Fruity and soft with a bitter, peppery kick — irresistibly delicious and deliciously irresistible. Our 800 olive trees, 50 to 100 years old (older than some of our vines!), grow on 5.5 hectares of the estate: mainly Cordovil, Verdeal, Carrasquenha and Moleirinha. The Douro’s arid climate, scant rainfall and mineral-rich schist soils give low yields and concentrated flavours. We harvest at the end of October, when the olives are fully ripe (Italy picks earlier — hence their sharper spice); a few good whacks with long bamboo sticks and it rains olives into our nets, pitched up so as to not let the olives roll down our orchards’ steep slopes into Tedo river. The oil is cold-pressed at a local organic press — better flavour, since no delicate aromatics are lost to heat, and healthier too, keeping vitamins A, D and E and its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.