Olive Oil and Wine Tasting - More similarities than you think
Building a Premium Olive Oil Tasting Experience in Hamburg
On a warm summer day in Hamburg, hosted by the WineBank Hamburg, we set out to explore a question that has fascinated us for a long time:
What if extra virgin olive oil were presented with the same curiosity, structure, and respect that we traditionally reserve for wine?
For centuries, wine has been appreciated not only as a beverage, but as an expression of terroir, craftsmanship, tradition, and personal taste. Yet extra virgin olive oil — despite being one of the most complex and culturally significant foods of the Mediterranean — is still often reduced to a simple ingredient or supermarket commodity.
At TresMundi, we believe that great olive oil deserves a place at the tasting table.
It was the reason that made us create a concept dedicated to discovering the fascinating parallels between olive oil and wine through a structured sensory experience.
Six Olive Oils. Three Wine Flights
Our guests embarked on a tasting journey featuring six award-winning extra virgin olive oils from across Italy, paired with three carefully selected Italian wines from our hand-picked small Italian producers.
It was, and is important to us, that olive oil should be tasted the right way. Using professional hand-blown Tuscan tasting glasses, guests learned to evaluate olive oil using the same approach employed by professional olive oil panels around the world:
focusing on the positive sensory attributes of fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency.
The goal, however, was never to identify a "best" olive oil, but to smell, taste and discover a personal preference.
There Was No Winner - There never is
One participant was captivated by the elegant freshness of La Fonte from Vulcino. Another immediately fell in love with the unmistakable tomato leaf character of Iliò, produced from the indigenous Nera di Oliena olive variety of Sardinia. Several guests were fascinated by the herbal complexity and structure of Cru #312 Picholine, while others simply couldn't resist the bold personality of Coratina.
There is no right and wrong in individual taste, and this is precisely the point.
Unlike competitions, our olive oil tasting was not about finding the best olive oil. It was about discovering how different personalities respond to different sensory expressions.
The real winner of the evening was not a producer, a variety, or a region.
The real winner was taste itself.
Flight One
Freshness, Elegance, and Mediterranean Identity
The Olive Oils:
The Wine
We began with freshness and elegance: The mineral, floral, and citrus profile of Vermentino di Gallura created a natural bridge to the green almond, Mediterranean herbs, and fresh vegetable notes found in both olive oils.
Guests discovered that olive oil and wine share many of the same sensory dimensions: intensity, freshness, persistence, balance, and aromatic complexity.
The first surprise of the evening came quickly: many participants immediately recognized that olive oil tasting requires the same concentration and curiosity as wine tasting.
Flight Two
Structure, Complexity, and Balance
TheOlive Oils
The Wine
- Origini Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Riserva DOCG
The second flight increased both complexity and intensity.
The remarkable structure of Verdicchio Riserva - with its almond notes, mineral character, and elegant bitterness - created a fascinating dialogue with the oils.
Guests experienced how bitterness in olive oil, often misunderstood by consumers, can actually become one of its most attractive and gastronomically versatile characteristics.
For many, this was the moment when olive oil transformed from a kitchen ingredient into a product worthy of contemplation.
Flight Three
Persistence, Character, and Emotion
The Olive Oils
The Wine
The final flight explored the more powerful side of extra virgin olive oil.
Both oils displayed significant structure, remarkable persistence, and the distinctive pungency associated with high polyphenol content.
The skin-contact Trebbiano Spoletino from Romanelli provided exactly the texture and complexity required to complement such expressive oils.
Rather than competing with the olive oils, the wine refreshed the palate while allowing the sensory experience to continue long after tasting.
Challenging One of the Most Persistent Food Myths
Throughout the evening, one topic generated more discussion than any other:
"Can you actually cook with extra virgin olive oil?"
For decades, consumers have been told that extra virgin olive oil should only be consumed cold. Modern research tells a very different story.
Thanks to its high concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids, natural antioxidants, and polyphenols, high-quality extra virgin olive oil is among the most stable culinary fats available. (The full research document here:
For many guests, this became one of the evening's biggest revelations.
More Than a Tasting
As the evening progressed, we realized that we had created something larger than a traditional tasting event: We had created a format.
Backed by information presented over more than two hours, our Tresmundi Olive Oil Tasting is a format that combines education, sensory exploration, storytelling, gastronomy, and conversation.
A format where there is no right answer, where personal taste becomes part of the experience itself.
Wine has enjoyed this kind of appreciation and storytelling for centuries. We believe that extra virgin olive oil deserves exactly the same.
Could This Be Your Next Event?
Our tasting format can be adapted for corporate events, team experiences, customer gatherings, wine clubs, and private groups in Hamburg and beyond. We would be delighted to create a customized olive oil and wine experience that tells the stories behind exceptional producers and their products.
Because the objective is not to identify the "best" olive oil.
The objective is to discover how extraordinarily diverse—and wonderfully personal—the world of extra virgin olive oil can be.
A heartfelt thank you to WineBank Hamburg for their hospitality, partnership, and enthusiasm in bringing this experience to life. And thank you to all our guests, who reminded us that the greatest pleasure in tasting is not agreement, but discovery.