Francisco Núñez de Prado

In Spain, where others harvest by beating olives from the trees with sticks, the Núñez de Prado family insists on a more delicate technique, and doesn't use pesticides. Each season, skilled crews from Seville arrive at the family's four groves around Baena, in the Cordoba province. Planning strategically, they select only trees with olives that have just turned from deep purple to black. The fruit is ripe and firm. Olives that have fallen from the tree are discarded. Harvesters can whack a tree clean in a few minutes; however, handpickers take twenty minutes working at lightning speed. Their skilled fingers slide down a branch, detaching olives with a gentle milking motion. This protects the olives from bruises, which trigger acidity, and also protects the trees.

At the end of each morning and afternoon picking, the olives are trucked to the mill and pressed immediately, versus other producers where pressing may take place before fermentation begins.

The real difference is the antique mill, which the family acquired in 1795 from a local duke who had a monopoly in the region. It sits unobtrusively on a busy street in town, behind a simple arched gateway wide enough for trucks. In 1989 the old press was retrofitted and began to produce commercially in tiny amounts.