peace. Tens of thousands of mature fruit trees -- almond, apple, pear, date, persimmon -- flicker past the car window in rapid rows. They form perfect avenues of statuesque veterans; the view rolls like a classic film of California agriculture.

This scene fills the eye until you cruise through the town of Marysville and head north, turn onto the sparse Lone Tree Road outside Oroville and happen upon a gray-green field. Low, spindly saplings are tethered in lock- step, like adolescent militia, as far as the eye can see. An unmarked gate opens to an industrial-looking facility.

Enter the compound of California Olive Ranch, a 320,000-tree, 500-acre farm/mill/bottling plant. In essence it is a laboratory that may well change the face of California olive oil production. Oroville is the land where Spanish investors, backed by big money, are re-staking a claim in the New World, tapping into the promise of 21st century gold.

It is liquid gold to those who revel in the flavor of olive oil. California Olive Ranch is pressing its second commercial harvest of single- varietal and blended olive oils. The main varietal, arbequina, is a Spanish olive whose extract greets the nose with fresh scents and awakens the tongue with spicy, unabashedly fruity green notes. The ranch's acreage represents the first substantial planting of this olive in a state where Mission canning olives and Italian varieties are the traditional choices for making oil.

"It's like tasting olive juice," says Mike Denny, ranch general manager, of the olive oil that pours forth from his mills.

His ranch is the first to use arbequina in a cutting-edge agricultural technology of dense plantings and machine harvesting. It's a variety that matures much faster than most olives, resulting in a bright, fruity, extra virgin olive oil that rivals the best of California boutique olive oils (and, some would say, Europe's) -- at grocery store prices.

Denny, 35, is a fresh-faced American who has joined the Old World Spaniards. A fourth-generation Butte County farmer disillusioned by contemporary farming practices, he had turned to selling real estate. He wound up showing agricultural property up and down California to the Spanish investors, along the way tasting the oil and running the numbers. In the end, he was ready to go back to farming, albeit with a revolutionary spin.

The technology was already producing delicious olive oil in test pockets in the Mediterranean. And it held the prospect of turning out a California olive oil with the flavor and purity of a boutique bottle, yet with a price tag of $10 or $12 instead of $30 or even $60.

The ranch's approach has the potential to make "a dramatic change in the olive industry as it exists in California," says Albert Katz, president of the California Olive Oil Council. "We clearly were (already) growing as a boutique industry with a growing list of producers who grow from 10,000 to 15,000 trees. What an operation like COR does, with six times the density of plantings, is change the face of the industry." The result, he says, could mean that great California olive oil would no longer have to carry a high price.

Already, other bottlers are using California Olive Ranch oil in their own brands (the company can't reveal the names). The ranch's high-volume production could attract chains such as Costco, Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's to bottle its oil rather than relying on European imports.

Katz contends that the United States has been a dumping ground for oil that's not extra virgin, because of loopholes in European Union regulations. But California Oil Ranch has earned certification from the California Olive Oil Council (a member of the International Olive Oil Council) as producers of extra virgin olive oil.

When The Chronicle Food staff tasted the ranch's oil alongside inexpensive imports and domestic boutique oils, the ranch's oils consistently ranked well (see accompanying story).

New agriculture

High-density plantings, machine harvesting and nearly instantaneous milling -- along with the judgment of Old-World palates -- are the hallmarks of the new olive oil.

Developed and tested by Agromillora, a Spanish nursery conglomerate, the new technique involves planting young olive trees just five feet apart instead of the traditional European 25 feet apart and the conventional American 18 feet apart. The trees are trained and pruned like wine vines, encouraging early fruit production and high yield. They mature in two years, instead of 7 to 10 in conventionally planted Old World orchards. At just 8 feet tall, their fruit can be harvested by machine.

The ranch's second commercial crop of oil was harvested in its third year, in 2002, with 35,000 gallons. By 2003, the yield was 60,000 gallons, producing the 2004 arbequina and a small amount of arbosana, another Spanish variety. The soil and climate of Butte County proved better than the projections and beautifully suited to the arbequina. The 2002 harvest, which produced the ranch's 2003 olive oil, is considered a remarkable olive oil vintage, says Paul Vossen, who leads the California Olive Oil Council tasting panel (see related article).

