Ross Vintiner – Olive Grower. The views from Ross Vintiner’s property in Fraters Road are magnificent. Standing on the deck in front of his house there is a panoramic view of the Tararuas and around the corner, to the south side of the house, I experience the strong presence of the Aorangi Range, seemingly quite close.
But it’s the 1100 olive trees that really dominate the scene at Dali Estate. They look strong and healthy, swaying proudly in the light wind with the leaves glistening in the sun. But it wasn’t like this when Ross and his partner Andrea purchased the property in 2011. The trees he inherited were stunted and struggling. Shortly after he took ownership, a ferocious storm lifted forty of them out of the ground. Olive trees normally have a wide-spreading root system to pick up all the nutrients from fungi in the soil, but these had a tiny root clump that showed the result of being fed a constant diet of chemicals.
Ross had studied organic growing and set about converting the grove into a healthy forest. He replanted the uprooted trees and planted Italian Alders throughout the grove as nitrogen fixers. He began using a composting system, invented by Dr Johnson, using the Alders as feedstock, to make the soil under the trees fungi dominant. He tells me that the life force of the trees is balanced nutrients, air, water and fungi. The ratio of fungi to bacteria in the soil needs to be at least 1:1 for trees to grow well. Dali Estate soil is 4:1 fungal dominant.
Ross didn’t start out with a science background. He has degrees in both Political Science and Journalism. Beginning his career as a journalist, he was Chief Press Secretary for David Lange and then set up a communications agency and business consultancy, working for profit and non-profit organisations, such as establishing Daffodil Day for the Cancer Society.
His interest in olives began in 1989 when he established a vineyard and olive grove at Longbush. He found it hard to combine his work in Wellington with the olive and grape growing and sold the property after three years. But he became fascinated with the science of growing olive trees and studied soil science and horticulture on-line as well as gaining an Organic Horticulture diploma from Lincoln University.
Ross has so much information to impart on olive growing and I quickly learn that Ross’s main focus is on getting the highest percentage of polyphenols in his olives.
Ross has so much information to impart on olive growing and I quickly learn that Ross’s main focus is on getting the highest percentage of polyphenols in his olives. These are health-giving antioxidants and the main health benefit of olives. In Europe there are businesses that are isolating the phenolic compounds in olives to sell to the wellness industry. Ross harvests early in the season to get high polyphenols and is the first to pick his olives in the Wairarapa region. Although Ross doesn’t regularly enter award shows he likes to submit his oils every few years as “proof of concept” that he’s doing things right.
Recently he received New Zealand’s only gold medal for his Dali Frantoio oil at the International Olive Oil Awards held in New York, and Dali Picual won Best in Class at the Olives New Zealand Awards held in Masterton. But it is the results of his soil tests that satisfies him most. “That’s better than any medal”, he tells me. He’s proudest of making a healthy environment in his olive grove.
I ask where the name Dali comes from and find out that there are many connections with the name. Things like the artist Salvidor Dali and the Georgian Nature Goddess Dali. But it also means “a place where grapes hang” in Arabic and wherever grapes grow there are olives.
Apart from producing his own olives to make into award winning oil, Ross is now also an olive consultant. He has set up six new regenerative olive groves that are modelled on the same principles that he applies to his own trees. He’s very positive about the olive oil industry in New Zealand but sees the need to grow export markets.
