The house at Le Vigne has been many things. It started in the 12th century as a convent. In the 1700s, it was divided and expanded into a porzione colonica, a separate home with its own entrance tucked inside the larger building, so the next generation had somewhere to live. Vineyards once ringed the property, which is how it got its name. Le Vigne means "the vines."

The vines are gone. The olives stayed.

The green heart of Italy

Italians call Umbria "il cuore verde d'Italia", the green heart of Italy.

It's one of the few Italian regions with no coastline, a landlocked stretch of hills between Tuscany and the Apennines known for truffles, wine, and olive oil with real backbone.

Le Vigne sits on 15-plus acres near Perugia, inside the Colline del Trasimeno protected designation of origin. About 1,000 olive trees grow there, the youngest around 18 years old and the oldest about 47.

Chef Meherwan found the oil through a family friend, and we became the first to bring it to the US last year. And that first harvest made an impression.

Food writer Jane Black, who keeps at least 10 bottles of olive oil in her pantry, wrote:

"It's hard to impress me. So imagine my surprise when Asheville spice brand Spicewalla, which has never imported oil, served up some green gold that blew me away."

Three olives, one oil

Three varieties make up about 80% of the grove, and each one brings something different to the tin.

• Moraiolo is Umbria's signature olive. The fruit is small, and the oil is intense, with a bitterness and a peppery kick that come from a high polyphenol load.
• Frantoio brings the green. Think cut grass, fresh herbs, and a spicy finish.
• Leccino is the softer voice in the room. It rounds out the edges with a milder, fruitier character.

A few Pendolino trees work as pollinators for the rest of the grove, and some Ascolana Tenera trees fill out the mix. Pressed together, they make an oil that runs from green to golden in the glass.

The 2026 tasting notes

Our first release in 2025 was smooth with a gentle peppery finish. The 2026 Le Vigne Extra Virgin Olive Oil is louder, and we're obsessed.

Expect green tomato and fresh herbs on the nose. The first sip brings ripe fruit. Then comes the finish, a bold pepper that warms the back of your throat and might make you cough. And that cough is a compliment.

Scientist Gary Beauchamp was tasting freshly pressed oil in Sicily when he noticed a throat sting he recognized from his research on ibuprofen. His team at the Monell Chemical Senses Center traced it to a compound called oleocanthal, a polyphenol found in fresh, high-quality olive oil, and published the finding in 2005 in Nature.

The stronger the sting, the more oleocanthal in the oil.

This harvest tested at 584 mg/kg of total polyphenols. For context, oils over 300 mg/kg count as high-polyphenol.

How to taste it like a producer

According to Hannyah and the rest of the family at Le Vigne, this is how they taste it:

Pour about a tablespoon into a small glass. Cup it in your palm for a minute to warm it, then cover the top with your other hand and swirl. Take your hand away and breathe in. That's where the green tomato lives.

Now take a small sip and pull some air in through your teeth, slurping a little. It feels rude. Do it anyway.

Producers do it because air carries the aroma to the back of your nose. Swallow and wait. The pepper arrives a second or two later.

What we're cooking with it

This oil wants to be tasted, so our team has been using it where heat won't flatten it.

• Rub a halved tomato into grilled bread, salt it hard, and pour on more oil than feels reasonable. Pan con tomate is in the rotation for a reason.
• Follow Alyse's recipe for olive tapenade, leave it in the fridge, and thank us later when you're feeling hangry. This recipe kept the office so happy the week of our photoshoot for this product! 
• Drizzle it over vanilla ice cream with flaky sea salt. The pepper and the cold play off each other. She's beauty, and she's grace. 
• Toss mixed olives with strips of orange peel, crushed fennel seed, and a generous pour. My friend David at Luminosa in Asheville taught me the importance of heating your olives after this; it makes them juicy and plump! 
• Finish a bowl of white beans, a pot of soup, or avocado toast with it.

Le Vigne Extra Virgin Olive Oil is $29.99 this year, so you can keep a tin open on the counter and reach for it whenever you want. Why'd we reduce the price? Yes, it's a very special, handmade product. And yes, you do deserve to use it every night. 

Spread love, cook food, eat EVOO by the spoonful like Meherwan 🙂
Cara Manning, Spicewalla's Director of Marketing