Our olive oil
Arbequina oil, early harvested and unfiltered
Castillo de Monteagudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made in a completely artisanal way with Arbequina olives harvested at the optimal moment and cold-pressed to preserve all the flavor, aroma and properties.
The arbequina olive is native to the town of Arbeca (Lérida), although it has spread throughout Spain and the rest of the world due to the quality of its oils and its ability to adapt to different climates and terrains. The trees are of low vigor and quick entry into production, ideal for new cultivation techniques. Early ripening avoids the risk of frost in December and January.
Arbequina olive trees produce small olives, which give rise to sweet and aromatic oils, with few bitter or pungent flavors.
Due to its popularity and geographical extension, arbequina oils can have many different nuances, but in general, vegetable aromas predominate: grass, apple, banana, tomato.
Arbequina oil is delicate and smooth, perfect for fish or seafood, to dress salads or to simply drink with toast and some tomato. Its non-invasive flavor makes it ideal for dishes such as potato omelette or gazpacho, as it provides texture and aroma without dominating the rest of the ingredients. It is also ideal for sweets and pastries thanks to its sweetness and low bitterness.
Cultivation and processing
In Castillo de Monteagudo we take exhaustive care of the whole process for the production of an extra virgin olive oil of the highest quality, from the selection of the best olives to the final bottling.
As we have a relatively small area -50 hectares- our olive trees receive meticulous attention throughout the year. We constantly monitor their state of health and their needs in order to obtain olives of optimum quality.
A few weeks before the harvest we analyze samples from the different farms to choose the ones with the best fruit, which we will use to produce our oil. We harvest the olives early (in October or November), which allows us to produce higher quality EVOOs, with more intense aromas and flavors. These early harvest oils are also superior in their physical-chemical composition, with a higher presence of polyphenols, which are substances where the antioxidant properties of olive oil reside, and less acidity and peroxides.
Early oils sacrifice productivity: ten kilograms of olives may be needed to produce one kilogram of early oil, while five or even fewer kilograms of olives are sufficient for a normal or late harvest oil.
For the oil to be of high quality, it is important that the olives are picked directly from the tree, without coming into contact with the ground (known as “flying” olives). In our case, we ensure this by using state-of-the-art harvesters that pick the olives from the tree without damaging the olive tree.
We harvest them at the moment when they offer us the maximum aroma and flavor, we immediately transfer them to the oil mill and carry out the cold extraction with the most advanced technology so that the oil preserves all its properties.
Once the olives are separated from the tree, they begin to lose their qualities, which is why the journey to the mill must be short and the milling process immediate. At Castillo de Monteagudo we mill our olives just ten minutes away from the farms. In addition, we transport the olives in small boxes to avoid crushing, so they arrive at the mill freshly harvested and in perfect condition.
There they are milled in a modern stone mill that allows the oil to retain all its qualities. The oil is then blended, which is done by controlling the temperature to below 27 degrees to avoid the loss of aromas.
The oil is separated from the water and the solid parts of the olive by centrifugation, and is transferred to the decanters to eliminate the remaining impurities before bottling.
All this process is done exclusively by physical procedures (crushing, centrifugation and gravity decanting), so the result is a natural juice of olives, with all its aroma and natural flavor and all the beneficial components for health, without having been in contact or added any substance.
Tasting note
CASTILLO DE MONTEAGUDO AOVE 2020 – ARBEQUINA VARIETY.
In 2022, due to numerous autumn rains, the ripening of the olives was relatively late.
The summer of 2022 was dry and quite hot, which made the olives ripen early. We harvested very early on the morning of October 26, at a temperature of 14ºC, which allowed the olives to arrive very fresh at the mill and the extraction to be cold (22ºC).
The result has been an oil with an intense aroma of fresh grass, fruit and banana, with some hints of almond. Local vegetables such as tomato and artichoke can be detected.
In the mouth it is an elegant and silky oil. Very balanced, sweet and slightly spicy. Medium persistence.
It is an oil that stands out for its smoothness and balance and is ideal to accompany delicate dishes such as vegetables or fish; or to take with toast with tomato. Due to its sweetness, it is also suitable for use in confectionery, as a complement or substitute for butter.
