The cooperative presided by Jaime has an average turnover of around 100 million per year and its production is mostly extra virgin. "The first years cost to bet for the quality, although the farmer was used to a clean collection - without mixing the collected in the ground with the one obtained from the own olive tree, but the farmers of Estepa have a high average of knowledge and are easy to convince to bet on quality ".

In total, Oleoestepa produces almost 10 million bottles per year (more than 2.5 awarded by the OCU). From highest to lowest, they cost: 5.25 euros for bottles of one liter of extra virgin olive plastic, 25 euros for five liters of the same variety, 6.99 for extra selection 750ml and 10 euros for "Estepa virgin" of 500ml.

ESTEPA, appellation of origin

Rosa has been eleven years as agricultural technician of the API , Integrated Production Groups, and zigzags among the olive trees while observing in detail each plot, each fruit. "Do you see the terrain? -She asks to ask while looking down-; It has not stopped raining and maintains good conditions. "

The young Estepeña studied to become Agricultural Technical Engineer at the University of Seville. "In the area where I grew up I thought that the best thing would be to do something related to oil," he says.

Rain threatens and Rosa travels every hectare of the farm with her field notebook, where she writes down all the tasks that are developed in each plot. "The role of the API technician is based on quality, care for the environment and sustainability, monitoring traceability from the field to the grinding of olives," he says. we work in the control of the plagues of the olivar and advise to the agriculturalists that are our fundamental pillar ".

"When the farmers come to bring us their olives we know all their way from the moment they bloomed in the fields until they became oil and they were stored in the cellar," he adds. That is, in his opinion, another of the secrets of Oleoestepa. The olive is known, and is pampered throughout his life in the olive tree.

Pressed in less than 24 hours

Rosa and Ricardo are brothers. She cares for the olive in the tree; he, when he is no longer there, is a master olive-grower and decides everything that is done in an oil mill. He has been training and learning for years from his predecessor, who retired a year ago.

"Inherit the position of teacher has been a very bearable transition in time, have been many years learning from your hand," he tells EL ESPAÑOL. "He taught me a way of working that does not look at the clock," he says, "also to take care of all the points of the process, both the reception of the fruit, its classification, and all the parameters that influence the process." Although its day to day differs greatly from what the outgoing teacher lived, all the facilities are now controlled by an automaton, which facilitates the real-time master by a computer or a mobile phone.

A little while ago and, after a week full of rain, the oil mill is barely active. The deafening noise of the machines is now calm, a breath before what is coming on Monday, with a more flattering forecast. Water always suits the countryside. Meanwhile, workers are striving to keep the facilities in perfect condition by the time the activity returns and production soars.

"Only in this mill, we have reached almost one million kilos daily, Oleoestepa sets us a quality standard," says Ricardo ; We have to grind it before 24 hours from the olive harvest, but we try to do it in less time ". In 2015 they already lowered the 20-hour mark and in the last campaign it was possible to lower the age of 16. "In some cases we did not exceed two hours", presumes the teacher, agronomist training engineer.

What is the secret of Oleoestepa?

It is a calculation of several things, from the quality of the product to the treatment at the mill. I always insist a lot on the temperatures. For each line of work we have 10 or 12 temperature probes, where we set a maximum so that it is never exceeded; what today they call the elaboration in cold. If it is made with heat you get more oil than cold, but not with the same organoleptic characteristics. Our oils taste like freshly cut grass, green almond, aromatic herb; There are few oils with that kind of notes. It is difficult to remove this type of oil because many factors are involved, but if the fruit is good our duty is not to spoil it. It is very important to work in this way even if you get less quantity because it will be of higher quality.

Great part of the secret of our success was the sensory analysis, introduced in the ninety-first year, and since ninety-five, the creation of our tasting panel. Thanks to him, we maintain a regularity in our oil profile during the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, and when you open a bottle next year, it tastes like the bottle of the previous year. The quality of our product is therefore measured through some physical-chemical parameters but also by other sensory ones. The market buys for the smell or the taste and not for the chemical characteristics of the oil.

The tasting panel, a well-kept secret

Only one door remains closed in the Oleoestepa facilities. Few are those who manage to cross it when there is activity on the other side. Miguela keeps with zeal that nobody enters. She is responsible for laboratory and tasting panel, the only private space of these characteristics in the province of Seville. Nobody can distract the tasters during the process.

