Olive Press

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we took a quick trip to North Bay (north of San Francisco, about seventy miles from where we live). We stayed in Marin County, and drove around for couple of days and visited sites in Sonoma and Napa counties. Olive Press is an olive producer in Sonoma. Their tasting room is in an Italian stone building on the side of a country road.



There are olive trees in the front yard.



A stone olive press in front of the building.



They had quite a few kinds of olive and olive oil for tasting. There is a large window in the tasting room where you can see part of the olive oil production, while a video showing the oil pressing process. A group of 10 can request a tour of the facility. The olive harvest season is October to January. Their olives come from within three hours drive, and are pressed within 24 hours of harvesting. A nice courtyard for picnic. It was a cold and gloomy day and we already had plans for lunch, otherwise this would be such a nice lunch spot.



Large water fountain behind the building. Beyond that is acres of vineyard, which is the mainstay of the region. I suspect the vineyard supports the olive oil business, but I hope one day things will turn the other way, or at least even out a bit.



We discovered this storage room with barrels of wine lining the walls. Marble sculptures of half nudes guard the entrance. Must be an interesting story how they got here.