Gourmet olive oil is a great thing to buy for yourself or as a gift. Open your tastes to a world of new flavors with these great brands of gourmet olive oil. Whether you are the head chef or you know a great chef. These brands are the very best gourmet olive oil the world has to offer.
I’ve got a place in the pantry of my heart for Bariani. When I lived in Sacramento (which is, essentially, where Bariani’s farm is), I’d buy their olive oil at a great Italian grocery store, Corti Brothers.
It’s a terrific tasting, organic, family produced olive oil. They use two traditional California olives — the manzanillo and the mission. This is one of those olive oils that, just looking at it, you can tell it’s the real deal. (That’s another way of saying it’s unfiltered, which is what you want.)
With this, you get two bottles of Bariani — each one is one liter (33.8 ounces). Bariani also has an “early harvest” extra virgin olive oil for just around $38 for a single bottle.
The olive oil gets a great 4.3 out of 5-star rating average, with more than 150 customer reviews. Bariani is a member of the Olive Oil Commission of California.
Papa Vince has a huge, very dedicated family of olive oil lovers: this extra virgin olive oil has more than 715 reviews and a fantastic 4.8 out of 5-star rating average.
This 16.9 ounce bottle of olive oil comes from a family run business (started by Papa Vince) in Santa Ninfa, Sicily, Italy. It’s only been available in the U.S. since 2013.
The oil is made from nocellara del belice olives. These olives are also used as table olives (olives you can eat), not just for oil. As table olives, they’re marketed as Castelvetrano olives, and if you’ve ever had one, you know that they’re one of the best, most buttery olives in the world.
Papa Vince says their olive oil has a free fatty acids (oleic acid) level that is less than 0.26 percent. Olive oil is considered extra virgin if it’s 0.8 percent or less.
A great looking package and a delicious extra virgin olive oil. I’ve bought the Merula a few times over the years and it’s great. It took a silver medal this year at the New York International Olive Oil Competition, the most prestigious and largest olive oil competition in the world.
This is from a very old, historic estate in the Extremadura region of Spain. The family produces olive oil, wine and a handful of other products. Their “higher end” olive oil, the Marques de Valdueza New Harvest, is about $46 for a 16.9 ounce bottle.
This olive oil is in a 16.9 ounce tin, which is decorated with a blackbird — merula means “blackbird” in Spanish. The producers describe it as a “medium intensity” extra virgin olive oil with “herbaceous notes with sweet apple, ripe banana and light touches of red fruit.”
The olives used for this oil are arbequina, picual, hojiblanca and morisca. With 20+ reviews, the olive oil has a 4.3 out of 5-star rating average.
Ellora Farms is located in the Kolymvari region of Crete, Greece. This olive oil is from a PDO — a Protective Designation of Origin — recognized by the European Union.
Besides being a single estate olive oil, the oil is made with from a single source: the koroneiki olive. This is one of the most popular olives in Greece, with around 55 percent of the olive acreage comprised of koroneiki orchards.
The olive oil gets fabulous reviews: more than 620 customer comments and a 4.7 out of 5-star rating average.
Ellora Farms is adamant about the authenticity of its olive oil. On their website, they’ve got a “traceability tree” that lets you enter the five digit code printed on the label so you can trace the oil to its source.
This is another one from the Italian island of Sicily. And it’s another 2-pack.
Each bottle is one liter (33.8 ounces) and it’s one of those bottles that looks good on the kitchen counter.
The oil is produced from olive orchards in the western Central Hills of Sicily. Three varieties of olives are used: nocellara, cerasuola and biancolilla. The company describes it as an “elegant full bodied gold green olive oil with rich aroma, delicate fruity flavor and a slight aftertaste of sweet almonds.”
It has more than 50 reviews and a 4.5 out of 5-star rating average. I’ve had this olive oil and it is great. Works very well for cooking or finishing.
If customer reviews matter to you when you’re shopping for gourmet olive oil, this is another extra virgin olive oil that has off-the-charts ratings: more than 420 customer reviews and a 4.8 out of 5-star rating average.
Not only that, this Greek olive oil as a gold medal winner at the 2018 London International Olive Oil Competition and at the New York International Olive Oil Competition.
It’s a 16.9 ounce tin of extra virgin olive oil from the koroneiki olive — the most widely planted olive in Greece. The company is named after James Panagiotopoulous — that’s the PJ, for those of you keeping score.
