Premium extra virgin olive oil & vinegars produced here in the Hunter Valley
This proud, Hunter Valley based family business produces some of the finest quality olive oils, vinegars and condiments around. Once you taste their delicious premium extra virgin olive oil, there’ll be no turning back!
In their tasting room at Peppers Creek Village you can taste their range of premium olive oils with flavours such as garlic, chilli, lime, pepper, truffle and wasabi just to name a few. There’s usually ten to twelve flavours to pick from, depending on the season and popularity of the varieties.
As owner Steve Goodchild explained, “We grow our olives at the Pukara Estate Grove near Denman. We then harvest our own olives, then press it, bottle and distribute it ourselves”. This is truly a Hunter Valley operation through and through you can taste the flavour and freshness in the products.
Pukara started in 1999 when the first trees were planted and by early 2003 commercial production of olive oil commenced. “We planted the trees and built the processing facility and things just went from there,” Steve said.
Steve and his wife Racquel now employ approximately 50 staff across the country and regularly export their products to the UK, Ireland, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan. Pukara has become one of the leading retail brands in the premium olive oil and vinegar sector.
Pukara also produce a range of premium vinegars, which are all produced onsite at Pukara from Hunter Valley grapes. “We buy the wine or the grape juice and convert it to vinegar. We then age it or flavour with all natural flavours.”
On the day we popped into the tasting room, it was the launch of the 2018 Novello olive oil. Novello meaning new, is their first harvest for each season and is the freshest olive oil you can get. “We picked the fruit, crushed it yesterday, and it was bottled this morning. So, it’s a very unique product, it’s as fresh as you can get with olive oil,” Steve explained. The Novello is easy to spot, it’s bright green, cloudy and tastes amazing. It’s pretty much the freshest olive juice! The Novello is in limited release, there are only 1500 bottles each year, so be quick.
So next time you’re in the Hunter Valley, take some time out and visit the Pukara tasting room to try their olive oils, vinegars and condiments. They are truly delicious!
