It is in the mills of Campo de Víboras, in the beautiful PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) region of Trás-os-Montes, that Distintus is born, the favorite oil of the world’s great chefs. A family business with a history that spans five generations and which is currently led by Hugo Santos, a force of nature who inherited from previous generations all the secrets to guarantee the consistency of one of the best olive oils in the world today.
Distintus is a story of passions, told from the 19th century onwards, in a small village in the north of Portugal, with two families, each with its own mill but both with the same passion: olive oil. As fate would have it, they would be united forever through a love story, which brought the two olive presses together and gave rise to the Padrão dos Santos family, more precisely the olive-growers Francisco and Ofélia, the parents of Hugo Santos, who are the faces of a story of success.
The olive groves from which the Distintus olives are supplied come exclusively from the municipalities of Vimioso, Mogadouro and Miranda do Douro, whose blend is composed of a perfect balance of three types of olives: Bical, Maçanal and Negrinha. After tasting this “liquid gold”, we immediately realize that the quality is undeniable, this is a carefully selected product of choice, not least because of the total harvests, carried out when the olives are at their peak, only 5% meet the requirements to be selected for Distintus.
Fresh, smooth and with an incredible richness of flavor, with final notes of almond and walnut, Distintus is proud to be the most distinguished olive oil in the world and integrates some of the main tables of restaurants at national and international level, being the only one to add 15 Michelin stars among its customers. It all started in 2014 when Hugo Santos decided to put Distintus on the most demanding of tests: the refined taste of award-winning chef Dieter Koshina, from Villa Joya, who immediately fell in love with it and became the first chef to join Distintus, a business that quickly grew and began to tour the world.
The olive oil continues to be bottled and labeled manually, in an elegant bottle with a careful design, guaranteeing a rigorous quality control process. Just as Hugo Santos shared his passion with us, we share and attest to the motto that composes it: Distintus is undoubtedly “a signature olive oil for chefs who create signature dishes”.
By Carla Branco
INFO: https://distintus.pt