EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL SORT: BELICA HARVEST: SEP-OCT 25 PRODUCERS: BABIČ, HRVATIN, GLAVINA
Istrska Belica is the most widespread olive variety in Slovenian olive groves and the true heart of Istrian olive growing. Distinctly fruity, with a characteristic bitter-pungent finish shaped by notes of artichoke, almond, and fresh grass.
Stone Roots
FLAVOR &
FRESHNESS
GUARANTEE
Not supermarket oil, not a blend of a hundred anonymous oils poured into one bottle to taste the same every year. One grower, one grove, one harvest, picked by hand and pressed the same day, after a season of hours in the grove looking after the trees.
Olive growing here happens at the northern edge of cultivation. Cold winters, strong burja winds and rocky soil create oils with more structure, freshness and naturally high pepperiness. Picking early, before the fruit is fully ripe, lowers the yield and amplifies everything you taste.
Harvest follows the season, not the industrial pace. Most growers work small plots, harvest early and produce limited quantities under their own name, without chasing uniformity or volume. They work with what the year gives them instead of forcing consistency.
All the North Adriatic groves combined cover less ground than a handful of estates in Andalusia, yet the oils from here still rank among the most awarded in the world. Producers here don't cut corners. Doing things right is worth more than doing things easy.
There are more than 1000 producers in the North Adriatic region. They produce award winning oils, but because they dont scale and rather work on quality, they mostly sell from their cellars.
In this pack you find Belica from three prominent award winning producers.
We only source
from producers
who make batches
up to 1000l
Batch: 100L Sourced: 30L
Bold and expressive, with dandelion, radicchio and freshly cut grass leading the profile. Aromatic spices, tomato leaf and artichoke add depth and complexity. Fruitiness, bitterness and pungency are all pronounced.
Batch: 300L Sourced: 30L
Herbal and savory, with grass, artichoke and olive leaf aromas supported by almond and fresh tomato notes. Tomato leaf adds brightness, while the finish stays clean and persistent.
Batch: 100L Sourced: 50L
Fresh and intensely green, with aromas of cut grass, olive leaf and artichoke supported by green almond notes. Hot and aromatic spices build slowly, giving the oil a long and...
The 1956 frost wiped out the old groves, so people needed a tree that could take the cold and still give oil, and that’s basically why Istrska belica is here.
Where the roots survived underground after the freeze, growers grafted Istrska belica right onto the old base, so in some of these groves what you see today started as an old tree that got a second life.
It gave so much more oil than the old cultivar that everyone planted it, and so it became almost the only thing grown here, which is its own kind of risk.
From the words of our producers:
Tradition places Istrska belica around Dolina and Boljunec, on the eastern edge of Trieste, but its deeper origin is uncertain, maybe it arrived through trade and then spread grove to grove because people saw that it worked, and from there it crossed into the Karst, the Gorizia area and eventually Slovenian Istria, so the border moved more than once but the tree just stayed where somebody planted it.
Stone Roots is a community, a club if you may, of people who like to slow down, eat good shit, drink good shit, and sometimes do good shit.
