Outstanding, Newly Arrived 2025 Oil from Northern California
Regenerative, rhapsodic, and really delicious!
While winter is not a great time of year here for fresh produce here in Ann Arbor, this is the season in which, slowly but surely, new-harvest olive oils continue to show up on our shelves. I love them all! Each new arrival makes my culinary day. And this one from the folks at Frantoio Grove is especially fine. The aroma alone is amazing—like smelling salts to bring me back from the stress of the news. Feeling uncentered? Stop for a few seconds and smell the oil!
The Frantoio Grove oil is produced in California, about half an hour south of San Jose. There, the fifth and sixth generations of the Martin family are quietly crafting some of this country’s most delicious olive oil. It’s produced using regenerative farming techniques, and its flavor is beyond terrific. While the 2025 harvest is newly arrived, the Martins are definitely not new to the land. The family began growing grapes on the farm all the way back in the 1870s. The Frantoio Grove olives were planted about twenty years ago now by Jeff (the fifth generation) and Pam Martin. They dove deep into a single varietal—the Frantoio, which is the classic olive of Tuscany, putting in about 3,500 trees that first year. As is the way with olive trees, it took a good five years to get oil—2010 was the first meaningful pressing.
For many years, the Martins grew the olives organically, and then a few years ago, they decided to raise the quality of the oil and their care for the land further. Patrick (the sixth generation) explains how they took it to the next level:
We are the only olive grove + mill like this in the world so far, and we are very excited about the program. We’ll be releasing our flagship oil shortly, which will feature the ROC mark. Our goal is to build resilient ecosystems on the farm and produce robust, high polyphenol oil that is wildly expressive but also low on the bitterness and astringency that comes from stressed trees, and this year, early in our harvest, we realized we had exceeded even our own expectations.
I say with certainty that the Martins have hit their mark. The newly arrived new-harvest oil is totally terrific. Like listening to music on an exceptional sound system, it’s really remarkable—everything about it seems clearer, cleaner, more coherent, and very compelling. It’s intensely green and peppery, but in an especially balanced and surprisingly gentle way. A little nuttiness with lots of low notes to go with the beautiful bitterness that comes with early harvests like this. It has hints of green apple, and I’ve also heard it described as having notes of persimmon and pistachio, too. Whatever descriptors you decide to use, the oil is exceptional.
The 2025 Olio Nuovo is lovely on toast for breakfast, especially when topped with the bright-colored, amazing apricot jam from the South of France that the folks at Olbia make. Great on salads, bruschetta, or the Tuscan way, on a just-off-the-grill steak (rare is how they’d cook it there). I’m an advocate for trying it on a simple spaghetti (Rustichella, Mancini, or Gentile). All you need is oil, garlic if you like, lots of freshly ground black pepper, and some grated sheep milk Pecorino, or, alternatively, a bunch of creamy fresh ricotta.
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P.S. The “regular” 2025 harvest Frantoio Grove oil which, while not Olio Nuovo, happens to also be amazing! It should arrive at the Deli in the next few weeks.
