La Furtuna Estate in Corleone, Sicily

An Olive Oil Sommelier’s Guide to Liquid Gold

8 Minute read

27 Jul 2026

Paul Feinstein

Writer

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From peppery finishes to unexpected pairings, Agatha Relota Luczo explains how to get more from every bottle.

Extra virgin olive oil is one of the most familiar ingredients in the kitchen and one of the least understood. Bottles are labeled with harvest dates, cultivars, regions, and tasting notes, yet many shoppers still choose one based on little more than price or packaging. Even after bringing it home, questions remain: Should olive oil taste bitter? Is that peppery sensation in the throat desirable? Can it be used for high-heat cooking? And how long does an open bottle actually stay fresh?

Agatha Relota Luczo has spent years studying those questions. She grew up in a Croatian family where extra virgin olive oil was a fixture in both the kitchen and the medicine cabinet, serving as a home remedy as readily as a cooking ingredient. Her interest took on new dimensions after she and her husband, Steve Luczo, established La Furtuna Estate in Corleone, Sicily. The organic farm is now home to 12,000 olive trees representing 12 cultivars and supplies the olives used to produce Bona Furtuna’s extra virgin olive oils.

Luczo’s path to olive oil was not a conventional one. She began modeling at 16 and went on to appear in fashion publications and campaigns for brands including Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Hermès. Years spent working with makeup artists and skincare experts eventually informed the creation of Furtuna Skin, the olive oil-based skincare company she founded and now leads as CEO. But her interest in olive oil extends well beyond beauty. Luczo has completed two olive oil sommelier certification programs, works with the team responsible for producing the estate’s oils, and judges olive oil competitions around the world.

That training has taught her to evaluate olive oil much as a wine professional approaches a bottle of wine: by considering its cultivar, place of origin, harvest, production, aroma, flavor, and possible defects. Here, Luczo explains how professionals evaluate extra virgin olive oil, what bitterness and pungency can reveal, how it behaves in the kitchen, how long an open bottle lasts, and why the best bottle in the house should be enjoyed now rather than saved for some hypothetical special occasion.

Olive Oil Sommelier Agatha Relota Luczo

What does it take to become an olive oil sommelier?

You study and learn about extra virgin olive oil and the whole process of making it. Then you taste different extra virgin olive oils from all over the world, like a wine sommelier would taste different wines from different regions and cultivars. You learn about the different varieties, harvest timing, extraction methods, regions, and terroir.

Then you train your palate because there is a sensory analysis that you have to do. You learn to identify fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency, which are the three main attributes of extra virgin olive oil. You also learn to find the defects, whether it is rancid, fusty, musty, or winey.

Extra virgin olive oil can be perfect when it is made and then become defective during the bottling process. People send their olive oil to a lab for chemical analysis, but it can develop a defect during packaging, bottling, handling, or storage. Only a human can identify those defects afterward.

You need the sensory palate to be able to detect that and notice it. Then you take a test at the end. They will ask you, “What country do you think this extra virgin olive oil comes from? Spain, Italy, Greece? Does it have a defect or not?” There are a bunch of different questions you get asked to be able to pass the certificate. It is really about training the palate.

What can the flavor of an olive oil tell you about its health benefits?

The more pungent it is and the more pepperiness you feel in the back of your throat, the more polyphenols it has. That peppery feeling in the back of the throat is called oleocanthal. It is basically nature’s Motrin, and it acts in the same way as ibuprofen for the body. It is anti-inflammatory. So the more pepperiness and pungency you feel in the back of your throat, the more polyphenols and oleocanthal it is presenting. Oleocanthal is a polyphenol.

They fight free radical damage and defend against collagen breakdown. They’re amazing for the body. They’re antioxidants.

How much extra virgin olive oil do you consume each day?

I take about a tablespoon every single morning. Then I sprinkle it on things, cook with it, and bake with it throughout the day. I only use extra virgin olive oil, and I take it every morning either straight or with some lemon. It is amazing for helping detoxify the body and protecting the digestive tract. It also helps regulate your blood sugar in the morning.

Can you cook with extra virgin olive oil without destroying its beneficial properties?

