Are Those Instagram Olive Oils Worth the Price?

Thoughts on Brightland et al

Nearly 20 years ago, I was lucky enough to interview the great wine importer, thinker, and all around mensch Terry Theise. His knowledge of wine was exhaustive, but he was utterly unpretentious. He also had a way with words that appealed to a writer like me. Though Terry had access to rare bottles, he told me was often pleased to drink “happy dog” wines, the kind that “love you, and you love them back.” Terry also unapologetically liked what he liked. “Old World wines ask you to dance with them,” he wrote in his first book, Reading Between the Wines. “New World wines push you prone onto a chair and give you a lap dance, no touching.” You can see why I was impressed.

As the new crop of olive oils hit shelves this month, I’ve been thinking about something that Terry told me all those years ago — not about olive oil, but about Champagne. Terry was a fan of what are called “growers’ Champagnes,” the small producers who make and bottle their own sparkling wine rather than selling their grapes to the big Champagne houses –– Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Perrier Jouët –– who then blend them and market their prestige bottles at top dollar. At least some of what you were paying for, Terry explained, was the fancy bottle, the box, and all that marketing

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In the era of Instagram, this feels increasingly true of olive oil. Over the last several years, new California brands such as Brightland and Wonder Valley have built big followings on social media, and earned themselves plenty of ink. Like a French Champagne house, these brands buy bulk oils from small producers, blend them, and package the blends in sexy bottles. The aesthetic is a bold logo and a matte finish for the bottle, something that might look good sitting next to candles or fancy bitters in a gift shop.

There is nothing wrong with these brands per se. They’ve gotten some good reviews — I myself gave high marks to Brightland’s new harvest olio nuovo in a 2019 piece for The Wall Street Journal. And they do make a pretty host gift.

But the truth is that you are paying a serious premium for the pretty packaging, buzzy collabs, and social media marketing of an “Instagram oil,” rather than what’s actually inside the bottle. Why not pay less — and directly support California olive oil producers?