I'll let you in on a secret; I haven't tasted any of the best olive oils on the planet right now. The best oils in September are coming from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, somewhere south of the equator. Everything north of the equator (Mediterranean, California) was harvested somewhere from Oct '08 to Jan '09. Some of it is good, some of it is even great, but not as good as it was six, seven, eight months ago.

Truth is, olive oil never gets better with age. I suppose some oils might mellow out a bit and with a soupçon of luck become better balanced, but there's no getting around the fact that olive oil only loses flavor as time goes by. The only people who think olive oil gets better with time either don't like a lot of flavor in their olive oil or like that touch of rancidity that appears over time (don't laugh, a lot of people have grown to like the taste of rancid oil the same as they like Wonder bread or Miracle Whip; it's what they grew up with).

South of the equator the seasons switch, so add six months to those harvest dates above, say April '09 through July '09, and you'll see that the freshest olives on the planet just got picked about two to four months ago. The most flavorful oils on the planet are untasted by me, and I'm jealous of all those who've had the opportunity to try them.

Don't go rushing into retail shops searching for south of the border oils, they're most likely unavailable as shops still have inventory from last year's harvest on the shelves.

So, what's great in the Mediterranean/Californian oils right now? If you like the buttery, pine nutty, silky, smooth oils with little bitterness or peppery after-kick, steer clear of anything that you're not certain was picked and extracted with the highest of standards. For myself, I wouldn't purchase any oil in that flavor category that didn't have a D.O.P. or A.O.C. designation (quality assurances for particular European regions), especially arbequiña or taggiasca. Those latter two varieties' flavors tend to fade faster than others. I would also be wary of D.O.P.s that come from fairly large geographic areas (like Chianti) if smaller geographic areas with D.O.P.s exist within that larger area (since the larger geographic D.O.P. will have more lax standards). That pretty much rules out California oils on the mellow, less intense side of the flavor spectrum.

If you like the more fruity, bitter, and peppery oils, though, you still have a cornucopia of flavors available. Any of the big Tuscan varietals like frantoio, pendolino, moraiolo, leccino still have lots of flavor left in them right now. Taste before you buy it, but don't fret so much about the geographic regulations, those varieties hold up. Those are also varieties that are grown in many regions of the world, so check out California offerings. Picual (the ubiquituous olive in Spanish oils) holds up amazingly well over time, but be certain your harvest date is not too late in the season because they are often left to overripen to take advantage of their particularly high oil yield when ripe, and thus take on a flavor reminiscent of ammonia. Anything with a reliable D.O.P. that was picked in the earlier part of the harvest season would be a good bet as well.

A bottle or two of those will hold you over until next month, when those southern hemisphere oils start showing up.