That is a big misconception. The concern with cooking with extra virgin olive oil, and with all oils, is the smoke point and the idea that heat degrades the quality of the oil. But extra virgin olive oil is very stable, and it is a myth that you cannot cook with it.

There is also a nutrient exchange that happens when you cook vegetables with extra virgin olive oil. The healthy fats help enhance the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients like vitamins A, E, and K, so it is really amazing to cook with extra virgin olive oil.

You never want to burn any oil, whether it is a seed oil or extra virgin olive oil. Burning any oil is bad for your health, but cooking and baking with it is great.

How long does extra virgin olive oil last once it has been opened?

Once I open a bottle of extra virgin olive oil in my house, it lasts just a few days, so it does not sit around very long. But once it is opened, you should use it within a few months. If it is unopened, it can last in your kitchen for up to, I would say, a year, as long as it is sealed.

Some people are like, “Oh, this is an amazing extra virgin olive oil. I need to save it for a special occasion” after they open it. I say, “Don’t save it. Just drink it. It’s amazing for you. Enjoy it.” Every day is a special occasion. When you wake up in the morning and drink that extra virgin olive oil, you are doing yourself and your body a favor. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Enjoy it every single day.

How do you pair different styles of olive oil with food?

I use the Furtuna Skin olive oil for drinking, and I use the different olive oils from Bona Furtuna for cooking. We have the Forte, which is great to cook with and pour over meats because it is a stronger extra virgin olive oil. We also have the Heritage Blend, which is a bit milder in flavor and is great to pair with fish.

Using an extra virgin olive oil that is really strong in flavor can sometimes overpower the flavors.

I also love pouring our Heritage Blend or Biancolilla Centinara over vanilla ice cream as a dessert and topping it with some sea salt from Sicily. It is such a nice dessert.

What can extra virgin olive oil do for the skin and hair?

It is amazing for your hair and skin because it is rich in polyphenols and vitamin E. If you are using it on your skin, it is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. All of those polyphenols protect the cells from damage. It helps keep our DNA stronger, and if you use it every single day, you will feel like you are aging in reverse.

I was just looking at a picture of myself from 2016, and I was like, “Wow, I look so much better today than I did back then.” My skin is more glowing, my hair feels better and is of better quality, and I feel better myself.

What goes into producing an extra virgin olive oil specifically for drinking?

Editor’s note: Pasquale “Mimmo” Marino is the master botanist and agronomist at La Furtuna Estate.

Mimmo and I have 12 different cultivars at the farm. We looked at the six best cultivars for drinking and made a blend called LXR06 for Furtuna Skin, which is our drinking olive oil.

Everything is handpicked and pressed within six to eight hours of being picked. We wait about 45 minutes after the olive oil starts being pressed for the foamy part to disappear, and then we bottle that liquid gold. There is a lot of love that goes into LXR06, and not one bruised olive goes into this bottle of extra virgin olive oil for drinking.

What is the connection between extra virgin olive oil and longevity?

A big conversation people are having nowadays is longevity. When you drink extra virgin olive oil, it is rich in polyphenols like oleocanthal, which we talked about. It is also rich in hydroxytyrosol, which is really important. It is present in extra virgin olive oil and protects telomere length. Telomeres are like a biological clock of your cells.

Extra virgin olive oil helps slow that clock down by protecting the cells from damage and keeping DNA healthier for a longer period of time. If you think of a shoelace, it is like the end of the shoelace. It prevents it from fraying and slows the clock down. That is pretty cool as well.

Olive oil has been used for centuries. Why do you think it is having such a moment now?

I was on a panel a few years ago, and they asked me, “What do you think the next hottest ingredient is?” I said, “It has been around for centuries.” Homer dubbed it “liquid gold,” and Cleopatra used it. I do not feel like extra virgin olive oil has had its big moment as an ingredient, but now, with Hailey Bieber and all of these influencers starting to talk about it, it is finally having a moment as a hero ingredient for your health.

I think it is really important to think about health and wellness from the inside out. Extra virgin olive oil is one of the only oils, or it is the only oil, where you can take the fruit, squeeze it, and get pure oil from it. With everything else, you have to use a chemical process to make the oil. It is from nature.