Is Olive Oil Similar to Wine? – EXAU Olive Oil

Spend time in the Italian countryside and you quickly notice something: olive trees and grapevines grow side by side. Farmers who make wine often make olive oil. The harvest for olives follows immediately after grapes, creating a natural rhythm through the fall. The proximity is not accidental — these two plants have been companions in Mediterranean agriculture for thousands of years.

But the similarities go much deeper than geography. EXAU co-founder Skyler worked at a winery before entering the olive oil industry — and the production parallels she discovered there changed how we think about what we do. Once you understand what olive oil and wine actually have in common, you will never buy olive oil the same way again.

For the full picture of where Italian olive oil comes from and why origin matters, see our complete guide to Italian extra virgin olive oil.

Terroir: Where Both Begin

The most fundamental parallel between olive oil and wine is terroir — the combination of soil, climate, elevation, and geography that shapes how a crop develops. Two vineyards planted with the same grape variety in different locations will produce wines that taste nothing alike. The same is true for olive oil. Two groves planted with the same cultivar, but located at different elevations or on different soil types, will produce measurably different oils.

According to The Olive Oil Professor, both olive oil and wine are "deeply influenced by terroir and timing" — the taste of each reflects region, soil, climate, and cultivar in ways that blended, commodity versions simply cannot replicate. This is why single-origin olive oil matters in the same way that estate-bottled wine matters. When you know exactly where the fruit came from, you can taste that specificity in every drop.

Cultivar: The Grape Variety Parallel

In wine, grape variety is everything. Nebbiolo makes Barolo. Sangiovese makes Chianti. The cultivar determines the flavor architecture of the finished product. Olive oil works identically. Coratina from Puglia produces an intensely peppery, high-polyphenol oil. Taggiasca from Liguria produces a buttery, mild oil. Carolea from Calabria — the cultivar in our Turi — produces a medium-intensity oil with notes of green apple and almond.

Most consumers do not yet shop for olive oil by cultivar the way they shop for wine by grape. But the best producers name their cultivars on the label, just as the best winemakers name their varietals. That specificity is not a marketing flourish — it is the most honest description of what is in the bottle.

Harvest Timing: Everything

In both industries, when you pick determines what you get. In wine, early harvest produces higher acidity and lower sugar. Late harvest produces richer, fuller wines — or dessert wines. In olive oil, early harvest produces higher polyphenol content, more complex flavor, and lower yield. Late harvest produces more oil per tree but less of the beneficial compounds that make high-quality extra virgin olive oil worth buying.

Great producers in both industries harvest at the moment that best expresses the character they are after — not the moment that maximizes yield. At EXAU, we harvest early, when the fruit is just beginning to change color, to preserve the polyphenol content and aromatic complexity that defines our oil. The result is less oil per tree, but the oil that exists is exceptional.

Production: More Alike Than You'd Think

The production pathway for olive oil and wine is strikingly parallel at every stage except one.

Fresh fruit first

Both start with the same imperative: get the healthiest fruit possible to the crusher as quickly as you can. Bruised, oxidized, or delayed fruit produces defects in both wine and olive oil. Farmers are at the base of both industries, and their decisions in the grove determine everything downstream.

Milling and crushing

Olives are washed and crushed. Grapes are crushed and pressed. In both cases, the goal is to break open the fruit and begin separating liquid from solid. The difference is in what follows: olive oil is essentially finished after this stage (plus decanting and filtering). Wine still has years ahead of it.

Decanting and filtering

Both products go through some degree of settling and filtration to remove solids and sediment. The process is more complex for wine, but the principle — clarifying the liquid while preserving its character — is the same. Read more about how extra virgin olive oil is made here.

Fermentation: the great divide

This is where the two products diverge completely. Grapes must ferment — the conversion of sugar to alcohol by yeast is what turns grape juice into wine. Olive oil must never ferment. Any bacterial activity in olive oil is a defect. The oil is a clean product in which no living organism can survive. This is why speed matters so much in olive oil production: the faster the fruit reaches the mill, the less time there is for any fermentation to begin.

Aging: opposites

Wine almost always improves with time. Olive oil never does. Treat olive oil like fresh fruit juice — it has an expiration date and it will not get better after harvest. Unlike wine, an unopened bottle of olive oil is still aging and degrading. Always look for the harvest date, and use your oil within 12–18 months of that date.

Storage: Similar Enemies

Both olive oil and wine share the same adversaries: light, heat, and oxygen. Store both away from direct sunlight in a cool, dry place. A wine cellar is a reasonable environment for olive oil too — though temperature-controlled wine refrigerators designed for whites may actually be too cold, which can cause natural waxes in olive oil to solidify temporarily.

Tasting: The Same Framework

Professional olive oil tasting uses the same sensory framework as wine tasting. You assess aroma first — inhaling for fresh, clean, positive notes like green grass, ripe tomato, almond, or herbs. Then you taste for fruitiness (mild, medium, or intense), bitterness on the mid-palate, and pungency at the finish. Defects — rancidity, mustiness, fermentation — are disqualifying in both products.

Research published in PMC confirms that both olive oil and wine are among the richest dietary sources of polyphenols — the antioxidant compounds associated with cardiovascular health and reduced inflammation. The fact that the Mediterranean diet features both prominently is not a coincidence.

The Consumer Shift

Wine consumers routinely seek out specific producers, named cultivars, and vintage years. They understand that a $12 bottle and a $60 bottle are not the same product. Most olive oil consumers are not yet there — but they are getting closer. As the Olive Oil Professor notes, people are "discovering small family producers on their travels, and they're coming home with a new understanding of how diverse and rich the world of olive oil can be."

We believe olive oil deserves the same attention wine has received. That means knowing where your oil comes from, who grew it, what cultivar it is, and when it was harvested. That is the standard we hold ourselves to with every bottle we produce from our family's groves on the Ionian coast of Calabria.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does olive oil have terroir like wine?

Yes. The combination of soil, climate, elevation, and cultivar shapes olive oil flavor just as profoundly as it shapes wine. An oil from a coastal grove will taste completely different from one produced a few kilometers inland at higher elevation — even from the same cultivar. This is why single-origin olive oil, like single-estate wine, is the most expressive and traceable form of the product.

Should olive oil be aged like wine?

No — this is the critical difference. Wine often improves with age. Olive oil never does. It degrades from the moment of pressing. Always look for a harvest date and use your oil within 12–18 months. An old bottle of olive oil, even unopened, is not a premium product — it is a degraded one.

How do you taste olive oil like a professional?

Warm a small amount in your palm, inhale for aroma, then sip slowly. Assess fruitiness first, then bitterness on the mid-palate, then the peppery finish at the back of the throat. That pepper — oleocanthal — is a sign of polyphenol richness and freshness. Any mustiness or rancidity is a defect. The framework is essentially the same as wine tasting.

What is the olive oil equivalent of a grape variety?

The cultivar. Just as Nebbiolo makes Barolo and Chardonnay makes Burgundy, Coratina makes intensely peppery Puglian oil and Taggiasca makes delicate Ligurian oil. The cultivar is the single most important factor in determining the flavor profile of an olive oil — and the best producers always name it on the label.

Shop our 100% Italian extra virgin olive oil, single origin, family farmed in Calabria since 1927.

We wrote a book called The Olive Oil Enthusiast. Order your copy today.

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Is Olive Oil Similar to Wine? The Parallels That Change How You Buy

Terroir: Where Both Begin

Cultivar: The Grape Variety Parallel

Harvest Timing: Everything