For your pleasure

La Cultivada in Zaragoza

This evening La Cultivada will be participating in the following event to be held at Restaurante Vetula at 7pm. Come and join us!

Following our enjoyable time with friends from Mercacei at the Salón de Gourmets, Madrid.

For the first time, Mercacei Magazine has taken the best of Spain’s Super-Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oils along to the Salón de Gourmets in Madrid, holding personalised tastings at their stand.

In collaboration with Maribel Simón, expert olive oil taster and organiser of Spain’s first tasters’ contest, Mercacei organised tastings of the most important extra virgins in terms of quality and design.  It was a great success with countless visitors form all over the world, including students from the Culinary Institute of America who enjoyed the different aromas and tastes of the olive juices they tried and were able to identify and select their favourite varieties.

La Cultivada Hojiblanca and La Cultivada Arbequina were among those present, accompanying our dear friends at Mercacei with their bouquet and flavour.  Thank you to Pandora, to Juan and to Maribel, for your affection and for transforming your enthusiasm into initiatives such as this which are so valuable to us, the producers.

La Cultivada in Mercacei Magazine

“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.” Extract from the illuminated book “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” by William Blake, the English poet, painter, printmaker and mystic.

The olive tree has been a constant in Mediterranean culture. Venerated, cultivated and extended since ancient times throughout the basin of the Mare Nostrum, it was regarded by Egyptians, Hebrews, Phoenicians, Cretans and Greeks as a sacred tree, the symbol of wisdom, peace and glory, and was identified with life and eternity due to its extraordinary longevity.  Countless poets, painters, sculptors and photographers, captivated by the images that Mother Nature offers us every day in its purest form, have delved into their most fertile inspiration in order to celebrate the beauty of this time-honoured tree.

It was this leitmotif that inspired La Cultivada, a brand of extra virgin olive oil that was born of an artistic journey through Spain, from Barcelona to Seville, via Moratilla de los Meleros in the province of Guadalajara, and which resulted from the teamwork of a group of artists including Pedro Mora, Laura Parias, Victoria Bermejo and Elena Vecino.

La Cultivada’s origins lie in a family-run food business called Arbequino Andaluz, a company dedicated to the cultivation of the land and arbequina variety olive trees at their Cortijo de Arbequel and Molino de Santa Ana Estates located in the province of Cordoba.  Almost twenty years ago the company’s activity led a major innovation when agronomist and olive oil aficionado Pedro Vecino introduced this select variety into Andalusia where it had not before been cultivated.  In 2007 his daughter, Elena Vecino, drew on her true motivations – the land, olive trees and her enthusiasm for art and poetry – in order to accord this family produced oil its rightful place, creating a brand which conveys its special organoleptic, sensory qualities, combined with a refined image reflecting responsible, sustainable practices for cultivating the land, and the importance of cultivating the human soul through taste. The brand’s name itself, in a manner of speaking, epitomises this philosophy and the message regarding the cultivated olive, the cultivated person, the cultivated palate, the cultivated land… since agriculture, the true origin of culture in its noblest sense, cultivates steady, constant endeavours in tune with nature around us.

As such La Cultivada is a hymn to the vocation of being human and to striving for excellence, to cultivating first of all the very essence of our own lives to become united as many in one, a theme reflected in the labels, the work of contemporary artist Pedro Mora. The brand’s emblem – the cultivated bird, Minerva’s owl – is constantly watching over the land, safeguarding good farming practices and, like Athena’s sacred owl, transforms this profound wisdom into useful knowledge.

Published in Mercacei Magazine number 70 (February/April 2012) in the section entitled “El Mundo de las Marcas” (The World of Brands).

La Cultivada at the Salón de Gourmets. Madrid, 5 – 8 March 2012.

The Salón de Gourmets is an International Fine Food and Beverage Fair held annually in Madrid, a benchmark in the  Premium quality gastronomy sector.  It includes exhibitions, contests, round tables and conferences, and other parallel activities such as the “Workshop of the Senses”.

La Cultivada will be appearing at the Salón de Gourmets, on the Mercacei stand, so come and find us at Stand 5 E13 in Pavillion 5.

http://www.salondegourmets.com/?lang=en

In search of the unique Essence of the Olive

On Monday our week began with the first day of tastings of what are presumably the best Extra Virgin Olive Oils (EVOO) in the world.  The OLIO Award 2012 (www.olivenoeltest.de) is an international competition run by the prestigious German gourmet magazine DER FEINSCHMECKER, and takes place at the “Jahreszeiten Verlag” in the beautiful city of Hamburg.

The jury is composed of a panel of EVOO tasters and experts from Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Greece and the United States. Most are veteran members of the jury, except for a couple of new additions, like myself.

On the first day of tasting of over 200 samples, 20% were found to have defects, a further 20% were neither here nor there, while the remainder of the olive juices sampled, displaying excellent organoleptic profiles, were selected for the final.

So it has been an interesting and intense week, dedicated to finding that one, single essence with a unique harmonious complexity.

OLISOLIVA: Cultivating in Barcelona

Olisoliva: A Cultivated place in the Santa Caterina Market.

Olisoliva was Barcelona’s first Specialised Shop for Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Located in the historic Santa Caterina market, Olisoliva is run by friendly oil connoisseur Ana María and her son Daniel.  The EVOO’s they have for sale are exclusively from Spain, while they also have a range of Spanish and imported vinegars, salt from all over the world and spices, along with lotions and cosmetics made with olive oil.

D.OLIVA: Cultivating in Marbella

D.Oliva. A wonderful Cultivated place.

Inside D.Oliva.

Located in the heart of Marbella’s Old Town, D.OLIVA is a delightful shop with a distinctive rustic Andalucian look and feel that specialises in premium Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Lovingly sourced from Spain’s top olive mills, there are no less than 68 varieties to sample and choose from.

The bountiful olive tree not only yields its coveted oil but a host of related products to tantalise the palate which have been given pride of place in D.Oliva’s delicatessen, alongside select vinegars and other gourmet condiments. The shop also stocks an extensive array of beauty products based on the properties of Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

La Cultivada returns to Algusto. Bilbao, 16/19 December 2011.

Inspired by Turin’s Salone del Gusto, ALGUSTO aims to extend the philosophy championed by the Slow Food movement worldwide over the last twenty years.  With doors opening to the general public on 16th December, Algusto will be a reference point for the sectors of artisanal gastronomy and cuisine.

www.algusto.eu