When people talk about great olive oil, the conversation usually starts with the grove — the trees, the soil, the harvest. And while all of that matters deeply, there is another moment that quietly defines the oil’s quality long before it ever reaches a bottle.

That moment is the mill.

Not all olive oil is milled in the same way, and not all producers have the same level of control over what happens once olives leave the tree. One of the most significant differences between oils — and one that rarely appears on labels — is whether the producer uses their own dedicated mill, or a shared public mill.

Understanding this difference changes how you evaluate olive oil entirely.

Once an olive is harvested, time immediately becomes the enemy. Oxidation and fermentation begin straight away. The longer olives sit before being milled, the more freshness, aroma, and stability are lost.

At peak harvest, this is where many producers face a compromise.

In a public mill

Public mills serve many growers at once. During harvest season, olives arrive continuously, often in large volumes. Milling is dictated by queue, availability, and commercial throughput.

This means:

• Olives may wait many hours — sometimes longer — before milling

• Extraction settings are standardised for efficiency

• Yield often takes priority over nuance

• The process is designed to work acceptably for everyone, optimally for no one

The quality of the oil is, to a large extent, pre-determined by the structure of the system itself.

Having a dedicated, on-site mill used exclusively for our own olives removes those compromises entirely. Our olives do not wait in line. They are milled when we decide they should be milled; often within a target time of under 1 hour of harvest.

There is no pressure to increase throughput, no need to standardise settings to accommodate multiple producers, and no incentive to chase yield at the expense of quality. But the most important difference isn’t just timing or control. It’s who is present.

Because the mill is ours, our family olive oil sommeliers are on-site throughout the entire milling process.

This means the extraction is not treated as a fixed, mechanical step — it is an active, responsive process.

As olives are milled, we:

• Observe the paste

• Monitor temperature

• Taste oil as it emerges

• Adjust malaxation time

• Adapt extraction parameters in real time

Olives are agricultural, not industrial. Ripeness shifts daily. Fruit temperature changes with weather. Aromatic profiles vary not just by cultivar, but by harvest moment.

Having sommeliers present allows the process to respond to the fruit, not force the fruit to conform to the process.

In a public mill, these decisions are largely locked in. Settings are chosen for reliability and speed. Once olives enter the system, the outcome is mostly determined.

In a dedicated mill, quality is actively shaped, not passively accepted.

Shared mills handle olives of many qualities - from good to merely adequate. Even with cleaning protocols, residues and flavour carryover are an unavoidable reality.

A dedicated mill avoids this entirely.

• One estate

• One standard

• One philosophy

Every batch reflects only our olives, our decisions, and our thresholds. Consistency is not achieved by blending away differences — it’s achieved by controlling every variable that matters.

Owning and operating a private mill is not the easy route.

It requires:

• Capital investment

• Skilled labour

• Slower extraction

• Lower yields per kilo

• Acceptance that quality comes before efficiency

Public mills exist for good reasons. They are practical, accessible, and commercially sensible for many growers. But they are built for scale - not for precision.

We’ve chosen precision.

When you pour olive oil, you’re tasting the result of dozens of decisions made long before the bottle was filled.

Not just:

• Where the olives were grown

• But how long they waited

• Who controlled the process

• Whether adjustments were possible

• Whether quality or convenience led the way

This isn’t about saying one model is “right” and another is “wrong”.

It’s about understanding what was possible — and what wasn’t — before the oil reached you.

Once you know how much influence the mill has, it becomes harder to judge olive oil by price, labels, or awards alone. You begin to ask better questions.

And better questions lead to better choices - whatever oils you choose to keep in your kitchen.