The first oil of the 2025 harvest brought Mission olives back to Lucero—a vivid, unfiltered extra virgin olive oil with green and ripe-fruit aromatics, substantial structure, and a lingering peppery finish. The Return of Mission Mission is California’s heritage olive variety, deeply associated with the beginnings of olive growing in the state. For a brief period between 2008 and 2011, Lucero Olive Oil offered Mission extra virgin olive oil. We later focused exclusively on fruit from the Crane family orchards, and Mission disappeared from our collection. This 2025 Olio Novello marked its return, made from Mission olives grown in the Livermore Valley and selected for their unusually expressive early-harvest character. Mission can produce a remarkably broad range of styles. Picked early, it can be robust, bitter, and pungent; allowed to mature much later, it becomes noticeably softer and more buttery. This Olio Novello captures the variety toward the vigorous beginning of that spectrum. A Cooler Microclimate, A Slower Ripening Fruit The Livermore Valley orchard sits in a cooler microclimate strongly influenced by marine air. Compared with the hotter Sacramento Valley around Corning, the fruit matures considerably more slowly and can remain strikingly green well into November. That extended hang time allows flavor and structure to develop while the olives retain considerable green character. The result is an oil with unusual freshness, intensity, and complexity. Sensory Profile Expect a complex combination of ripe and green characteristics: floral aromatics, grass and fresh herbs, green apple, hints of ripe citrus, nuttiness, and a persistent black-pepper and chili-pepper finish. Despite its intensity, the elements remain in harmony. Aroma, bitterness, and pungency support one another rather than competing for attention. How to Enjoy This Olio Novello Olio Novello is the first olive oil of a new harvest. This oil was bottled without filtration, preserving the immediacy and character of the freshly milled Mission fruit. Enjoy it where the olive itself can remain part of the dish: over toasted country bread with sea salt, potatoes, rice, beans, pasta, soft-cooked eggs, or other comparatively mild foods. Its combination of fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency also makes it particularly satisfying as a finishing oil. Once opened, use it generously and often. For best flavor, enjoy within four weeks after opening. Current Harvest and Quality Details 100% California Mission olives 500 ml bottle / 16.9 fl oz / 33 servings Harvested early morning, November 26, 2025 Bottled unfiltered Free fatty acidity: 0.09% Total biophenols: 359.4 mg/kg by HPLC DAGs: 97.9% PPPs:
