Phil with Signore Di Lorenzo on the terrace at Diisa
In May 2020 I featured The Gift of Oil website, the brainchild of Phil Bianchi. He had spent many years working for blue chip food companies ending up in Athens working for a large olive oil company. Here his interest in top quality olive oil flourished and he decided to set up a website to bring lesser known but first-class producers to the attention of discerning buyers in the UK.
Four years later and I have decided to revisit some of the on-line olive oil outlets I had featured in the past to see if they still offered the same quality of product and the Gift of Oil passed with flying colours. One of the very first oils to be featured by Phil on his website was the Sicilian oil from the Disisa estate in the north west of the island. This oil now features on his site as a “Heritage” oil and the current harvest is in. Stock. It was cold pressed from the finest Cerasuola and Nocellara del Belice olives grown and handpicked by the Di Lorenzo family.
“We visited Disisa in late January this year”, says Phil, “as we do every year, specifically to work with the Di Lorenzo’s as a team and to taste and blend the different oils from their recent harvest to create the perfect combination that we now present. It’s very fresh and green and grassy: it’s like summer in a bottle!”
Relatively new to the website is the organic Fattoria Di Maiano oil which is sold under the Italian Laudemio banner. This is a collection of oils from some of Italy’s most prestigious wine estates.
The beautiful Fattoria di Maiano estate, has origins back to the 15th century, It enjoys a magnificent location amid the hills of Fiesole just 5km from the historic centre of Florence. Frantoio and Moraiolo olives are picked entirely by hand in the months of November and December, then pressed in the estate mill.
This robust oil is naturally rich in polyphenols and fragrantly aromatic.”It has the scent of freshly mown grass, green tomato and almonds and an intense and typically spicy flavour. It’s delicious!”, says Phil.
In addition to these two strs The Gift of Oil also features five more first class artisan oils from other parts of the Mediterranean, thus offering a really wide range of styles and flavours from which to choose:
Alziari from southern Provence. This gentle oil is pressed from Cailletier olives grown in the foothills of the Alpes Martimes not far from Nice.
Merula from Spain. This fruity oil is produced by Don Alonso, the Marques de Valdueza on his estate in Extremadura in Western Spain. The blend of olives includes Arbequina, hojiblanca and Picual with the rare Marisca which is only grown in Extremadura. Phil describes the flavours here as “Tangerine, apple peel and ripe tomatoes with a nutty creaminess in the mouth, balanced with more ripe tomatoes, a fresh cos lettuce note and some gentle black pepper on the finish.”
Lia from Greece. This very herbaceous oil comes from a family estate in mainland Greece. It is pressed from Koroneiki olives and the excellent flavour marries green almons and avocadoes with intensly leafy tones.
Pellegrino from Puglia. This characterful oil, pressed from Coratina olives grown on the family estate is full of character. It is very strong and intense in flavour with dark green tone and a bitter nuttiness which, as the website suggests is great for dressing the hearty pasta and vegetable dishes which are so typical of the region.
Some excellent new features on this Website include recipe ideas and a Little Book of Inspiration with suggestions on how to use the oils. There is also information on how to get the Gift of Oil Newsletter as well as a Blog. Phil not only sells his oils off the Website he also visits numerous Food Festivals and the dates and venues for these are given here as well.