New Olive Oil From Sebastiano’s Has Arrived in Portland

I saw the news about the arrival of the new olive oil from Sebastiano’s—the 2025 vintage—and I got really excited. Then I got an email from Dan, one of the owners, inviting me to come by and taste this new olive oil. I was more than happy to do so, and here is what I learned.

The Previous Olive Oil From Sebastiano’s

The last time they had a new olive oil for sale was the inaugural batch back in 2022, the process for which actually started in 2019. Here’s how they described it—a cold pressed and first pressed Castelvetrano extra virgin olive oil—in August 2022 in one of their email newsletters.

“Elise and I first discovered this olive oil on a visit we took to Sicily in October 2019. We were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Trapani countryside, the kindness of the people, and the quality of the extra virgin olive oil made from the native Castelvetrano (Nocellara del Belice) olives. We brought a 9-liter tin home with us and enjoyed every last drop.

“When we finally ran out, and did a little digging to try and source more, we found that the property we’d visited was part of a 5-generation, 100 year old family business that exported olive oil all throughout the world, including to the U.S., but not to the Pacific Northwest.

“Dreaming big we thought, ‘why not import our favorite oil to Portland?’ It turns out doing this is way more complicated than it sounds! But a project that started about a year ago is now finally coming to fruition with our shipment arriving last week. We are stoked :)”

That vintage was described as round, almost “buttery” in mouthfeel and weight; clean flavors—a little herbaceousness, a hint of lemon zest, a little spiciness on the backend and a hint of grassiness; a nice lingering finish; super balanced, approachable, and food-friendly.

Sebastiano’s Olive Oil Timeline

I asked Dan about timing of previous olive oils at Sebastiano’s, and it turns out there have only been two vintagres. They missed last year and there were two reasons for that: extensive fires in Sicily and olive shortages leading to cost issues (“prices were sort of out of sight”). In 2023 they were still selling that initial vintage.

Dan says that ideally, they’d like to offer a new vintage each year, going forward.

This Year’s Olive Oil From Sebastiano’s

It started with a trip, returning to Trapani in January, and they brought with them the knowledge and experience they gained from the first first olive oil production by these same folks in Sicily.

Choosing the Olives

“So in January, we went to Sicily, to Trapani, and met with our olive oil partners there,” said Dan. “It’s this incredible family owned business—Nino is a fifth generation olive grower. We tasted through a bunch of different olive oils and arrived at sort of a custom blend of three different indigenous olive varieties from Castelvetrano.”

They decided to go primarily with the Nocellara del Belice olive, which comprises about 40% of the oil blend. “It’s sort of your typical Castelvetrano olive,” remarked Dan. The other two olives they decided to use are Cerasuola and Biancolilla, which are smaller olives in the region. “They’re not quite as popular as the Nocellara del Belice.” Basically they’re less well known and are used primarily for olive oil.

Pricing Decisions and Versatility

In their 2022 vintage, they used exclusively Nocellara del Belice olives. But, like a lot of things in today’s crazy economy, higher prices inspired them to instead look at doing a blend this year. “One of the things that happened since our last project was the price of the Nocellara del Belice increased quite a lot,” explained Dan.

He added, “Our goal was to keep this as a $20 tin, in part because our partners are Market of Choice.” This $20 price point seemed appropriate for an oil of this high quality in an upscale grocery retail environment.

“And then our goal with it in our kitchen was for it to be a versatile olive oil,” said Dan. “Castelvetrano olives are delicious, and they’re very full bodied. But they don’t have as much of the sort of piquant backend spice. And with the addition of the Cerasuola and Biancolilla, you get a little bit more complexity in the blend.”

He continued, “Those were some of the decisions that went into what we wanted our olive oil to taste like. So there’s a little bit less body than our previous olive oil—it’s not as buttery and rich—but there’s more complexity aromatically. And then there’s a nicer finish, a more complex finish.”

