Silkscreened olive oil bottles

I have this cool antique Coca-Cola(R) box, one of those wooden crates with separate cubbies for twelve glass bottles of Coke(R). It sits on the library table in the middle of my farmhouse kitchen, and holds olive oil and balsamic vinegar, dipping oils and sauces, and one gorgeous ceramic oil bottle with a French town scene painted on it. And which, unfortunately, I can't use because it leaks. Sigh...

But I digress.

I used to buy the big plastic bottles of olive oil from Costco, the kind you can't hope to use up before it starts to go south. I kept the extra bottle in my pantry in the basement, where it's cool and dark. But I recently read that plastic is not the optimum storage container for olive oil, and clear plastic that lets in light is even worse.

Also in my cool, dark pantry is a wide shelf that holds empty silkscreened wine bottles that I've saved over the years. I love these bottles, and now they have new life: to store olive oil. Pour tops for oil bottles are easy to find, and when I buy oil in a bottle that won't fit in my box, or that comes in a clear bottle, I decant it into one of these dark green wine bottles.

Of course, storing my olive oil in the wine cellar would be the best place, as the year-round 55 degree temperature will help keep the oil from degrading. But it's not exactly handy for cooking. As long as I buy only premium extra-virgin olive oil (which lasts longer, and is best if kept at room temperature), keep an air-tight cap on it, and use it within a reasonable timeframe, it's OK in my kitchen.