Featuring the oil of Moutere Grove

The Olives: The varieties are Frantoio, Leccino, Pendolino, and a smaller quantity of Moraiolo. These are all traditional Tuscan varieties, and our initial concept was to produce an oil to rival the Tuscan oils. In other words, the fundamental blending was done at planting time.

Geography: We are located in the Nelson region, which is at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand, locally knows as “Top of the South”.

Our soils vary from sandy clay loams to Moutere clay soils on the sloping half of the
property. The sandy clay loams do require some ‘rescue and strategic’ irrigation in dry years. We have a 2 million gallon reservoir, which we have built and that supplies this irrigation water, from run off exclusively off our land. Our land is bounded by the Moutere stream and the Rosedale stream.

Climate is temperate, with rainfall usually mainly in winter and spring. Annual rain is usually around 1000mm. We do get frosts in winter, but daytime temperatures can be as high as 15C, even in the depths of winter. Summer temperatures often exceed 30C. However, it is a relatively cool climate for olive growing. This positively influences the depth and intensity of flavours in the oil. It also tends to make for lower oil percentages than in hotter regions.

2007 Moutere Grove Olive Oil Characteristics