195 Awarded at 'Domina' Olive Oil Contest

The sec­ond edi­tion of the Domina International Olive Oil Contest con­cluded with the three-day event on May 7 in the beau­ti­ful scenery of Domina Zagarella Sicily Hotel, in Palermo.

The final ses­sion of the con­test was opened by its pres­i­dent, Antonio G. Lauro, with Stefania Reggio and David Oddsson. After a trib­ute to the mem­ory of Raul C. Castellani, Lauro gave the green light to judges for their eval­u­a­tion of 347 entries. Twenty tasters from Spain, Palestine, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Japan, Israel, China and Turkey ana­lyzed sam­ples from 19 coun­tries.

Speaking of the other num­bers of the con­test, the panel mem­bers assessed the pro­file of ninety-nine dif­fer­ent mono­va­ri­etals, which com­prised 60 per­cent of the entries.

A total of 195 medals — 95 Gold and 100 Silver — were awarded to com­pa­nies par­tic­i­pat­ing in this sec­ond edi­tion of the D‑IOOC.

Italy led at the podium with 95 medals (55 Gold and 40 Silver), fol­lowed by Spain with 27 medals (17 Gold, 10 Silver) and Greece with 18 medals (5 Gold and 13 Silver), then Turkey (3 Gold Medals and 7 Silver Medals) and Argentina (2 Gold Medals and 7 Silver Medals). Moreover, recog­ni­tions went to Palestine, Brazil and South Africa.

“Producers are pleased to have par­tic­i­pated in this ​‘Italian-inter­na­tional’ con­test,” said the pres­i­dent of D‑IOOC, Antonio G. Lauro. ​“In addi­tion to its pres­tige, they appre­ci­ated the reli­a­bil­ity of the rules, the high level of tasters and the inde­pen­dence of the super­vi­sors who come from both hemi­spheres,” he pointed out, adding that the D‑IOOC aspires to become the most impor­tant con­test in the Mediterranean area.

“We do not have stereo­types about the world olive oil pro­duc­tion. Whether it is green or ripe, from the north or south, a rare or a wide­spread vari­ety — we treat every extra vir­gin olive oil with the respect they deserve,” Lauro remarked. ​“We believe in qual­ity and in defend­ing the bio­di­ver­sity, and with this com­pe­ti­tion, we also try to pro­tect hun­dreds of minor vari­eties pro­duced by small, medium and large pro­duc­ers.”

The num­ber of par­tic­i­pants and the style of the com­pe­ti­tion were grounds for sat­is­fac­tion, said D‑IOOC man­ag­ing direc­tor, Stefania Reggio. ​“We have the goal of giv­ing pro­duc­ers use­ful tools to pro­mote their prod­ucts,” she explained. ​“We orga­nized var­i­ous activ­i­ties, includ­ing a mar­ket­ing work­shop, and we par­tic­i­pated in the inter­na­tional food fair Tuttofood in Milan, where pro­duc­ers met inter­na­tional importers. Also, we have many other ideas for the next edi­tion.”

“This award made us proud, espe­cially since our com­pany is young,” said Donato Conserva, who won the Best International Award Northern Hemisphere with Mimì. ​“In our sec­ond year of activ­ity, this inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion encour­aged us to work harder and bet­ter.” He explained that it was a com­pli­cated sea­son with a drop in quan­tity, and much work was needed in the olive grove to obtain a high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

“This award is a recog­ni­tion of our com­mit­ment to pro­duc­ing a great Coratina, a native vari­ety of our ter­ri­tory, char­ac­ter­ized by dis­tinc­tive but har­mo­nious bit­ter­ness and pun­gency and high polyphe­nol con­tent,” said Conserva.

“It was impor­tant to be rewarded in this con­test, with the high num­ber of qual­ity oils that com­peted,” Cristina Stribacu observed. ​“In Messenia, we pro­duced the mono­va­ri­etal Koroneiki Liá and we are even hap­pier for the Gold Medal we received, con­sid­er­ing the dif­fi­cult sea­son we had to face.”

She described their extra vir­gin olive oil as a medium-fruity, of great com­plex­ity with hints of green banana, arti­choke, wild fen­nel and aro­matic herbs, and bal­anced bit­ter­ness and pun­gency that recall pink pep­per. ​“In addi­tion to the atten­tion paid to the man­age­ment of the olive grove, we usu­ally carry out an early har­vest to achieve the high­est qual­ity,” she added.

Here the Top 10 of the inter­na­tional and ter­ri­to­r­ial awards:

You can check out the full list of win­ners on the D‑IOOC web­site.