Jack,
It is ALWAYS better to buy a local product. It is always better to store it in a cool place (not over the stove!) and in a green bottle to avoid light damage.
IF we were to get all anal about it, we'd purge the bottles with Nitrogen before we filled them to avoid any oxidation, but our customers use the oil before that becomes an issue. We DO, however, store our bulk oil under a nitrogen blanket so that the surface of the bulk oil is not exposed to oxygen. The bigger producers, like Red Bend, Cobram Estate etc do everything right! BUT, if you can find a small, boutique, local grower/processor, that'll be better - and give them a boost to continue on their quest for the perfect oil.
Our product doesn't last that long on the shelf. Example ... at today's market, I had bottled 10 * 500ml bottles and 7 * 250ml bottles. We came home with just 2 * 250ml bottles from the oil pressed 3 weeks ago. Cannot get fresher than that!
Fact is, wrt olive oil, our harvest season is just now in full swing, having started in northern areas of Qld earlier, and running into the later winter the further south you get.
Imported olive oil will have been harvested (at best) just after Xmas just passed. So, by now it is at least 5or 6 months old.
Italian olive oil, the "ideal" oilve oil according to some, could be from North Africa, as some Italian companies use a quirk of the tarrif regime there to import North African olive oil as a "fruit juice" - which it actually IS - and repackage it as "Product of Italy" Extra Virgin Olive Oil. They then export it as "Italian Olive Oil". Fun fact ... Italy exports more olive oil than they produce, and they use almost ALL of their local production.
We, as oil producers, put a 2 year "best before" on our oils. We could, in theory, stretch that to 3 or 4 years, but that'd be really unfortunate, and would not do our product (or our customers) any favours!
Cheers
John
