The Denominación de Origen Protegida Estepa will throw an oil out for tasting too strong, at a bitterness median above 6. That is the detail separating a protected origin from a marketing word, and it is written into the specification as a number.
The acidity ceiling of the Estepa protected designation is 0.3 %, against the 0.8 % that the general standard allows any extra virgin olive oil.
Can an olive oil be rejected for being too bitter?
Under the Estepa designation, yes. Its specification bounds the median for bitterness between 3 and 6, and the median for pungency between 3 and 6 as well. An oil falls outside for being flat and equally for being excessive. Only the fruitiness median is open-ended, with a floor of 4.5 and no ceiling at all.
Extra virgin is a floor, not a promise
The phrase on a supermarket bottle marks a threshold that a great many oils clear comfortably. It says the free acidity sits at or below 0.8 %, and it says nothing about how far below.
The Estepa specification answers that question with a second number. At 0.3 %, an oil has to come in at less than half the legal ceiling before it can carry the name, according to the Junta. That single figure is what the designation is buying with its name.
Twelve towns, and one is not in Seville
The protected ground covers twelve municipalities. Eleven sit in Seville province: Aguadulce, Badolatosa, Casariche, Estepa, Gilena, Herrera, Lora de Estepa, Marinaleda, Pedrera, La Roda de Andalucía and El Rubio.
The twelfth is Puente Genil, in Córdoba province, and not even all of it: the specification covers the area known as Miragenil. A designation carrying a Seville name has a map that crosses the provincial boundary.
The reason is geographic rather than administrative. The Junta de Andalucía publishes a zone that occupies the eastern corner of Seville province where it meets Córdoba and Málaga, matching the Estepa district, and the olive grove does not stop at the line on the map.
Four oils under one name
| Type | Composition |
|---|---|
| Five varieties | Minimum 35 % Hojiblanca, minimum 15 % Arbequina, minimum 5 % the rest |
| Two varieties | Hojiblanca and Arbequina |
| Single variety | Hojiblanca |
| Single variety | Arbequina |
The authorised varieties are Hojiblanca, Arbequina, Manzanilla, Picual and Lechín de Sevilla, and those minimum percentages are what stop the name drifting away from the territory. Oil pressed in the district with 10 % Hojiblanca does not qualify, however local the mill.
The Arbequina single-variety oil is the only one granted a concession: its polyphenol floor drops to 250 ppm against the 405 ppm required of every other type. Every other threshold applies to it in full.
The numbers on the specification
Seven analytical and sensory values have to be met, and failing any one of them takes the oil out of the designation.
- Acidity as oleic acid, at or below 0.3 %.
- Peroxide value, at or below 15 mEq O2/kg.
- K270, at or below 0.18.
- Fruitiness median, at or above 4.5.
- Polyphenols, at or above 405 ppm, or 250 ppm for single-variety Arbequina.
- Oxidative stability, at or above 43.6 hours at 100 °C and 7 hours at 120 °C.
- Tocopherols, at or above 261.1 ppm.
Polyphenols are measured by liquid chromatography and expressed in caffeic acid; oxidative stability by the Rancimat method. Those two lines matter because they turn a tasting note into something a laboratory can refuse.
Reading the label at a market counter
A bottle carries the designation mark and its own certification; a market stall carries neither. That split matters because it changes what can be verified on the spot.
Stalls in a Seville abastos market sell loose, and at the Mercado de Triana the fresh trade closes at 3pm while the building runs to midnight. Oil sold without certification can still be excellent and simply not covered, which is the opposite of how Seville table olives work, where 200 fruits per kilo makes an olive a Manzanilla whatever the jar says.
Estepa itself sits well outside the day-trip range in the guide to reaching the province by bus, so for most visitors this is a product to carry home rather than a place to visit. The July mean daily maximum of 36.0°C that shapes a Seville itinerary is the same climate that produces the early harvest behind the fruitiness floor.
What the early harvest buys
The fruitiness floor sits at a median of 4.5 according to the Junta, and the specification ties it explicitly to early harvest, with fruit caught between green and ripe rather than left on the tree.
That same early picking is what the bitterness ceiling then has to bound. Greener fruit carries more polyphenols, which is where the 405 ppm floor and the ceiling of 6 on the bitterness median both come from: two numbers pulling in opposite directions on the same compound, in an oil that must also hold 43.6 hours of oxidative stability at 100 °C.
Frequently asked questions about Estepa olive oil
Can an olive oil be rejected for being too bitter?
Under this designation, yes. The specification bounds the median for bitterness between 3 and 6 and the median for pungency between 3 and 6, so an oil falls outside for being flat and equally for being excessive. Both are ceilings as well as floors.
What acidity does Estepa olive oil have?
A maximum of 0.3 % expressed as oleic acid, on the specification the Junta de Andalucía publishes. The general standard allows up to 0.8 % for an oil to be called extra virgin, so this designation demands less than half of the legal ceiling.
Which towns does the Estepa designation cover?
Eleven in Seville province, namely Aguadulce, Badolatosa, Casariche, Estepa, Gilena, Herrera, Lora de Estepa, Marinaleda, Pedrera, La Roda de Andalucía and El Rubio, plus one in Córdoba province, Puente Genil, and there only the area known as Miragenil.
Which olive varieties go into Estepa oil?
Hojiblanca, Arbequina, Manzanilla, Picual and Lechín de Sevilla. The designation covers four separate oils: the five-variety blend, a Hojiblanca and Arbequina blend, and two single-variety oils, one Hojiblanca and one Arbequina.
Zero point three against zero point eight. That subtraction is the whole distance between a label and a designation.