If the extent of your experience buying olive oil is at the supermarket - it's shelved lined with olive oils bearing labels with Italian-sounding names - you may think olive oil is an Italian, or primarily Italian food. If so, you would be very wrong. Olive oil was introduced to America primarily by Italians - hence the proliferation of Italian (or Italian-sounding) olive oil brands. But olive oil comes from places as far apart as Spain and Australia - and each location gives a unique flavor and quality to the oil it produces. If you're limiting yourself to one geographic origin, you're missing a whole palate of olive oil flavors.
Everyone knows that the same grape produces different wines in different locations. The Cabernet Sauvignons of California are different wines than the Bordeaux of France even though they are pressed from the same grape. Every wine has a terroir - that is, factors that influence its taste due to where it comes from, especially the soil and climate where the fruit was grown. Although many people don't realize it, olive oil also has a terroir.
