Olive oil that springs, like great wine, from the soil

We'd like you to meet a friend, a high-spirited creative genius who fashions an assortment of gustatory delights as naturally thrilling as wine. Majid Mahjoub, owner of Les Moulins Mahjoub in Tunisia, makes olive oil and other hedonistic treats like olive compote, sun-dried tomatoes and, aah, bitter orange marmalade.

The short of it is that Elie Wine Company now offers a four-pack sampler of Majid's gorgeous products. Trust us, you owe it to yourself to pour, dip and spread these goodies. Then you'll buy several more packs ($38 each) as gifts. You can count on that, too. But we also want you to know Majid Mahjoub, a man of Old-World charm and New World exuberance, a fascinating original who calls the manufacture of olive oil an interpretive art - like playing Mozart at the piano.

"Everyone starts with the same 'note' and then it's a question of how you see it, what you bring of yourself to creating something from it," Majid explains in fluent English.

Les Moulins Mahjoub has been a family business for more than a century. Today, says Majid, the company exports all of its products to markets extending from Europe to Australia and, emphatically, to the U.S. Majid proudly notes that the consumable art of Moulins Mahjoub can now be found in Whole Foods stores.

"I like very much the U.S. market," says Majid, speaking as both vendor and proud keeper of the family flame. "Americans appreciate what we are trying to do."

And that goal is to make exquisite products that reflect their natural environment - not unlike a master Burgundy winemaker acting (as the Burgundians are fond of saying) like a midwife in a natural process. Thus Moulins Mahjoub practices all natural farming - "no chemicals, ever!" - and applies traditional methods of production.

"But our buildings and equipment are all new and very high-tech," Majid adds. "We operate in a very clean, efficient environment. That's our philosophy: to produce olive oil the way our company did a century ago, using traditional methods, but in an up-to-date settting, with white rooms and climate control."

The olive oil from Moulins Mahjoub is unlike any we've ever known. The first thing that strikes you is its incredible lightness, and then you become aware of the smooth texture and concentrated flavor. Majib laughs at our desperate effort to describe his oil, then lets us off the hook: "Yes, that's exactly it." But what's the secret? More laughter. "The secret," he says, "is that there is no secret. The secret is in the heart, in the soul, of the person who makes the oil. It's about caring. If you really want to make a beautiful olive oil and take care and time, you can do it."

We certainly know the results at Moulins Mahjoub. But did we mention the orange marmalade? To die for. It's a spread, right? We know a New York food writer who gobbled it with a spoon from the jar. Majid's marmalade is quite a story. It's made from wild oranges - bitter and zesty - that burst from blossoms left behind after the orange flowers in a friend's grove are harvested to make perfume! Companies like Chanel pay as much as $10,000 per liter for the blossom essence. "But some blossoms always escape the harvest," Majid explains, "and they become the oranges that go into our marmalade."

That's Majid. His fingerprints are everywhere on his sampler box. Olive oil, olive compote, sun-dried tomatoes. And marmalade. Bottles and jars bursting with the serious pleasure of life. It's our pleasure to bring you the joys of Les Moulins Mahjoub.