My recent visit to Spain and Portugal showed me once again how important it is to keep abreast of what is happening even in regions that I know well. Things are on the move in both countries and I saw a number of new developments and heard about many others.

As usual I could only visit a small number of producers, probably about fifteen on this visit but I have come back with some really interesting cameo pictures of the various regions. This visit was essentially to Andalucia in Spain and the Ribentejo in Portugal but I did stop off at one or two other places on the way. The stop first was at Ampolla in southern Tarragona.

Everyone thinks of Arbequina as the only real contender for pressing for olive oil in the North but there are some other local varieties which have traditionally been used in their own areas. At Ampolla the local varieties, grown mainly on the small farms or “parcellas”, are Marrut, Sevillenca and Farga. The first two produce quite pleasantly sweet oils but without much character. The oil from Farga is usually more interesting, particularly if it is early picked.The 2006 oils, however, do not follow this pattern. The early picked Sevillenca is very appealing with apple and lemon tones and a touch of grass and the Farga is a little disappointing!

Driving south along the coast my next port of call was Murcia. This region is not particularly well known for its olive oil though some producers have been here for quite some time. In recent years more olives have been planted to join the vines and cereal crops which are expanding in the area.

Local Cuquillo olive groves have been joined by plantings of Picual, Cornicabra, Arbequina and a little Hojiblanca. The climate and soils of the region are helping to produce Arbequina oils with rather more depth of flavour than those of its native Catalonia and the Picual and Hojiblanca oils are achieving flavour profiles which are also a little different to those of their homelands. Some of the producers have banded together to market their oils under a single brand name and they are selling by variety.

Another long drive over the mountains brought me into the Sierra Segura and hecare after hectare of Picual. News of the developments here is covered in my Travel Diary piece for February.

Further south my attention had been drawn to the Priego de Cordoba region. Last year one of the large co-operative in the area gained a number of awards in both Italian and Spanish olive oil competitions and I decided to see for myself what was being done to achieve such success from an operation which is essentially the opposite of “single estate”. The co-operative has four tiers of products. The premium oils which are winning the awards, another level of good extra virgin olive oil which is bottled and sold locally, bulk quantities of extra virgin olive oil which is sold to the big packers in Spain and Italy and lampante oil at the end of the season which goes to the refineries to be cleaned up for ordinary olive oil.

The thousands of farms that are the olive growers for the co-operative are scattered across the mountain sides of the Sierra de Subettica, some of them at quite high altitudes. The varieties are Hojiblanca and Picudeo. As the harvest approaches the specialists from the co-operative decide which groves are going to produce the best olives of the year and these olives are picked before the main harvest gets going.

This has two advantages: the olives go through the continuous centrifugal machinery at the mill before any other olives are picked and there is no chance of any lesser quality olives getting into the mix and the oil from these early picked olives is more likely to have the best range of tastes and flavours. There is far more depth and scope of fruitiness and more bitterness and pepper than are usually found in these varieties. In my opinion the flavour characteristics of the oils this year are just as good as they were last year and I would hope to see some more awards for the co-operative.

Moving towards the Portuguese border I visited some interesting groves near to Seville – usually more of a table olive area than olive oil – and then in Extremadura. Increasing good quality wherever I go; earlier harvesting, new equipment, more modern packaging and attention to marketing all contributing.

In Portugal I visited a rather revolutionary estate where new Spanish and French olives have been panted alongside the more traditional Portuguese varieties and where the trees have been planted in such a way that they can be harvested mechanically using overhead grape harvesters. Both till now virtually unheard of activities in this very traditional region. The results are very good.