With its high altitude, hot summers and hopefully, consistent rainfall. Rylstone in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales resembles Tuscany in Italy and is ideal for olive growing. On 127.5 hectares of old grazing country in the Rylstone area, Jayne and Peter Bentivoglio have developed an 8,000 olive tree grove and a high quality extra virgin olive oil processing and bottling facility called Rylstone Olive Press.
We have planted 8 different cultivars of olives.
They are:
Italian: Frantoio, Correggiola, Coratino, Leccino and Pendolino
Spanish: Picual, Manzanillo
Middle Eastern: Barnea
In our Australian industry we are known as a small olive grower of extra virgin olive oil with less than 10,000 trees. As a small grower we are very ‘hands on’ in our grove. We take the time to walk through the grove constantly to monitor our trees and conditions for growing. At Rylstone we aim to be guardians of the soil. We are proud of our consistent sustainability and we recycle everything even the olive husk is composted and put back onto the trees as organic matter for fertilizer.
The trees are on supplementary irrigation, as outside of droughts our area is known for its consistent winter rainfall. Extensive soil and leaf analysis is carried out each year for plant health and vigor. Recommendations for soil fertility and plant health are added at the discretion of our team of professional consultants who are most considerate about our production methods.
We have always worked closely with industry and with research and olive growing, with Professor Robert-Spooner Hart and the University of Western Sydney in Lace Bug research. Our water quality is validated each year by independent testing laboratories that are audited to the highest Australian Standards.
After spring comes budding and flowering and some 6 weeks after full bloom we have fruit set with stone hardening. We then watch our olive fruit grow until around Anzac Day 25th April, which is when we like to start harvesting. Some years we have very green fruit at this time and other years we have some fruit that ripens early.
Whatever the ripeness of the fruit Jayne and her staff make their extra virgin olive oil around this time every year.Once the oil has settled Jayne then blends her oils for harmony and balance, which is most important to achieving a high quality extra virgin olive oil.
On 3rd December 2012, Rylstone Olive Press was awarded the International olive oil competition, 1st Southern Hemisphere Championship A.NZ.SA Awards – Olive Oil Processors award for 2012. This is for the best olive oil processor in New South Wales.
At Rylstone we not only make great extra virgin olive oil for our Rylstone labels but we also support the local olive industry in NSW and process extra virgin olive oil for a number of other small olive oil producers from as far west as Nyngan, east to Scone and The Hunter Valley and South as far as Peelwood for 2012 harvest season.
Our processor is a Pieralisi 2.5 phase. It is important to know that good olives coming into the Mill make excellent extra virgin olive oil, but, during processing there can be many issues that will cause defects in the olive oil and at Rylstone Olive Press our processing staff go to great lengths to make sure the extra virgin olive oil we make is award winning! Our Awards since we started processing are a testament to our high quality processing and the high standard of our processing facilty. We keep the paste malaxing (churning) for a short time with temperatures of <27 degrees centigrade. The paste is run through our ‘special’ decanter and then the oil is spun through the separator to keep it as well balanced as possible without using any extra water which can wash out important polyphenols which are needed in extra virgin olive oil for good health and improving cholesterol!
From the dry waste husk extract we compost this vegetable matter and place it back onto the trees to fertilize the trees.
Our continuous olive oil extraction plant operates only during the olive harvesting season. We make great extra virgin olive oil so we can contribute to the health of family friends and society!