Australian Olive Oil Rivals Better-Known Mediterranean and Californian Oils.

Upstart OliVaylle Promises to Have the World Thinking the Aussie Way About Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

TELOPEA DOWNS, Australia -- With apologies to the old guard, OliVaylle Pty, LLC of Victoria, Australia announces the official launch of its signature product, Olive Nectar(TM), an ultra premium extra virgin olive oil of such quality and purity that OliVaylle unabashedly describes it as the finest extra virgin olive oil in the world.

It's a bold claim that OliVaylle makes with confidence, having devised a process that is entirely unique in the industry, producing an olive oil so pure that OliVaylle's founder, Jorge de Moya, places it well above the current classification for extra virgin olive oil. "When you put a drop of our Olive Nectar in your mouth, it's like an explosion of taste," says de Moya. "If you put a drop of the extra virgin olive oils from the supermarket in your mouth, it's like motor oil."

After a life-long career in civil engineering, de Moya approached his new vocation as olive grower and olive oil producer with an analytical eye, questioning everything, most especially the industry's long quest to increase quantity at the expense, de Moya feels, of quality. De Moya deconstructed age-old practices for olive oil production, aiming for the best olive oil he could produce. The result is a process and an extra virgin olive oil unlike any other.

OliVaylle's production process is completed on the OliVaylle Estate in a scant six hours, from the trees to the storage tanks. Mechanically harvested from the trees to reduce contamination (plucking fallen olives off the ground is strictly forbidden at OliVaylle) and prevent bruising and other damage, olives are de-pitted prior to crushing; olive paste and olive oil are carefully protected from oxygen throughout the process; and temperatures are tightly controlled from crushing through shipping to prevent premature aging. "Unlike fine wine, aging does not improve olive oil," notes de Moya.

In an industry where major producers literally vacuum olives off of the ground and use high temperatures to extract every last drop of oil (a process ironically called "cold pressing"), OliVaylle instead lowers the temperature. "High temperatures, exposure to oxygen, and time are the prime enemies of quality in olive oil," explains de Moya. "We're also finding that exposure to light speeds deterioration in quality, so we've bottled our Olive Nectar in dark, nearly black, glass to further protect it."

De Moya was pleasantly surprised to find that olive oil's much-touted health benefits go hand-in-hand with the quality of the oil, which is measured by free acidity: the lower the free acidity of olive oil, the higher the beneficial anti-oxidants. OliVaylle's Olive Nectar has a free acidity level of 0.08--extra virgin olive oils now on the market can have a free acidity level up to 0.8.

All that said, olive oil from Australia? As the wine industry has learned, Australia's climate is similar to other wine and olive oil producing regions. Its high quarantine status provides the added bonus of fewer of the pests and plant diseases that can plague olive trees.

De Moya is confident that his OliVaylle Olive Nectar will soon have the world thinking the Aussie way.

OliVaylle Pty, LLC

Founded by Jorge de Moya in 1997 to produce the best olive oil in the world, OliVaylle Pty, LLC is a family-owned olive plantation and olive oil processing facility in Telopea Downs, Victoria, Australia. OliVaylle's production process is unique in the industry, creating an unsurpassed, ultra premium extra virgin olive oil that OliVaylle calls Olive Nectar. OliVaylle's Olive Nectar is available at www.olivaylle.com.