OLIVE PRESS | RYLSTONE

OLIVE OIL CLASSIFICATIONS

OLIVE OIL CLASSIFICATIONS

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) “The finest olive oil”This is the natural olive oil that is made from the olives. It is the ‘juice’ of the olive. The oil is made by crushing, or cold pressing/cool extraction techniques to produce a natural olive oil with a free acidity, expressed as free oleic acid of not more than 0.8% and there are no defects in this oil.Extra virgin olive oil is made from perfect olives crushed as soon as possible after harvest and produced without the use of excessive heat, thus maintaining the aroma, flavour and texture of the most noble of olive oils. This is the best oil for your health! In Australia, we are proud of our Australian Code of Practice for extra virgin olive oils.This symbol says you have the best extra virgin olive oil Australia produces. If an extra virgin olive oil does not have this Australian COP symbol please ask why? All Australian producers should be signed up to this code so you know you are getting the right oil! This symbol means what we put into our bottles is certified 100% high quality Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

How do we produce this high quality extra virgin olive oil?We harvest from only hanging fruit, nothing is picked up off the ground and brought into the mill. We process our olives within 6 hours of picking and we pick using a contractor who has an umbrella catcher and shaker harvestor. We don’t pick any fruit that shows signs of poor quality as this can lead to defected oil.

The fruit bins are importantIt is very important to place the olives in bins that are not deep. We use short squat bins that are slotted so the air can get to the fruit. The bins are short so the olives on the bottom of the bins don’t get crushed as these issues can cause defects in the oil when it is made.

The processing is importantAt Rylstone we are HACCP certified so you know we are serious about high quality processing and storage. We have our HACCP plan and we are audited every year. Every batch of oil is tested for free fatty acid in our little laboratory so we can dedicate the extra virgin olive oil storage correctly. Our oils are placed in stainless steel tanks and nitrogen blankets are kept on top of the oil to prevent the oil from oxidizing.

Our Organic StandardsWe are audited by Australian Certified Organic for organic olive oil processing, storage and bottling and we are proud of our Rylstone Australian Organic extra virgin olive oil. We are also certified by JAS (Japan) and USDA for our products to be sold in Asia and the USA. Australian Olive Oil Sensory Panel, Wagga Wagga, NSW.This is the only Australian qualified panel that is certified by the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) from Madrid, Spain. It is rigorously tested annually and all members must pass the IOOC training continuously. Jayne is a leading qualified panel member of this prestigious committee of Australian tasters has been a panel member and taster since its inception in 2003.

REFINED OILS

REFINED OILS

Lampante Oil (‘The Lamp Oil’)This oil is not fit for human consumption. Hundreds of years ago it was used for lighting. This oil is made when bad or fermented olives are brought into the mill for processing and they have a Free Fatty Acid level of more than 3.5% and have defects in the oil.

Pure Olive OilThis oil is sent to the refineries. They add solvents to the oils and turn the mixture into a soapy quality then distill off the solvents and they are left with a completely inert substance it is deodorized and then about 10% virgin olive oil is added to this mixture for some colour and this is bottled and labeled pure olive oil.

Light Olive oilIs not light in calories nor is it called light olive oil because of the colour. But infact this oil has gone through the refinery starting out as an oil not fit for human consumption. It has solvent treatment and distilling or extraction of the solvents to give you the inert substance. This substance is then deodorized and the mixture is bottled and labeled as light olive oil.

Olive Pomace OilCrude Olive Pomace – made from the husk (waste) of the olive and it is also treated with solvents and this oil is not fit for human consumption. There is always about 1-2% oil in the olive waste. This oil must be refined to be edible and goes through the same treatments as Lampante oil. Refined Olive Pomace Oil must have a free fatty acid of 0.3% and if they add virgin olive oil to it the free fatty acid should be less than 1%.At Rylsyone we compost the olive waste and over a measured and reportable time have the compost ready to place back under our olive trees as long release fertilizer. This adds to our sustainability commitment!

PRODUCTION

Production

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.

Milling

Our Mill

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!

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