Grove 45 Olive Oil Ice Cream
Ana Hernandez first started making this olive oil ice cream at the Italian restaurant she once operated in Guatemala. It didn’t become a runaway hit, though, until she introduced it at her Grove 45 ta...
Grove 45
Ana Hernandez was all of 19 when she left her native Guatemala on a lark to come to the Napa Valley. A friend attending the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena needed a roommate. Ana volunteered, thinking it the perfect opportunity to study as a sommelier in one of the most storied winemaking regions in the world.
There was just one hitch: She didn’t count on the legal drinking age in the United States being 21—unlike Guatemala’s, which is 18.
Undeterred, she quickly switched to Plan B, setting her on a path she never envisioned.
Today, 28 years later, with a baking degree instead from the CIA, Ana crafts her own Sauvignon Blanc and rosé with her daughter, Marcela Hernandez, at their Museion Winery in Calistoga, under the guidance of renowned consulting winemaker Philippe Melka. They also produce their own Grove 45 extra virgin olive oil, some of it harvested from a pedigreed orchard with trees more than a century old. Last year, they opened their Calistoga tasting room, offering Ana’s olive oil cake and olive-oil-infused focaccia in unique olive-oil-centered experiences with their wines.
“When I followed my friend out here, I thought we were going to San Francisco. That’s how much I knew,” Ana, 47, says with a laugh. “But from the first moment, I fell in love with the Napa Valley, with its beauty, with the friendliness of the people. It’s so rewarding to have a business of my own and to spend time with my daughter on it. I never thought this would be my life.”
Even so, when her then-Guatemalan boyfriend came to visit and ended up proposing at the CIA, she accepted on one condition: that one day they would return to the Napa Valley to set down roots. Fourteen years later in 2010, they did just that, when Ana and her now-husband, Jorge Hernandez—founder of Illumination Technologies, one of the largest private telecommunications tower builders in Latin America—purchased a 73-acre ranch in St. Helena.
The long-neglected property didn’t even have a house on it. But it did possess a remarkable surprise: 5,000 Spanish and Italian olive trees, planted 140 years ago by pioneering vintner Charles Krug. Some of the varietals are so old that even an expert from the University of California at Davis couldn’t identify them without further DNA analysis.
The family started making olive oil for personal use. Then, when Grove 45’s original owners, Nena Talcott and Bonnie Storm, decided to retire, they reached out to Ana through their mutual realtor to see if she would continue it. With five children to raise, Ana initially balked. But the more she talked to Talcott and Storm, the more she grew persuaded.
In 2019, she took over Grove 45 and its 500 Italian olive trees in the Chiles Valley in the eastern hills of the Napa Valley. Together with the 300 trees harvested on the St. Helena ranch, the Hernandez family now produces 900 gallons of extra virgin olive oil organically, though not certified as such.
The olives are pressed at Chacewater Winery & Olive Oil Mill in Kelseyville, then packaged in sustainable recycled aluminum containers. Having purchased their own Italian mill, the family hopes to start doing their own pressing in Calistoga within two years.
They make two oil varieties: Grove 45 ($42 for 500ml) from Chiles Valley olives in the same original style; and Special Selection ($50 for 500ml), a more limited production from the St. Helena orchard. With the aroma of tomato leaves, the Grove 45 is buttery, with green grass and citrus notes. In contrast, the Special Selection is lusher with an in-your-face arugula pepperiness. It’s smooth jazz versus heavy metal.
Chef Yan Iskandar of Ciccio is a big fan of the Special Selection. He’s used it for more than a year as the Yountville restaurant’s finishing oil to drizzle over pastas, pizzas, fish and even almond torta, chocolate budino and strawberries with whipped mascarpone.
“It’s a very intense extraction,” he says. “I’m from Singapore, where we put sambal on almost everything. We do the same here with this olive oil.”
Grove 45 originally was available only at wholesale, but when the pandemic hit, Marcela, 27, put her University of Arizona business degree to use by creating a consumer e-commerce site. That led to olive oil tastings online, and eventually the idea for the tasting room.
Done up with wallpaper hand-painted with verdant olive trees, and earthtone couches and pillows made by Guatemalan women artisans, the tasting room was designed by Marcela’s godmother, Guatemalan designer Agustina de Tezanos.
The standard $40 tasting includes sampling the two olive oils, plus two international extra virgin oils and two Italian balsamic vinegars. To go with are noshes of olive-oil-drizzled popcorn, Ana’s focaccia, mozzarella-tomato skewers, Ana’s olive oil cake a la mode with olive oil ice cream, and chocolate–olive oil bonbons. A $70 high tea lets guests customize their own tea blend to sip with cucumber sandwiches, tomato–olive oil bruschetta, olive oil cake and macarons. A glass of Museion wine can be added for an extra cost.
Marcela, Ana and their all-women team add new events regularly. “People are looking for more than wine tasting now, which has gotten so expensive in the valley,” Marcela explains. “They want more of an experience than just looking at some soil in a jar.”
The family plans to continue increasing production from the trees on their St. Helena ranch, which coincidentally sits right behind the CIA, a fact not lost on Ana.
“I don’t know if it’s serendipity, but it’s like the circle has closed,” she says. “We started and finished our story in our favorite place.”
Recipe