La Befana visited the Italian countryside on January 6th on the holiday of the Epiphany and left presents for the children as usual, but also deposited about two inches of wet snow from southern Tuscany and Umbria into the north. In Rome, it was not cold enough for snow, but there was so much rain that the southern part of the city had heavy flooding. Orvieto recorded more than 3.5 inches of rain between the 5th and the 7th of January. North of Orvieto was the dividing line between rain and snow.
In early December just before the holiday of Immaculata, I attended the presentation of the FLOS OLEI 2026 awards to the premier olive oil producers from around the world. My interest was primarily the Italian oils, but it was interesting to see that even Nepal has olive oil production. Notable oils are being produced in Croatia as well, and we may pick up a couple of these in the coming months. After all, Mussolini insisted that Istria was really part of Italy.
Marco Oreggia, the brains behind FLOS OLEI, continues to produce an excellent curated guide to the best olive oils in the world, and especially the best Italian olive oils. We do our best to select those award-winning producers who have consistently produced high-quality olive oils and we offer these to the US consumer at an affordable price.
Fonte de Foiano again won the top award for Producer of the Year, and their oil remains one of our favorites. Producing since 1979, If you would like to buy a copy of the FLOS OLEI 2026 edition book, we will have it available to purchase towards the end of February. You can check our website for updates.
Among the best olive oils that received high scores for 2026, we carry these
Colli Etruschi
Del Carmine
Frantoio Bonamini
Frantoio Franci
I Tattoli
Le Tre Colonne
Madonna dell’Olivo
Marfuga
Masoni Becciu
Mate
Olio Intini
Palazzo di Varignana
Titone
Trebbio
You can browse our selection here.
