Sarrut Olive

Oli sarrut 

The sarrut olive tree is a local variety grown in the Àger valley in the Noguera comarca, on the southern side of the Montsec mountains. The mountain chain connects the Pla de Leeida and the Pyrenees and has given birth to a very specific farming culture. This variety of olive tree can only be found in century-old traditional groves and is most widely grown in the villages of Agulló and Corçà where there are roughly 2,000 of these olive trees. The trees grow in a rugged and rough orographic context, surrounded by oak woods. The oil made from these olives is high quality in terms of taste and nutritional value. This variety of olive adapts perfectly to the characteristics of the area and ensures high productivity and good yields. The olives are elliptical and are, when ripe, a dark purple colour with a few large spots. With small variations depending on the year, sarrut oil has a characteristic, fruity and intense profile, with aromas reminiscent of vegetables, artichokes, freshly cut grass, aromatic herbs or olive wood. The taste is bitter and balanced, with fresh and mentholated notes. Historically, olives were pressed in the many oil mills that once existed and have now disappeared. Oil production was destined for personal consumption and the surplus was sold in nearby villages. In recent decades, farmers have been giving their olives to communal grinders; most of them simply share their olives and obtain a small amount of money or some of the communal oil in return. In 2009, within the Cultures Trobades project, an experiment to promote sarrut olives was started. With the support of Slow Food volunteers, a common harvest of olives at one of the farms in the municipality of Corçà and their pressing at the grinder of one of the members was organized. The current estimated production of Sarrut extra-virgin olive oil is 12,000 litres, most of which is mixed with oils made from other varieties; the survival of this variety is endangered by new intensive cultures.