Amor é Cego Olive Oil

Amor é Cego, which means love is blind, is the olive oil of Monte da Oliveira Velha, a small farm at Azaruja, 17 kilometres from Évora and 25 from Estremoz. The land has been in the Rosado family for three generations. In 2015 João Rosado and his family began bottling oil from the grove his grandfather planted more than six decades ago, so that the old trees would stay in production and could be handed on.

The grove is a traditional dry-farmed one, without irrigation, with the trees set twelve metres apart, and it is farmed under organic production rules. All the olives are Galega, a variety native to Portugal. They are picked by hand into 20-kilo crates and milled the same day. Yields are low and the family prefers it that way, letting the trees grow at their own pace: the 2025 harvest gave 650 litres of oil.

The oil is a cold-extracted single-variety extra virgin, ripe and fruity, with notes of tomato and nuts and a lightly peppery finish. It can be bought at the end of a visit or ordered from the farm.

Visits are by appointment and last about 75 minutes. Guests hear the story of the farm, learn about the Galega olive and taste the oil in the shade of a wild olive tree said to be a thousand years old, with views towards the castle of Evoramonte and the Serra d'Ossa. Azaruja is a village north-east of Évora, on the way to Estremoz.