Balzana dates back to 1984 when Merritt Edmunds was working in the wholesale wine trade with the good fortune to represent a wine importer who brought over an extra virgin olive oil from a small, 400 year-old family estate in Tuscany. In his business, he knew that one Cabernet could cost $15 and another one could cost $500, but a liter of extra virgin olive oil was $6 at the supermarket. Very few places sold $35 liters of olive oil. To be able to successfully market it, Merritt knew he required an education. He tasted olive oil, and then tasted more, and more different varieties, and pretty soon stopped buying that $6 bottle because it didn’t taste so good anymore. He realized it was a mass produced oil having little in common with artisanal, handcrafted extra virgin olive oil.

Eventually, a partnership with a California winemaker who also made olive oil led to bottling his own oil. For ten years Merritt continued to make fabulous olive oil relying primarily on his own labor. During the latter few years of this period, he began to mill a lot of fruit from and at Figueroa Farms. The rigorous work and long hours took their toll on Merritt and he finally decided to reduce his involvement in the production side of the business, focus more on the tasting and blending side, and sold Balzana to Figueroa Farms.

Figueroa Farms Olive Mills and Orchards is owned by Shawn and Antoinette Addison and is located in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara. It is renowned for the excellence of its national and international award winning olive oils and its outstanding customer service. To find out more about Figueroa Farms, please consult their website at www.FigueroaFarms.com.

Merritt still selects the oils and the proportions that make up the Balzana Blend. Merritt may use up to ten different olive varieties, predominantly Italian varietals, which come from a number of groves. This provides a broad palette for creating the theme, flavor profile and balance that he wants. Each year a new blend is required to adjust for the natural variations in the taste of a crop as Balzana is always made from the most recently harvested olives. Try this year’s blend and discover how fabulous olive oil can be.