Much of the characteristic fresh fruitiness of the California Olive Ranch oil relies on how it's milled. Olives are crushed within 90 minutes of picking. In most cases, olives hand-picked in the traditional manner wait 24 to 72 hours before being pressed into oil.

Only time will tell the winner of hand-picked versus machine-picked, Katz says, but so far he detects "very little downside" to machine harvesting when the fruit can be crushed so soon after picking.

Flavor on demand

California Olive Ranch's oil is an intense green with a flavor that shouts fresh olives. The company tries to maintain peak taste by bottling its oil on demand. After the oil is pressed, it's topped with nitrogen to prevent oxidation, and stored in stainless-steel tanks. When wholesale orders come in, the oil is bottled on site. By contrast, most oils are bottled immediately after pressing. The bottled oils age on the shelf, potentially losing flavor and oxidizing.

Guillermo Romero, 34, of Barcelona, represents California Olive Ranch's Spanish investors, and visits the ranch often. The oil produced on California soil rivals the olive oil from home, he says. He is especially proud of the arbequina, a small, highly flavored fruit that is easy to pick and hard to bruise, ideal for machine picking. The variety, a specialty of Catalonia, is also considered by many to be the Cadillac of Spanish olives.

Through the little arbequina, California Oil Ranch may be the harbinger of yet another new trend in the American market: varietal olive oil. While more than 80 percent of its crop is arbequina, acreage is also planted to arbosana, a spicier and more pungent olive, and other experimental varieties. The ranch plans to sell 100 percent arbequina oil and some 100 percent arbosana. The other varieties may be used in blending.

How does the arbequina oil fare against other olive oils?

In blind tastings by The Chronicle Food staff -- not a group of trained olive oil tasters -- California Olive Ranch oils fared well in tests of three classes of olive oils: regular grocery store oils, select olio nuovo (new oil) from California, and estate-grown certified oil.

The arbequina olive oil and the way it's produced are likely to make business and gustatory waves. Agromillora has established a nursery selling arbequina plants in Butte County. Other foreign and domestic investors are thinking about following California Olive Ranch's lead and starting their own high-density orchards.

"It has the best chance of any new product in California in the last 20 years or so to make it," says Walter Payne, the former CEO of Blue Diamond almond company who served as a consultant to the ranch.

The prospects for California becoming a world-wide competitor in producing olive oil, he says, are excellent.To find out more about California Olive Ranch or to order oil, log on to www.californiaoliveranch.com
 

How the professionals taste olive oil

Tasting olive oil is a science as well as an art. The California Olive Oil Council follows in the footsteps of the European-based International Olive Oil Council by establishing a test through which tasters determine if oils make the grade and may receive certification as extra virgin olive oil.

Paul Vossen, UC Cooperative Extension farm adviser, traveled to Europe in the mid-1990s and came away with the idea of having taste panels, like in Spain, Italy and Greece to distinguish and grade olive oils. He learned to rate the negative and positive attributes of each oil, year by year. He was certified as a taster by the international council and returned to establish the California council five years ago, training its 24 certifying tasters.

The California Olive Oil Council is recognized by the IOOC to meet minimum requirements for olive oil.

Among the things tasters learn to do is to distinguish defective olive oil, which has a cooked, burned, somewhat rancid taste or a canned olive taste.

They also learn "what fruitiness in olive oil is supposed to be like." Unschooled tasters sometimes confuse fruitiness with what Vossen calls "fermentation defects," (described as "fusty, wine-y or vinegary"). A fruity olive oil made without defects is "crisp and clean," he says.

Professional tasters sample olive oil without knowing its source, in an environment that is clear of other aromas or perfumes. They drink the olive oil out of a colored glass so that the color of the oil does not influence judgment. Tasters hold the glass to warm it to body temperature, smell it, then sip, swirl, suck in air and swallow. Then they rate the oils according to a profile developed by the international council, including the negatives listed above. The three classic positive traits rated are fruitiness, bitterness and pungency.

Many consumers like a buttery, mild taste in olive oil, when in fact those flavors are signs of an oil that's been pressed from over-ripe fruit, or of rancidity, Vossen says. In addition, certain amounts of bitterness and pungency are natural to the fresh taste of olives and shouldn't be discounted as bad qualities.

