Science & Tradition Lead Ipsa Olive Oil

Shop and tasting room photo courtesy Klaudio Ipša

In the small, picturesque hamlet of Ipši, amidst the rolling hills of Croatia’s beautiful Istria region, sits the Ipša family’s olive groves. At 200 metres above sea level in the hills near Slovenia, the first thing you’ll notice is the medieval villages standing sentry above forests, meadows, vineyards and these much cared-for olive groves. The founder of Ipša olive oils and wines is Klaudio Ipša, who started truffle hunting thirty years ago, before continuing the family enterprise of growing olives and pressing olive oil. In 1998, he restored hundred-year-old olive trees and planted thousands of new ones with his family. It may be an ancient region, but the techniques used to make olive oil today are a blend of traditional and modern.

Growing & Harvesting Olives

Hand harvesting olives photo courtesy Klaudio Ipša

His son Ivan has been part of the family business since he was a small boy. Ivan says, “My desire has always been to grow olives and produce olive oil, as my parents and grandfathers used to do.” By taking the work “seriously” as he describes it, they started with early harvests, using traditional cultivation techniques that not only produced award-winning results but preserves the landscape. Their 2005 Frantoio and Istrian Bjelica oils were in fact the first Croatian olive oils to earn a spot in the world extra virgin olive oil guide, the Flos Olei. The family’s groves feature 150-year-old terraces, ranging from 150 to 420 meters above sea level, and in order to maintain the integrity of the terraces, their olives are hand-picked and collected according to each cultivar. 

Ivan says that “scientific research has proven that earlier harvesting and quick processing yield better quality, healthier oils with more polyphenols,” adding, “In addition to the traditional cultivation technique, in the olive groves we also follow the recommendations of the profession: we only use organic preparations for treating and supplementing the olives.”

From Terrace to Press

Modern press photo courtesy Klaudio Ipša

In addition to melding tradition with science, the family has also implemented the use of technology with a state-of-the-art press they introduced in 2020. Now the entire process, from washing to the release of oil, is computerized, and monitored to regulate the temperature at each step. “This is very important,” says Ivan, “because the climate is getting warmer, and sometimes the olives arrive at the mill warm. But in order to obtain extra virgin olive oil, the temperature must not exceed 27 degrees Celsius in any part of the processing. In such cases, when washing the olives, we lower the water temperature, in order to cool the olives below 27°C, and we can start processing.”

With their own mill, the time between harvest and processing has been shortened, while offering the family control over the entire production process of their extra virgin olive oils from “tree to bottle,” as Ivan says.  Then it’s about oil storage, another important step in production. At Ipša, their oils are stored in controlled temperature, stainless steel barrels under nitrogen to avoid oxidization.

Istrian Cultivars

Olive oil in cooking photo courtesy Klaudio Ipša

All the oils feature distinct flavor profiles and vary from gold to green hues. Ivan’s favorite is the Istrian Bjelica, “because it is ours, autochthonous and recognizable by the fact that the Istrian olive oil is beautiful, green, with the smell of green grass, olive, radicchio, artichoke, in the mouth it is fruity, a little bitter, and at the end it has that recognizable spicy aftertaste.”

He likes to pair this native cultivar with grilled red meat, aged cheese, Istrian maneštra (a Croatian take on the minestrone soup), and with chocolate desserts, including ice cream and mousse.

Olive oils photo courtesy Klaudio Ipša

At the family’s retail space and outdoor terrace you can taste their other olive oils, including the golden green Leccino with its mildly piquant, fruity nuances, the green hued Frantoio (in 2011 and 2017, Flos Olei named this among the 20 best olive oils in the world) with notes of rosemary, artichoke and basil, or their only blend, the Selekcija - a blend of extra virgin mono cultivar Istrian Bjelica, Leccino, Frantoio, Črnica and Bugla olive oils. This latter one tastes of almonds and fresh olives. Paired with local cheeses, cured meats and a glass of one of the family’s many award-winning wines, you’ve got an aperitivo worth stopping for amidst the verdant land of Istria, with an unmistakably Croatian accent.