OLIVES Olives, like wine, have been a part of history and their mystical and revered qualities meant they were a natural addition to the grape vines planted here. The 1500 olive trees border the property, surrounding the vines with their beautiful silvery green foliage and gentle presence. The olive trees were planted in 1997 & 1998, just a few months after we bought the property. Back then there were very few olive trees grown commercially on the Mornington Peninsula. As a result, we planted a wide variety of olive trees – 13 in fact – as we were experimenting with which varieties would take off in our particular site and climate and knew the diverse characteristics of the different olive varieties would suit different uses. Varieties such as Corregiola, Koroneiki, Frantoio and Manzanilla are used to produce our Montalto Olive Oil. Other varieties such as Kalamata, Ligurian and Sevillano are best cured and eaten as table olives, or used in our Tapenade, made right here on site using James Redfern’s secret recipe. Olive harvest at Montalto usually starts in mid May, a few weeks after the end grape harvest, and continues into June, when the last of the table fruit is harvested for curing. The olives selected for oil are cold pressed within 24 hours of harvest, with the new season oil launched at our annual Abundance Olive Festival in July. Those olives set aside for table fruit are sorted and the lengthy curing process begins. Table fruit will spend 12 months curing and then marinating before release at the Abundance Olive Festival. The 2008 Abundance Olive Festival will be held on Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th July 2008. Montalto olive products
Montalto olive products include:
Ordering
Order safely and securely in our online shop: All of our current Montalto olive products are available for tasting in the cellar door and the olive oil can be purchased by mail order by downloading our order form (PDF format - requires Acrobat Reader) |
