Don’t think, just throw.
That’s the mantra repeated by Nuke LaLoosh in the 1988 big screen hit “Bull Durham.” It’s also apparently the recipe for Shannon Ranch’s extra virgin olive oil.
Pressed from a combination of Italian and Spanish varietals grown in an orchards clutching the red hills and one lining the high valley, the oil results from a process developed centuries ago from old world necessity — just harvest and bottle.
In Tuscan tradition, little consideration was given to quibbling details. The harvest proceeded, even though some of the varietals had not peaked in ripeness and others had strayed beyond perfection.
The community needed olive oil, so everything went into the mix. This practice produced the Tuscan blends favored the world over, so few see a reason to tinker.
“We don’t think too much about blending,” acknowledged Shannon Ridge’s Joy Merrilees.
And just like in the movie, it works.
The Shannon Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil invites you with rustic yet temperate aromas. Fresh apple peels fall to the earth. Hints of sun-warmed bark and newly baled hay drift in. Close your eyes and it will take you to an orchard perched on a knoll, surrounding by waving meadow grasses with swirling gusts dropping fruit to the ground.
On the palate the oil is more debonair. Plush and rich, it offers a buttery warmth and the fresh appeal of a kitchen herb garden beginning to bloom. Yet there is some spite behind the mellow composure. A ripple of freshly cracked black pepper emerges and then swells, grasping for control at the finish.
It’s an amazing experience — cushy and enveloping, with a bittersweet ending. This is an olive oil one can become lost in.
Oh, on ccasion the team at Shannon Ranch will give some thought to the blend. In last year’s pressing, for example, they left out the manzanilla after it spurred too far beyond peak ripeness. Otherwise, they simply mix in whatever the orchards provide them.
“Having it come from our property, being extra virgin and sustainably farmed are the important things,” Merrilees said.
Which is something to think about.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
