Arauco Olives
L’olive emblématique de l’Argentine — grosse, verte, souvent fendue, à l’huile corsée (La Rioja).
The Arauco is Argentina’s signature olive and the most distinctive variety in the Americas. Descended from Spanish stock but long since its own thing, it is grown above all in the province of La Rioja, in the Andean north-west. Large and elongated, it is prized as a cracked green table olive and also pressed into a robust, fruity, peppery oil — the heritage olive of South American growing.
- Origin
- La Rioja · Argentina
- Type
- Table & oil
- Colour
- Green to black
- Size
- Large, elongated
- Flavour
- Robust, fruity, peppery
- Harvest
- Southern Hemisphere (our spring)
- Best for
- Cracked table olives, bold oil
The Americas’ own variety
Most New World olive growing relies on imported European varieties, but Argentina has one it can call its own. The Arauco — sometimes called Criolla — arrived with the Spanish centuries ago and adapted into a distinct large, elongated olive. Cracked and cured it is a meaty, savoury table olive ; pressed it gives a bold, peppery oil. La Rioja’s old trees are a point of national pride.
Argentina harvests in the Southern Hemisphere autumn — our spring — so a fresh Argentine oil can be the youngest on a Northern shelf out of season. Like Peru’s Alfonso, the Arauco is a reminder that the olive map runs far beyond the Mediterranean.