Does Quartz Hill produce new season oil or nuovo oil?

It's a question we're asked more often as awareness of early harvest olive oil grows in Australia. The answer matters, and the distinction goes to the heart of what we're trying to achieve with every bottle.

What is nuovo oil?

Nuovo oil (or olio nuovo) is olive oil bottled immediately after pressing. It's naturally cloudy, intensely fruity and unstable. The cloudiness comes from suspended water droplets and microscopic olive fruit particles that haven't had time to settle.

In Italy it's a celebrated seasonal tradition, released in the weeks immediately after harvest as a vivid, raw expression of the new crop. It's extraordinary in those first weeks. But it's not designed to last — and its polyphenol stability reflects that.

What is new season oil?

New season oil is also made immediately after pressing — but it's gone through either a natural or mechanical process to clarify and stabilise the oil before bottling. The result is an oil whose polyphenols, flavour compounds and antioxidants are balanced and protected through careful handling rather than speed to bottling.

Our process is to allow the new season oil to naturally settle. Here's why that matters for polyphenol concentration and purity:

The polyphenol question

Polyphenols, including oleocanthal, oleacein and hydroxytyrosol, are the main compounds responsible for the health benefits of genuinely high-quality extra virgin olive oil. They're also the compounds most vulnerable to degradation.

Freshly pressed oil contains tiny droplets of water and microscopic olive particles. Left suspended in the oil, these particles accelerate oxidation and reduce polyphenol stability over time. While nuovo oil is at peak flavour in the days immediately after pressing, its polyphenol integrity declines much faster than a properly settled and stabilised oil.

Our goal isn't to produce the cloudiest oil. Our goal is to create the highest quality olive oil that maintains its polyphenol concentration as close to harvest levels as possible — not just on day one, but for the year ahead. That's why Quartz Hill is independently lab tested at every harvest. And it's why the process to protect the polyphenols until the next annual harvest matters as much as the polyphenol count itself.

Nature does the work: mechanical vs natural filtration

Rather than forcing the oil through a mechanical filter after extraction, we allow it to rest in stainless steel tanks where gravity does the work. Over time, microscopic water droplets and tiny fruit particles naturally settle to the bottom of the tank.

Our tanks are designed to allow settled sediment to be left behind without disturbing the clarified oil above. Once clarified, we carefully rack the oil - transferring the clear oil from the top of the tank into a clean stainless steel tank. This process inevitably sacrifices a small amount of oil trapped within the sediment layer, but we believe preserving quality is more important than maximising yield.

By removing the material most likely to ferment, oxidise or destabilise the oil over time, natural settling and racking help preserve freshness, flavour and polyphenol Intergrity without unnecessary processing or handling.

Protected until bottling

Oxygen is one of the greatest enemies of polyphenols in olive oil.

After racking, our oil is stored under an inert gas blanket in food-grade stainless steel tanks. This protective layer prevents oxygen from coming into contact with the oil, preserving its vibrant aroma, flavour, naturally occurring polyphenols until the moment of bottling.

Why we don't bottle cloudy oil

Cloudy olive oil often looks appealing — it signals freshness from the mill. But the cloudiness is caused by suspended water droplets and microscopic olive particles, that left in the bottle, continue to change over time. They accelerate oxidation which reduces polyphenol stability and taints flavour.

By allowing the oil to naturally settle before bottling, we remove this sediment whilst preserving the oil's natural character.

Our philosophy

We believe exceptional olive oil is created through careful decisions at every stage:

• Early harvesting for naturally high polyphenols
• Rapid cold extraction within hours of picking
• Gentle natural settling and racking instead of mechanical filtering
• Storage in stainless steel under inert gas
• Year-round temperature controlled cellar storage
• Bottling only when the oil is stabilised

Our goal isn't to produce the cloudiest oil. Our goal is to produce an olive oil that tastes as fresh, vibrant and balanced months after harvest as it did the day it was made.

Sometimes, the best technology is simply giving nature the time to do its work.