The XXI Rural Castanea takes place from 23 to 25 October in Vinhais. This Sunday, for the first time, the festival launches its Olive Grove Technical Sessions — with Azeite a Norte on stage. Come listen, taste and discover.

September arrives in the Trás-os-Montes plateau with a quiet gesture. There is no thunderclap of announcement, no abrupt change in landscape — just a new quality of the light.

You close your eyes. Your cell phone has been in your pocket, silent for twenty minutes. You hear water—a stream you can't see, but you know it's there, somewhere among the ash trees. The earthen and shale ground creaks beneath your feet.

Imagine waking up on a farm in Trás-os-Montes without an alarm clock. The light streams in through the soft, golden stone window. Outside, the silence is so complete you can hear the wind rustling through the olive trees.

There is a region in the far north of Portugal where olive oil has a different history, a different rhythm, and a different scale. And that is precisely what makes it different.