In terms of the testing details, this olive oil has superior marks, with an extremely low .15 percent acidity.
This is another award winning extra virgin olive oil. Like the PJ Kabos (item #6), the Rincon De La Subbetica is a gold medal winner from the London International Olive Oil Competition (in 2017). This oil also won at the New York International Olive Oil Competition, taking a gold medal in April 2018.
Rincon De La Subbetica is a 100 percent hojiblanca olive oil from Andalusia, Spain. The region is a recognized DOP — Denominacion De Origen Protegida (Protected Designation of Origin).
Rincon describes the oil as “intensely fruity…with a green almond flavor and a moderately spicy finish.”
Out of more than 30 reviews, it gets a great 4.7 out of 5-star rating average. It’s a 16.9 ounce bottle. This would be an oil to use for finishing and when you want to impress the guests.
This is an extra virgin olive oil from California — the town of Kelseyville in Lake County. Chacewater started as a wine grape growing business in 1988 and expanded into olive oil in 2008.
The Chacewater mission olive extra virgin oil won a gold medal at the New York International Olive Oil Competition. (Their organic allegra olive oil won a silver.)
Chacewater describes this one, which comes in a 375ml (12.68 ounces) bottle as “soft, with a nutty finish and low pungency.” Chacewater is a member of the California Olive Oil Council.
This is actually a pretty good deal on some dang good extra virgin olive oil from Spain. I started buying Columela several years ago when Cook’s Illustrated rated it as one of their top extra virgin olive oils.
Columela is a large producer from Spain and you can get the oil in supermarkets, as well as specialty stores where gourmet olive oil is found. That said, they’re a quality operation that grows, presses and bottles from a single estate in Cordoba.
This is three 17 ounce bottles and the oil is pressed from picual and hojiblanca olives. Columela describes it as “bold, slightly fruity flavor with excellent balance.” There are less than 20 reviews, but the rating is stellar: a 4.9 out of 5-star rating average.
For me, Columela works well for everything from cooking to drizzling.
This is my go-to olive oil and it’s probably one of the most popular quality brands out there. California Olive Ranch is all about transparency and you can learn a ton about their products and the olive oil industry in general on the Ranch’s website.
This is a really good deal because it’s two 1-liter bottles for under 50 bucks. This is oil that you can cook with or use as a finisher. That said, California Olive Ranch makes a variety of oils, including single-source oils like their arbequina extra virgin.
America’s Test Kitchen calls this olive oil the best supermarket brand you can get. While it is available in supermarkets, it got all the hallmarks — including taste — of a boutique brand.
California Olive Ranch oils are a certified extra virgin by the California Olive Oil Council.
This is another gourmet olive oil that won a gold medal at the 2018 New York International Olive Oil Competition (the largest and most prestigious in the world). This extra virgin also won a gold at the London International Olive Oil Competition this year.
The Oro Bailen Family Reserve is from the Galvez-Gonzalez family, which has only been making olive oils since 2005 from its operations in the town of Vallanueva de la Reina in Andalusia, Spain.
Like all the oils on this list, the oils from Oro Bailen are pressed almost immediately after extraction. The olives are picual the oil comes in a good looking 17 ounce bottle. Out of 50 customer reviews, this olive oil gets a 4.5 out of 5-star rating average.
Some Final Notes on Making This List
As a professional eater, I have had many of the oils listed. While my taste buds are important to me, I realize that you may want something a little more objective (and less close to my tongue). Therefore, the oils listed have some or all of the following:
Certified by an organization (like the International Olive Oil Council, the North American Olive Oil Association, the Olive Oil Commission of California, and more).
Single source harvest. Most of the oils listed are from an identifiable place (maybe more than one) rather than oils from different places (separate countries, even) that are mixed together (a common practice even among some extra virgin olive oil producers).
Packaged and marketed as close as possible to harvest and extraction.
You’ll notice that, with one exception, all the oils are packaged in either dark glass or tins. That’s not coincidence: extra virgin olive oil shouldn’t be exposed to light.
Can you cook with extra virgin olive oil? Heck yes. Do you always want to — especially if it’s expensive? That’s you and your wallet’s decision. I have two kinds of olive oil in my house: everyday olive oil I use for everything…and an expensive olive oil for drizzling or (trying) to show off for guests.
We've researched gourmet olive oil and found 11 brands that are authentic, artisanal and delicious. For cooking or finishing, great gift ideas or just for you.
