Across Spain

about olive oil tourism

19-01-2012

in the last years, culinary tourism has become an experiential option for gourmet experts, professionals, and just for simple visitors. one of spain most remarkable products, olive oil, can be an appealing way to enjoy it. in a similar way to wine routes, increasingly major producers of olive oil in spain adhere to the initiative of creating stunning olive oil routes all over the country. if this topic is of your interest, don’t stop reading…


  the oil tourism is offering us new experiences in which the visitor enjoys nature, gastronomy and cultural heritage at the same time. olives and olive oil are a landscape and a product and the hallmark of many spanish territories and especially in andalucía:


andalucía: many olive routes take place in this region, southern of spain. they often offer visits to the olive groves, sometimes coinciding with the olive harvest and visits to the old mills, where oil is extracted. the routes are completed with tastings to allow the visitor to compare between the most common olive varieties and taste the local cuisine, always with olive oil as the protagonist.
some remarkable areas are sevilla, where is visited a mill of 200 years old, málaga, cádiz and the mountains full of olive groves and jaén with its "green mile", route which will be completed with visits to close villages like baeza and úbeda. some of the oils they produce are; "picual", strong and bite, "hojiblanca" sweet and fresh, "lechín de sevilla" with a pleasant bitterness and "verdial" fruity and sweet.

  
     
barcelona: specifically lleida and les garrigues, region where the "arbequina" is the most popular kind of olive oil. this route will be through olive groves, almond trees fields and vineyards, but also the visitors will discover charming and remote villages which look like in medieval times full of monuments, traditions and rich gastronomy. don't leave without taste the olla barrejada (stew made of meat, vegetables, rice, potatoes and noodles) or the escalivada (catalan dish made of roasted vegetables) both cooked with this tasty olive oil.  
     

madrid: counts on more than 20.000 hectares and is one of the most frequent starting point. just need to gather ten people who want to travel and see the world of olive oil and be willing to spend three or four days accommodated in a farm cottage (dating in the seventeenth century) transformed into a rural housing where also classes, related to the local cuisine, are taught.

species like "manzanilla", "cornicabra", "verdeja" and "carrasqueña" stand over others thanks to its low acidity, bright yellow colour and fragrant aroma. while some of the charming village the visitors will discover will be valdilecha, carabaña, tielmes, perales de tajuña and villarejo de salvanés.

  
     

mallorca: over the centuries, nature has sculpted the trunks of olive trees in mallorca, transforming them into genuine and unique pieces of art. part of island life also revolves around olive trees and its products. majorcan olive oil has kept olive groves alive, leading the creation of olive oil mills "tafones" and delightful dishes with a unique and highly distinctive flavour, smooth and sweet. some of its most famous species of olive trees are "olivo de corte", "el camello", "la señora del barranco" and "na flamarades".

sometimes, these routes comprise a series of original activities that allow visitors to discover the magic in the majorcan olive groves and the production that is made with their olives: the "majorcan olive oil" with denomination of origin.