Advice

How to read a label

Labels provide increasingly accurate information of interest regarding the oil packaged. There are also booklets attached to the necks of the bottles, which specify culinary recommendations and advice and describe their sensory characteristics, authentic tasting notes. Basic data for choosing the oil you are looking for.

When you look at a bottle made of transparent glass, the colour of the oil reveals many of its secrets. The colour scale of the oils covers a wide range of transparencies, which reveal some of its gustatory features.

Like all fruit, olives too reach a critical point in their maturity after which they enter a phase in which they gradually become black (veraison or turning) and acquire greater vegetative development. The features of any virgin oil depend, among other factors, on the degree of ripeness of the fruit.

In general, golden yellow tones apply to sweet oils , extracted from late harvest olives, while darker greenish glints are typical of fruity and slightly bitter liquids from olives that have not quite completed their ripening period.

It should be borne in mind that within the commercial categories – extra virgin, virgin and olive oil – the acidity reference that appears on the labels is unrelated to the taste. Low acidity simply means healthy fruit.

The strange expression “young oil” that appears on some bottles, means that the oil comes from olives that have been harvested early.

To be sure that the contents of the bottle are in good condition, one must be sure that it has been properly stored. In any event, it is essential to observe the best before date (“best before …”), which is usually indicated in very small lettering.

A label of guarantee
“Bajo Aragón” Protected Designation of Origin
The Designation of Origin Regulatory Council label guarantees the Quality and food safety controls required by the Aragonese, Spanish and European Administrations.