Grove
Crush olives. Run the centrifuge. Taste oil still warm from the press — green on the tongue, peppery at the back of the throat.
"The stone walls hold forty years of pressing seasons. Every visitor leaves understanding why a single grove, a single harvest, a single cold extraction tastes like nowhere else on earth."
— Marguerite Delacroix, Head Miller
The Process
From Root
to Glass.
Four stages. Each one a reason why the oil you taste here cannot exist anywhere else.
Terroir is not metaphor — it is chemistry.
Our serpentine bedrock forces roots thirty feet down to find water. The mineral stress produces olives with polyphenol concentrations 40% above valley-floor fruit. This is why single-estate oil tastes different from blended: you taste the specific geology of one hillside, one aquifer, one season.
We pick in October. Every other farm waits.
Early harvest means green fruit, higher bitterness, maximum health compounds. We sacrifice yield — early olives give 30% less oil per kilo — because the oil we do get is extraordinary. Each guest at Grove presses fruit picked within 24 hours. No storage. No oxidation. Just the live fruit in your hands.
Heat is the enemy of flavor.
Our malaxer never exceeds 27°C. Most commercial operations run hot to increase yield. We run cold to preserve the volatile aromatic compounds — the grassy, peppery, artichoke notes that make early-harvest oil taste like a place, not a commodity. You will feel the pepper at the back of your throat. That is oleocanthal — the same anti-inflammatory compound as ibuprofen.
Press-warm oil tastes like nothing you have bought.
The centrifuge spins at 3,200 RPM. When the tap opens, the oil that flows is still at body temperature — vivid green, almost fluorescent. You taste it in a blue glass (no color influence) and you will understand immediately why every other oil you have tasted was already old.
Three Ways to Press
Find Your
Session.
Whether you're planning a weekend for two or a corporate retreat for twenty, the oil you press is always yours.
The Pressing Session
For two — or a table of friends
Three hours in the mill. You crush, you malax, you centrifuge. The oil you press is yours to take home in a labeled bottle with your harvest date. Paired with bread, aged pecorino, and a flight of our previous three vintages.
The Grove Retreat
Something your team has not done
Teams of 8–24 compete in pressing teams. Blind tasting finals. The winning team's oil is bottled with their company label. Catered harvest lunch on the terrace. Zero PowerPoint.
The Polyphenol Workshop
For sommelier-track students & chefs
A full-day intensive covering harvest science, extraction chemistry, and sensory analysis. Flavor wheel calibration. You will leave able to evaluate any oil you encounter for the rest of your career.
Sensory Analysis
What You Will
Taste.
Our 2025 harvest. Early-picked Arbequina and Frantoio blend. Tasted blind against three international award winners — our guests chose it first, every time.
Color
Vivid chartreuse
Indicative of chlorophyll — early harvest marker
Nose
Fresh-cut grass, green tomato
C6 aldehydes from intact cell structure
Palate entry
Grassy, artichoke, light bitterness
Oleuropein — the compound that protects the fruit
Finish
Persistent pepper — 3 on the scale
Oleocanthal — same pathway as ibuprofen
Polyphenols
340mg/kg
Extra virgin threshold: 250mg/kg
Sessions fill 3–4 weeks in advance
Voices from the Mill
They Pressed.
They Understood.
4.97
847 sessions · 2018–2025
"We've done wine country, cheese caves, chocolate factories. Grove was the first place where I genuinely understood what I was tasting and why. The oil we pressed is still in my kitchen six months later — I can't bring myself to use it on anything ordinary."
Theodora Marchetti
Food writer, San Francisco
"Our team has done escape rooms, cooking classes, wine tastings. Grove was the first thing where nobody checked their phone. When you're running a centrifuge and watching oil come out warm, you're present."
Damien Okonkwo
VP People, Redwood Ventures
"I thought I knew olive oil. I had passed my Level 2 WSET, I had tasted at trade fairs. The polyphenol workshop at Grove reset everything. Marguerite's explanation of oleocanthal changed how I teach fat to every student I have."
Sonia Reyes-Altamirano
Head Sommelier, Zuni Café
"The stone walls, the smell of the crusher, the way the oil looks in the glass before you've touched it — Grove is one of those rare places that makes you feel like you're somewhere real. We came for our anniversary and we're already planning to come back for the intensive."
James & Priya Nakamura
Weekend guests, Marin County
"We've done wine country, cheese caves, chocolate factories. Grove was the first place where I genuinely understood what I was tasting and why. The oil we pressed is still in my kitchen six months later — I can't bring myself to use it on anything ordinary."
Theodora Marchetti
Food writer, San Francisco
"Our team has done escape rooms, cooking classes, wine tastings. Grove was the first thing where nobody checked their phone. When you're running a centrifuge and watching oil come out warm, you're present."
Damien Okonkwo
VP People, Redwood Ventures
"I thought I knew olive oil. I had passed my Level 2 WSET, I had tasted at trade fairs. The polyphenol workshop at Grove reset everything. Marguerite's explanation of oleocanthal changed how I teach fat to every student I have."
Sonia Reyes-Altamirano
Head Sommelier, Zuni Café
"The stone walls, the smell of the crusher, the way the oil looks in the glass before you've touched it — Grove is one of those rare places that makes you feel like you're somewhere real. We came for our anniversary and we're already planning to come back for the intensive."
James & Priya Nakamura
Weekend guests, Marin County
"I've been to Tuscany, to Andalucía, to the Peloponnese. Grove's Frantoio presses as well as anything I've tasted in those places. The difference is that here you make it yourself."
Lorenzo Castellano
Executive Chef, Quince
"We brought 18 people for a corporate offsite. The competitive pressing format was brilliant — our engineering team started arguing about centrifuge physics. Nobody wanted to leave for lunch. Grove converted a group of skeptics into olive oil obsessives."
Fatima Al-Rashid
Chief of Staff, Palo Alto startup
"The flavor wheel calibration exercise alone was worth the trip. I can now taste any olive oil and tell you within one harvest week when it was picked. That's a skill I use every day."
Marcus Webb
Beverage Director, The French Laundry
"Spent a Sunday afternoon with my partner pressing our own oil. Came home with a labeled bottle and a completely different relationship to the olive oil aisle at the market. Worth every dollar and every minute of the drive."
Ananya Krishnamurthy
Guest, Berkeley
"I've been to Tuscany, to Andalucía, to the Peloponnese. Grove's Frantoio presses as well as anything I've tasted in those places. The difference is that here you make it yourself."
Lorenzo Castellano
Executive Chef, Quince
"We brought 18 people for a corporate offsite. The competitive pressing format was brilliant — our engineering team started arguing about centrifuge physics. Nobody wanted to leave for lunch. Grove converted a group of skeptics into olive oil obsessives."
Fatima Al-Rashid
Chief of Staff, Palo Alto startup
"The flavor wheel calibration exercise alone was worth the trip. I can now taste any olive oil and tell you within one harvest week when it was picked. That's a skill I use every day."
Marcus Webb
Beverage Director, The French Laundry
"Spent a Sunday afternoon with my partner pressing our own oil. Came home with a labeled bottle and a completely different relationship to the olive oil aisle at the market. Worth every dollar and every minute of the drive."
Ananya Krishnamurthy
Guest, Berkeley
Sessions fill 3–4 weeks ahead
You understand it now.
Come taste it.
Select a date, choose your session type, and optionally add a paired wine flight. No form on this page — just a date picker, group size, and one decision.
Reserve Your Pressing