In Orhanlı, a Turkish village with Aegean views, the Yücel Sönmez Oil Library has opened: over 90 oils from all over the world to discover with the senses
There are no books here. There is no dusty silence of traditional libraries, nor the smell of paper. Yet the Yücel Sönmez Oil Library, recently inaugurated in the village of Orhanlı, in the Turkish province of Izmir, is in all respects a library. Except that the volumes, instead of leafing through, are savored.
We are on the hills overlooking the Aegean Sea, in the heart of an area where the cultivation of olive trees has been a centuries-old practice. And it is here that what is defined as the first sensorial archive in the world entirely dedicated to olive oil took shape.
The oil archive
The cataloging system does not follow alphabetical orders or sequences by genre. The shelves are organized according to the geography of the cultivars: each sample is a sort of living bibliographic card, with information on soil and climate conditions, production methods and the cultural context of origin.
The collection has over 90 oils. They range from Anatolia to Greece, from Italy to Asia, Africa and the Americas. A comparative map of contemporary olive growing, designed for chefs, oil sommeliers, researchers, buyers, importers and communicators. A technical audience, in short, but also a curious one.
There is, however, a dimension that goes beyond simple consultation. In a historical moment in which many local varieties risk disappearing due to intensive agriculture, the library also functions as a… vault of olive diversity. A garrison, therefore, and not a simple archive.
Slow Food and Anatolian roots
The context is even more interesting. The library was born within the Sevilma Garden project, defined as the first Turkish Slow Food Farm: an agricultural reality rooted in the Anatolian tradition, but oriented towards a contemporary agroecological model. The thread that links the olive groves to the archive is the desire to build a broader awareness around the quality, origin and identity of the oil.
The project is dedicated to Yücel Sönmeztravel journalist who passed away in 2025, who had made narrating the territory his mission. A tribute that tells a lot about the spirit of the place.
Taste, don’t classify
The Oil Library’s approach deliberately distances itself from rankings and scores. The tastings are conceived as sensorial readings, paths in which diversity is recognized before it is even evaluated. In fact, it is not a question of establishing which oil is the best, but of understand what makes each oil unique.
The experience includes inspections of the olive groves, training courses and sessions dedicated to food pairings, with an eye on catering. A model that aims to become platform for an international movement on oil tourisma growing sector globally. Orhanlı thus presents itself as a new point of reference for those who work along the oil supply chain and for those seeking forms of experiential tourism linked to the productive territories.
