Before the first bottle
We started EL POAIG so the trees could stay. That is the shortest way to explain our beginning. We saw olive trees being sold in the Maestrat and taken elsewhere, and wondered what could make growing them more valuable than selling them.
We wanted to work with what those trees were still producing: olives. Making good oil also meant explaining where it came from, who cared for the trees and why keeping them there mattered. That is how we began, Joaquim and Manuel. The oil project and our concern for the landscape grew together.
The name came from close to home: EL POAIG was the property of Joaquim’s grandparents. The bottle, the design and the first presentations came later. The place came first.
València, September 2008
We presented the bottle beside the CuldeSac studio during Habitat Valencia Forward. There was a table and food prepared with EL MIL DEL POAIG by Bueno Para Comer, the shop associated with Riff restaurant. The contemporary report describes about fifty people attending.
Looking back at that beginning, something still feels relevant: oil makes more sense when you taste it. We can talk about a variety, a tree or the work at the mill, but the conversation changes around a table. The person across from us has their own taste and questions.
In December, Dezeen published the oliera designed by CuldeSac and described the project’s origins. EL MIL also appeared in TIME’s The Luxury Index 2008. We kept those clippings. They are part of the journey of an oil from the Maestrat reaching people who had not yet seen this landscape.
March 2011
EL VERD opened another way to discover our oils. El Mundo reported its launch and its ceramic and cardboard packaging. As with EL MIL, some of the attention went to the price and the container.
We also return to those pages for what they leave out. Behind each presentation was the continuing work with farmers and trees. The bottle could travel; the olive trees needed to stay.
Today, as we open this notebook
In 2021, Joaquim’s conversation with Benjamin Kemper, published by Foods & Wines from Spain, returned to that first decision and our work with farmers. Years had passed since the first bottle, and we were still explaining why we had begun.
Now we want to tell you here and continue the conversation when you visit. On a walk, we can stop beside a tree. During a tasting, we can taste what we are talking about. Around a table, there is time to hear what brought you to the Maestrat.
This notebook begins with our story. Its next pages can hold those encounters: a question you asked, a conversation left open, or something you noticed that we had stopped seeing.
Joaquim y Manuel