Ogliarola Barese Olives
L’olive à huile douce de la campagne de Bari — le partenaire tendre de la féroce Coratina.
The Ogliarola Barese is the gentle oil olive of central Puglia, around Bari — the soft counterpoint to the region’s fierce Coratina. It gives a mild, sweet, fruity oil with almond notes and low bitterness, and the two are classically blended: the Ogliarola for softness and fruit, the Coratina for backbone. One of several regional Ogliarolas across Puglia.
- Origin
- Bari, central Puglia · Italy
- Type
- Oil olive
- Colour
- Green to black
- Flavour (oil)
- Mild, sweet, almond
- Bitterness
- Low
- Role
- Soft partner to Coratina
- Best for
- Gentle oil; blending
The soft side of Puglia
Puglia presses more oil than any other Italian region, and not all of it is the bruising Coratina. The Ogliarola Barese gives a gentler, sweeter, rounder oil — fruity and almond-soft, easy to drink — which is exactly why it is so often blended with Coratina to balance that variety’s power. On its own it is a mild, approachable everyday oil.
“Ogliarola” is a family of related Puglian olives (Barese, Salentina and others), not a single cultivar — the name roughly means “the oil one.” A classic Bari-area blend you enjoy is very often mostly Ogliarola softened against a backbone of Coratina.