Bosana Olives
L’olive à huile dominante de Sardaigne — robuste, aromatique, aux notes d’artichaut et d’amande.
The Bosana is the olive of Sardinia — by far the island’s most planted variety, especially in the north-west around Sassari and Alghero. It gives a robust, aromatic extra virgin with pronounced artichoke, cardoon and almond notes, a clean bitterness and a good peppery finish, and it keeps well thanks to a healthy polyphenol content. A distinctive island oil that holds its own against the mainland greats.
- Origin
- Sardinia (Sassari/Alghero) · Italy
- Type
- Oil olive (some table)
- Colour
- Green to black
- Flavour (oil)
- Artichoke, cardoon, almond
- Polyphenols
- Good — keeps well
- Reputation
- Sardinia’s flagship oil
- Best for
- Robust finishing oil
Sardinia in a bottle
Sardinia’s isolation gave it its own olive culture, and the Bosana is its star: an oil that is green, aromatic and bracing, with the vegetal artichoke-and-cardoon character Sardinians prize and enough bitterness and pepper to mark it out. It earns protected status under the Sardegna DOP and wins its share of competitions.
Like other high-polyphenol oils, a fresh Bosana can taste assertively bitter and peppery — that is quality, not a fault, and it means the oil will keep. If you have only had soft, mild oils, an island Bosana is a characterful step up.