TURINELA
TURINELA
Gold Award - Turinela
At Dubai Olive Oil Competition
Early Harvest Edition 2025
Ultra Premium Olive Oil
🥇 Turinela wins Gold at DUBAIOOC 2025!
We are proud to announce that Turinela, the exceptional extra virgin olive oil produced in Mali Turini, Istria, Croatia, has been awarded the Gold Medal at the 2025 edition of the Dubai Olive Oil Competition – Early Harvest.
Nestled at 247 meters above sea level on the 45th parallel, Turinela's olive groves benefit from Istria's unique microclimate, ideal for cultivating olives with rich, complex flavors. This family-run estate combines traditional methods with modern techniques to craft a premium olive oil that embodies the essence of its terroir.
Turinela's dedication to quality and sustainability ensures that each bottle delivers a harmonious blend of fruity notes and a delicate peppery finish, reflecting the purity and authenticity of Croatian olive oil.
We invite all lovers of fine olive oil to discover this Croatian treasure on our platform: bestoliveoils.store
Experience the excellence of Turinela and bring the authentic taste of Istria to your table!
Turinela Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a premium Croatian oil, crafted in the heart of Istria by the Volarević family. Founded in 2009, the estate transformed barren hills into a thriving olive grove, cultivating nearly 500 trees at an ideal altitude. Cold-pressed from carefully selected olives, Turinela oil boasts a rich emerald color, fresh grassy aroma, and a perfectly balanced fruity and peppery taste. Award-winning and packed with antioxidants, it captures the essence of Istrian tradition and excellence in every drop.
ABOUT TURINELA
Our Story
Our olive fields are located in Mali Turini near Adriatic coastline, 247 m above the sea level. Placed on the 45th parallel, Istria is the northernmost olive region in the world-important for oil quality which is very sensitive to temperatures over 27 C. Our family estate is based on knowledge, dedication to quality without compromise and sharing food and joy with our friends and customers.
The field that our olives are on was knows as the barren hill, until one faithful day, in 2009, when Aurora embarked on the adventure of a lifetime and planted the first olive trees. She took a barren hill and made it into a fruitful and thriving environment for the Turinela olive trees. Nowadays we have almost 500 trees and produce 4 kinds of olive oil. We do this by combining the traditional methods with modern knowledge and tools to produce our unique, award winning, extra virgin olive oil.
TURINELA
Turinela, one of the fairies from the Istrian legend, likes to rest in the shade of our olive trees, adding a little magic to each olive she lands on. As our trees grow, their roots are woven among Turinela’s enchanted stones, giving all of our olive oil a little bit of her good fortune.
ONCE UPON A TIME...
The Legend of Turinela
Once upon a time, Istria was inhabited by fairies, who would dance in the forests and meadows at night. One night, the fairies each grabbed a stone from the Učka mountain, and put them, one by one into a circle, which is how the Pula Arena was built.
Since the fairies are creatures of the night, as the first sun rays appeared, they had to disappear. Otherwise, people would see them. So, the Arena remained unfinished, missing its top. The stones intended for this final endeavor remained scattered throughout Istria, from Učka to the sea.
The fairies had to drop them and hide, no matter where they were. One of these fairies is Turinela, and she found herself in our olive field as the sun was rising that faithful day.
If you visit our olive fields at night, keep your eyes open. If you're lucky you might catch a glimpse of Turinela dancing among the branches of our trees. You can see the walls we built with her magical stones, and fell the richness of the soil, full of her good fortunes. If you hear the flap of wings, you can never be sure that its just a fly, so listen closely.
ABOUT US
BUŽA
Aurora is the founder of the Turinela olive fields and the one who knows the most about them. She can tell you every type of olive tree we have, what kind of taste it gives and when it will be ready. She likes to play by the rules on certain things, like making sure each olive is exactly 6m away from its neighbor, ensuring their roots have enough space and sun. However, she uses her heart to make the most important decisions, like selecting which trees will make it into that year's special edition extra virgin olive oil. Aurora is the brains of this family farm. Her excel sheets keep us running like a well oiled machine.
Marijo
Marijo, Aurora's husband, takes care of most of the heavy lifting around the olive field. He is an expert at using the handheld electric tree harvester. Additionally, he is the one to spray the olives with much needed nutrients. Nowadays, he drives a nice tractor to do it, but in the beginning it was a backpack of olive food and a lot of love that got it done. Marijo helps our olives thrive and grow, so that every year we can look forward to a more fruitful harvest.
Filip
Filip is the newest protégé for the handheld electric tree harvester, but it's not his favorite job. Aurora's son, Filip, has found his passion in cooking. He is the man behind all the food related photos on our social media. One might argue that his job is the most important - keeping everyone else fueled and happy. Filip has made exquisite charcuterie boards, wonderful risottos, picture perfect omelets, and many, many more. If you find yourself in our olive field, don't miss the opportunity to taste his creations, which are perfectly complemented by our olive oil.
Helena
Helena is always easy to spot, with blue hair and tattoos, she tends to stand out in the small village of Mali Turini, where our olive field is located. Aurora's daughter is currently studying in the Netherlands, so she can't spend as much time in the olive fields as the rest of the family. However, she makes up for it by using her time to manage our social media. Helena likes to create fun images and videos, having fun with the oil and olives. And don't worry, she wouldn't miss out on the harvest - that's where the best photo opportunities happen. In her spare time, she is usually messaging the rest of the family, asking them to take more photos and videos of our beautiful olive fields.
Bruna
Bruna, or as we call her, Nona, is Aurora's mom. She is exactly what you'd imagine an amazing grandma to be. She always makes sure there is enough food, and that no one is cold. In addition, Bruna prefers to hand pick olives, so the care of the youngest trees is in her hands. As she is retired, she spends a lot of time helping out in the olive fields, from the planting of the newest trees to their harvest - she has done it all. When she's not busy with the olive trees, Bruna is usually caring for one of her six grandchildren.
Jakov
Nono Jakov, picture here with his daughter Aurora, is our expert on all things garden and farming. The field in which the olives were planted was passed down through his family, so he has grown up caring for these lands. He has had a fruitful garden for many years and produces his own wine. Jakov's tips and tricks, as well as his community and their knowledge, made all the difference when our olives were young and before we gathered our own knowledge of olive growing. His tractor brought all the necessities to our farm for many years, and still does to this day. You will often see him around the olive trees, checking and making sure they're as strong as can be.
A big thank you to all of our other family & friends!
We want to take this opportunity to show that we could not do this without continuous love and support from our family, friends and community. They are always willing to help us, especially during the harvest season. We want each and every one of them know that they are valued and appreciated.
www.turinela.eu