Argentina's 'La Reconquista' Conquers New York

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Tucked away in San Roman, a rural region of Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province, is Olivares La Reconquista, an Italian-Argentine olive oil com­pany that’s mak­ing a name for itself within the world of liq­uid gold.

The judg­ing panel at the 2017 New York International Olive Oil Competition declared the com­pany to be one of the World’s Best Olive Oils this year. It was also con­ferred the title Best in Class.

Fresh off the heels of the pres­ti­gious inter­na­tional award, Pietro Buldorini, founder and man­ag­ing direc­tor of Olivares La Reconquista, spoke with Olive Oil Times. He said what makes his olive oil unique is the cru­cial pro­duc­tion stages of his olives, all care­fully man­aged from har­vest­ing to cold-press­ing of each drip of oil.

“We use only the fruits we pro­duce and despite the inten­sive plan­ta­tion we prac­tice man­ual facil­i­tated har­vest accord­ing to tra­di­tion, with mod­ern tools,” Buldorini said. He also empha­sized that their mill inside the olive grove func­tions as a mod­ern plant ​“where olives are taken to be trans­formed into EVOO.”

Buldorini also took the time to explain that the Argentine cli­mate gives a par­tic­u­lar char­ac­ter to the soil. Consequently, he noted, ​“the vir­gin­ity of the unex­ploited soil, the close­ness to the ocean and the moun­tains, the sur­round­ing pas­tures, the extra clean air and the absence of par­a­sites, such as the olive oil fly con­tribute to pro­duc­ing a good and safe extra vir­gin olive oil.”

Pesticides are not used in their olive oil pro­duc­tion process.

When asked how he felt about win­ning the 2017 Best In Class at the world’s most pres­ti­gious olive oil com­pe­ti­tion, Buldorini responded that it was the first time they had par­tic­i­pated in a com­pe­ti­tion since open­ing the busi­ness.

“In the past years, we con­cen­trated on chem­i­cal analy­sis and panel tests of sam­ples we took to Italy where the knowl­edge of EVOO is deep and the atten­tion to it is very high,” Buldorini con­fessed. Only after the favor­able test results were received did he feel con­fi­dent in enter­ing such a high-sta­tus com­pe­ti­tion.

“Emotionally, the Best in Class Award was a mix­ture of joy and sat­is­fac­tion and the reward we were look­ing for our efforts,” he con­cluded.

Coinciding with its EVOO pro­duc­tion in Argentina has been the estab­lish­ment of an import/export com­pany called Marche Olii Alimentari International. Based in Italy, the com­pany man­ages the expor­ta­tion, small and bulk orders, of Olivares La Reconquista into for­eign mar­kets. It also ful­fills the company’s pack­ag­ing and label needs.

Cherished for its well-bal­anced, har­mo­nious fla­vor, Olivares La Reconquista is pro­duced from Frantoio olives. Since 2012, the com­pany, with assis­tance from tech­ni­cians from Toscana Enologica Mori, has installed a mod­ern work­ing plant for the defo­li­a­tion and wash­ing of freshly col­lected olives. After har­vest, the olives are placed in well-ven­ti­lated boxes and pressed into EVOO within 24-hours.

Add the tra­di­tional cul­tural tech­niques passed down from gen­er­a­tion to gen­er­a­tion and what you get is a savory, top-qual­ity win­ner, that meets the gas­tro­nomic demands and caprice of its con­sumers.

• The Best Olive Oils Yearly Index


• Olivares La Reconquista