Trying the Olive Oil

I continued to ask questions about the taste, mouthfeel, high and low notes, and then Dan said, “You want to try it?” My answer was, of course, yes!

I took a sip. For me, it has a smooth, distinctive and familiar olive oil aroma. Dan says that’s the underlying Cerasuola or Nocellara del Belice olives. I also found there to be a lemony or grassy aspect in the aroma, too. Dan said, “I don’t think our previous import had that in the same way.”

It enveloped my entire mouth. “So you still get a pretty full mouthfeel, ” Dan remarked. Agreed.

“And then you see what I mean about the piquant part—-it’s a nice sort of long finish.” That peppery finish lasted longer than I expected, and I enjoyed it.

Dan said, “I just think that it’s very versatile—we didn’t want a super precious olive oil, a kind of extra virgin oil that you only use to finish a dish. We wanted something people could reach to for, say, a salad dressing.”

He added, “There are some oils out there that are so astringent, and some are also bitter. This is not bitter.” Personally, I do not care for bitter olive oils, but recognize that others do. So the fact that this olive oil is not bitter is appealing to me.

Comparing the First and Second Production Experience

I asked Dan how the experience has been between the first olive oil project and this second vintage, remembering how he told me that it all started kind of by accident. “Yeah, it was all accidental,” he said. “It was sort of dumb luck when we first stumbled upon the olives, getting lost while we traveled.”

“Back then we hadn’t even thought of the idea of Sebastiano’s, so it wasn’t until months later that we’re like, ‘I wonder where we were, you know?’ We had ran out of our previous tin, I was like, ‘I want to get more of this olive oil!’ We looked it up online and tried to get some more. It was hard to find initially.”

But this time around, they knew where to go, what they wanted, and how to navigate the process. Their relationships are established and stronger. Compared to my conversation with Dan in 2022, it is clear that they have more experience, knowledge, and confidence in what is needed—from choosing the olives, to receiving the pallets olive oil in Oregon. They move through the steps with intention, and the result is this beautiful olive oil.

Friendship, the Producers, and Market of Choice

Regarding their olive oil producers, Partanna—when they first connected to them, it became clear that they were a big deal. They import a lot of olive oil to the U.S. Over the course of the past four or five years, they’ve also became closer friends.

“I’d run into Nino at trade shows,” explained Dan. “We pitched them initially on the idea of selling to us, but we’re so small and they’re used to doing big batches or working with big purchase orders. In this respect (among other aspects), Market of Choice has been a great partner, because they can help us hit our minimum.”

He continued, “They want you to buy like 10,000 tins. For us, that would be a huge order. So Market of Choice takes the majority of it.” This means you can get their olive oil at Market of Choice, as well as at Sebastiano’s.

Happy Customers

They’ve had the olive oil available for purchase for a couple of weeks, and Dan says customers are pretty happy that it’s back.

Each 500ml tin of extra virgin whole cold pressed olive oil is $20. And it’s not diluted with some other kind of oil, which unfortunately is all too common. Case in point: I bought some oil that was supposedly EVOO and it did not behave like real olive oil does in the refrigerator. I am confident it is fake, at least partially. Sad trombone for Meg.

On the other hand, I used some of the Sebastiano’s olive oil this week (full disclosure: the tin was comped) in a tomato confit recipe I came across while researching the past Tomato Fests at Wellspent Market (the 5th annual Tomato Fest is this Saturday), and it is just so fabulous. My jammy roasted tomatoes are very happy in this olive oil.

I’ve used the oil in a variety of ways—in the aforementioned tomato confit, in a salad dressing, added to sautéed vegetables, on toasted bread—and it has tasted great and performed very well.

So head to Sebastiano’s for their newest vintange, and enjoy!

Sebastiano’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2025 vintage
At Sebastiano’s, 8235 SE 13th Avenue # 7, Portland; and Market of Choice, multiple locations
sebastianospdx.com | Instagram | Facebook