Oljarna Babič

EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL SORT: BELICA | HARVEST: SEP 25 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.

€29 ~~€34~~ 500ml

Pungent

Bitter

Fruity

Stone Roots Flavor &
Freshness
Guarantee

Only 30L
Available

Rich, grassy flavor
High-polyphenol
Great for everything

This is the good stuff

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.

No weak juice

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.

No two harvests are the same

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.

Less ground, more awards

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.

Some technical stuff

Best before: 1.5.2027
Produced by: Oljarna Babič
Category: Superior Extra virgin olive oil obtained directly from olives and solely by mechanical means
Average nutritional value per 100 g: energy 3700 kJ / 900 kcal · fat 100 g, of which saturates 16 g · carbohydrate 0 g, of which sugars 0 g · protein 0 g · salt 0 g

In the words of

Sandi Babič

“It’s people who make oil good, not machines.”

Stone Roots: Are you scared of being replaced by AI?

Sandi Babic: (Laughs) Everyone can buy a machine. Who is responsible that the oil is good? People. It always depends on people.

Stone Roots: What is the most interesting fact about the olive oil industry today?

Sandi Babic: Everyone wants to have it all figured out. But it’s the same as with wine, no two harvests are the same.

“Tell people the oil came from a specific place, that is how you know its special.”

In Babiči near Marezige, olive growing has deep roots. Sandi Babič opened his oil mill on the family estate in 2009. What started as a modest operation quickly grew into one of the most recognised names in Slovenian olive oil industry.

Today Oljarna Babič is one of the most important addresses for Istrian olive oil. Together with sons Rok and Vid they are convinced: quality and yield don’t go hand in hand. Choose quality, and you give up volume, but you get oil that earns its place at the table.

Key takeaways from our visit

1. Single variety wins

“The trend is not in blending, this and that.. Single variety and thats it. This is a story to tell. It came from Babiči, tell people where the olives have grown. This is how you tell the oil is something special.”

2. Healthy fruit is king

“People think they know everything and that you only need to a machine to produce good olive oil. But if you don’t have healthy fruits (olives), it wont work out. That many haven’t realized yet.”

3. Inside of the bottle counts

“I get it, they tell you some story, they have a bottle for 150k euros and they lure you to buy the oil. But what is inside the bottle? That is the only thing that counts.”

Olive oil being poured into a Stone Roots flask

The Stone Roots Project

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.