Serious, ancient, and quietly excellent — Portugal deserves more attention than it gets.
Portugal has pressed olive oil for as long as anyone, yet it lives in the shadow of its larger Iberian neighbour. Its traditional heart is the sweet, delicate Galega, long the most planted olive across the Ribatejo and Alentejo. From the north, in Trás-os-Montes, comes the robust, aromatic Cobrançosa, increasingly blended with Galega to give modern Portuguese oils backbone and keeping power.
Portuguese DOP regions like Moura and Trás-os-Montes turn out distinctive, well-priced oils that reward the curious. As with its neighbours, much Portuguese oil has historically left in bulk — so a single-origin bottle under its own name is often a genuine find. The Portuguese olives we’ve covered so far are below.
The hardy, aromatic olive of Trás-os-Montes — a bolder, higher-polyphenol oil that gives Portuguese blends backbone…
The historic Portuguese olive — small, sweet and dual-purpose, the traditional heart of Ribatejo and Alentejo…
A traditional Trás-os-Montes olive — dual-purpose, giving a rounded, fruity oil and a good table olive,…
The late-ripening, robust olive of Trás-os-Montes — staying green into winter and giving a green, peppery,…