"The tasting is fundamental, the main thing," confesses Miguela González,together with the managing director, the two most veteran employees of the organization. "Here we do not just fill in an attribute sheet, we also value the sensory notes that, depending on the variety or the time, will indicate the intensity of fruity or the flavors that you remember. The objective is to achieve a homogeneous profile throughout the year. "

Twenty-three official tasters taste the different oils that Miguela offers them. From his verdict will come the pattern by which the quality of an extra virgin of Oleoestepa is guaranteed. These are external personnel with specific training and who only taste for this brand.

"Everyone can be a taster," says Miguela. "But a good taster is made over the years." And ditch: "The chemical quality can be met by almost 100% of the oils, but it is the tasting that gives the category of extra virgin, and the Denomination of Origin Estepa is the most demanding in Europe, it is a guarantee of quality" .

A cooperative of cooperatives

An intermittent sun bathes the facade of the headquarters of Oleoestepa. There are still clouds picking up water in the sky. The cooperative was born 32 years ago, just with the entry of Spain into the European Economic Community, coinciding with an incentive movement of the associative movement. Currently, it is composed of 17 first-degree cooperatives, some 5,000 farmers and some 50,000 hectares of olive groves. The Oleoestepa is, with 90% of its production of extra virgin, the largest cellar of the best green gold in the world.

At the head of it, at 52 years of age, 32 of them dedicated to Oleoestepa, is Álvaro Olabarría, managing director of Oleoestepa, little surprised at the recognition of the OCU . Its brand is above 40 other references of the main Spanish producers in both sensory and physical-chemical. And as a leader since 2003, the first time this study was published, which is produced every five years.

Although when Oleoestepa started, nobody dared to think that so many recognitions would come. "From the first moment we were confident that we would know how to make extra virgin olive oil," says Olabarría . "Because the province of Seville was the first producer of table olives in the world and all our farmers were oriented towards this sector, which requires very special care", justified convinced.

The extra virgin olive oil recognized by the OCU , which they call Big Consumption, is a mixture of different varieties, mainly Hojiblanca and Arbequina, to please the general public. It is sold in three different containers of one, three and five liters and its price ranges around five euros depending on the chosen size. You can buy on their website and in the main national distributors, but not all.

This extra virgin is an oil with a very fresh, fruity aroma of green olives typical of Hojiblanca variety. Its aroma reminds of fresh grass, green olive leaf flavor with touches of apple and artichoke. Very fresh while delicate with elegant bitterness and itching.

In addition to this product, which is successfully marketed in the United States for the catering sector, Oleoestepa also sells extra virgin monovarietals such as Hojiblanca and Arbequina. Or its internationally awarded Estepa Virgen, a selection of olives still in the veraison harvested at the beginning of November that harvested in 2013 the Gold Medal Mario Solinas granted by the International Olive Oil Committee, in addition to many other recognitions.

"We are serious, responsible with our brands and passionate about extra virgin olive oil and we never deceive anyone," presumes Olabarría. Part of this success is also justified by the enormous competition between the 17 cooperatives that brings together Oleoestepa. Daily, and in real time, the members of the oil mills are getting to know the quality of the different oils and a classification is being established. "Here we do not pay for volume, here we pay for quality, we promote that pique among the oil mills and that shows in the final result", explains the managing director of Oleoestepa.

Oleoestepa holds the vice presidency of QvExtra !, a private association whose purpose is to promote the competitiveness of producers of extra virgin olive oil. This international organization grants the SIQEV seal, a label that certifies that the product meets more stringent quality requirements than those required of any extra virgin. Currently it is made up of some 41 brands from all over the world.

It is Wednesday and Ceferino has come, as every month, to buy the necessary oil to cover the demand of his establishment, the restaurant El Homenaje. This time, in addition, he takes a couple of bottles for his daughter, who goes to study in Paris . "The oil here is something that is given to friends as something very much ours, like the shortbreads and polvorones so typical of Estepa".

In his day, decades ago, it was he and his father-in-law who sold Oleoestepa oil at the foot of the road, not far from where his current restaurant is today. "We used to sell cans and carafes and today I use it in the kitchen," he told reporters. In the dining room, apart from the olives, Ceferino pours a little extra virgin in a shell so that his clientele can taste it with a little bread.

On the table he also puts some broken eggs with prawns and potato chips. All cooked with the, according to the OCU, the best extra virgin olive oil in Spain. "You put what you put, with this oil everything tastes better".