I was there as part of an initiative by the “Riviera Ligure” DOP consortium. A dozen journalists and buyers had been invited to meet representatives of the membership and to taste the DOP oils. Stalls were set up in the old olive oil warehouse on the dockside and we were invited to spend a day talking to each of the producers in turn.

The scene was beautifully set with a line of olive trees leading to the entrance and the most wonderful sculptures by Gianfranco Timossi who comes from nearby Cogoleto but who has a workshop on the Greek island of Rodi. Timossi takes Dante’s Inferno as his subject and has carved “Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Paradise” from the trunks of three ancient olive trees. The results are stunning. You can see these sculptures in the Garden of Merano, town in the region of Trentino Aldo Adige from 4th may to 15th November and they are well worth a visit.

When it came to the tasting I was disappointed to find that we were to taste the old oil from the 2004 harvest, not the new oil from the 2005 harvest. The reason, I was told, was that the new oil had not yet received its DOP certification. However, I do have to say that in an odd way this turned out to be quite a good thing. In recent years I have been very disappointed by the lasting qualities of many of the Ligurian oils I have been working with. By November or so many of them had reached the end of their shelf lives. As a result I was beginning to write off Ligurian olive oil as a whole. However, this tasting did a good deal to restore my faith in Ligurian olive oil. All of them were acceptable and some of them still surprisingly fresh tasting.

The Riviera Ligure DOP region is actually made up of three regions: Riviera dei Fiori in the west, Riviera del Ponente Savonese in the centre and Riviera di Levante in the east. Generally speaking the Riviera dei Fiori olive oils enjoy the best reputation but one at least of the oils from the Riviera di Levante that I tasted at the Olioliva was as good as any on show.

Reports on the 2005 harvest were varied. Some growers were fairly up-beat about quanitites but generally speaking I got the impression that quantities in the region are down but that quality is good. This very much reflects the general position in the rest of Italy where reports on my travels south a little earlier in the month varied from one grower in Tuscany who said he had not bothered to pick as the crop was so small to others in that region and in Umbria, Molise and Puglia reporting drops of 15-30%. There are exceptions such as Seggiano in Tuscany which has had a good year for quantity as well as quality, perhaps because the Olivastra olive variety which is predominant here was not so affected by the previous cold winter.

I was also impressed by the tasting for quite another reason and that was the huge range of excellent local vegetable and other products on offer from most of the olive oil producers. These ranged from the usual olive pastes, tapenades and local vegetables in olive oil to olives in mustard, special sauces to serve with cheese, genuine chestnut pasta and Caribbean tuna in olive oil. The latter product is packed in the Caribbean with extra virgin olive oil shipped out specially from Liguria.

The exhibitors at the show, in no particular order, were:

Frantoio di Santagata [www.frantoiosantagata.com]
Ranise [www.ranise.it]
Roi [www.olioroi.com]
Polla Nicolo [www.oliopolla.it]
Frantoio Boeri [www.olioboeri.com]
Frantoio Lucchi & Guastalli [www.frantoiolg.com]
Olio di Anfosso [www.olioanfosso.it]
Pietrantica di Falchi Vittorio [www.pietrantica.it]
Casa Olearia Taggiasca [www.casaoleariataggiasca.it]