This is the olive oil I first brought to the U.S. that became a cult favorite some years ago, and not just because it’s so damn green, a result of a pigment in the cultivar, the indigenous manzanilla cacereña, and NOT because the miller left too many olive leaves in the harvested olives (as is almost always the case with green olive oil). Gata-Hurdes became a rock star because of its character. Startling fragrance — fresh-cut grass, green apple, green almond, banana (banana? YES, banana!). These groves reside within a micro-climate that astounds me, and they are well north of the miracle of ‘dehesa’. “The” dehesa is fascinating; it’s the size of Belgium! Gata is a mountain range (sierra); Hurdes is a county (comarca).

Our Gata-Hurdes is spicy and peppery, super-high in polyphenols yet fruity despite its early-harvest majesty. It’s not just one of the world’s greatest olive oils, it is a product of the origin of the world’s greatest protein foodstuff (jamon Iberico bellota) AND one of the the world’s greatest CHEESES (raw sheep’s milk Torta del Casar and its identical sister Queso de la Serena). Mi dios! The olive oil, the ham and the cheese render Extremadura arguably Europe’s most important and significant gastronomic region of all. That is not just extraordinary in a “who knew?” sense, but a real mouthful.