- Olivia Wu
 

Which olive oil to use for which dish? A fresh, crisp, well-made extra virgin olive oil should taste like the fruit from which it is extracted, says Paul Vossen, trainer and taster for the California Olive Oil Council, a recognized member of the International Olive Oil Council. Defects, such as the taste of poor fermentation or overly ripe fruit, can be detected by trained tasters. A certain amount of natural pungency and bitterness is expected. The very best extra virgin olive oil should taste like olive juice, he says.

But which oil is best for which cooking technique?

The practice of using a fruity, young olive oil for salad dressings and a milder one for, say, frying fish, was driven in part by price. Americans were given the advice in the face of expensive, boutique prices for olive oils. Cheaper and milder European blended olive oils that were not certified extra virgin were marketed as ideal for everyday frying. However, affordable extra virgin olive oil is widely available and can be used for almost everything.

"We can get a little too picky in how we use olive oil," Vossen says. In fact, cooks in Greece, Italy and Spain often use just one olive oil in their kitchens, in everything from salad dressing to deep frying.

In tests conducted in The Chronicle's test kitchen, we found that fish, lightly coated in flour and fried, tasted just as good cooked in the stronger, fruitier and younger extra virgin olive oil as it did cooked in a lighter- flavored, blander oil (Berkeley Bowl olive oil and Colavita). Pasta, like the fish, took on complexity, with young extra virgin olive oil and was not overwhelmed by it.

Salads were sublime with young, fruity oils.

Here are a few suggestions on how to use a young, fruity extra virgin olive oil:

-- For salads. Pour directly over mixed greens, spinach, mache or arugula and toss. Add kosher or sea salt, pepper and minced garlic. Add fresh lemon juice or good vinegar, drop by drop. Serve immediately.

-- Finishing a dish. Drizzle over grilled, baked or roasted meats, poultry, fish, grains and pasta for added complexity and flavor.

-- For sauces. Use as directed in recipes for mayonnaise and dressings. The results will taste like the oil itself.

-- For frying. Use as you would any oil for pan- or deep-frying. Much of the aroma will evaporate at high heat. What remains are some complex bitter and pungent notes.

-- Olivia Wu
 

How to read the label

The United States and Europe have different standards for olive oil descriptors, so it can be confusing. Here are some common terms and their meanings:.

Extra virgin

The International Olive Oil Council defines extra virgin olive oil as:

-- oil produced by purely mechanical means

-- oil produced without solvents or refining techniques

-- oil produced at a temperature of 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees centigrade) or less

-- oil with an oleic acid content of less than 1 percent

-- having no "defects" as determined by an authorized tasting panel

Due to antiquated regulations, the phrase has no legal meaning in the United States.

The California Olive Oil Council has created a "certified extra virgin" seal program. The COOC seal means that the oil is extra virgin as defined by the same terms as the IOOC, and that all other claims on the label are accurate..

Estate

At least 95 percent of the oil in the bottle is from the specified property..

Unfiltered

Olive oil is sometimes passed through a filter to remove particulate matter. These particulates have no impact on flavor or longevity; in fact, some people feel that leaving them in improves the flavor..

Cold Pressed

This is redundant, as certified extra virgin oil is already produced at or below 81 degrees Fahrenheit or less.

-- O.W.
 

Where to find the oil

California Olive Ranch Arbequina 2003 and Arbequina 2004 olive oils are available from the following sources:.

California Olive Ranch. (530) 846-8000, www.californiaoliveranch.com .

Bi-Rite Market. 3639 18th St. (at Guerrero), San Francisco; (415) 241- 9773..

Monterey Market. 1550 Hopkins St. (at California), Berkeley; (510) 526- 6042.

The Pasta Shop. 1786 Fourth St., Berkeley; (510) 528-1786. Also 5655 College Ave. (at Shafter), Oakland; (510) 547-4005.

The Oakville Grocery.

7856 St. Helena Hwy., Oakville; (707) 944-8802; 124 Matheson St., Healdsburg; (707) 433-3200; and 715 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto; (650) 328-9000. Or order it online at www.oakvillegrocery.com

E-mail Olivia Wu at owu@sfchronicle.com.

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