Oliver StrandA rule of good olive oil: once you open the bottle, use the contents as quickly as possible. Oxygen is the enemy, and once you break the seal the flavors start to fade so that what tasted sensational one month will be flat the next.
Which is one of the reasons LA Oro, the newly released high-end olive oil from Spain’s LA Organic, is sold in 250-milliliter bottles that might just get you through a weekend full of house guests. Olive oil this exceptional is too good to sit around.
LA Oro is the top of the line for LA Organic — it was first exported to the United States last year. It is a limited-edition bottling of certified organic olive oil made from olives harvested in Andalucia and cold-pressed at the Almazaras de la Subbetica, an artisan mill outside of Córdoba. LA Oro puts Spain on equal footing with the best from Italy or France, a small-batch olive oil backed by some big names: the winemaker Michel Rolland is a partner, and Philippe Starck designed the inkwell-inspired bottle.
The Intenso (pictured here) is made with picudo olives that yield bright, vivid, peppery flavors that are brawny but agile. It stands up to grilled meat, wakes up a salad of fresh favas with shaved manchego and balances the sweetness of ripe melon sprinkled with sea salt. But you could just enjoy the olive oil on its own — pour some on a plate, dredge with a hunk of bread and it’s like tasting the color green.
$18 for a 250-milliliter bottle at Dean & Deluca. Go to deananddeluca.com for store locations.