Producers from Puglia and Lazio Star at 29th Ercole Olivario

The 29^thErcole Olivario con­cluded with the tra­di­tional final event attended by the com­pe­ti­tion win­ners in Perugia, Umbria.

While the last edition’s award cer­e­mony was restricted due to the Covid-19 pan­demic, this year’s edi­tion of the all-Italian olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion once again fea­tured some of the country’s best pro­duc­ers, who were able to meet and receive recog­ni­tion for their qual­ity work in per­son.

“Thanks to all the farm­ers who, with their com­mit­ment and deter­mi­na­tion, gave us, once again, great extra vir­gin olive oils,” said Giorgio Mencaroni, the pres­i­dent of the Chamber of Commerce of Umbria.

“Despite the par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion, and thanks to the pro­fes­sion­al­ism of the panel led by Alfredo Marasciulo, we man­aged to orga­nize the tast­ings per­fectly,” he added. ​“Everything went well, and we could plan this heart­felt event in the best way.”

Since 1993, the orga­niz­ers of Ercole Olivario have brought pro­duc­ers from around the coun­try together to cel­e­brate the diver­sity of Italy’s olive oil cul­ture, land­scapes and tra­di­tional pro­duc­tion.

With 110 par­tic­i­pants, Ercole Olivario rep­re­sents the final round of a series of selec­tions car­ried out on a regional basis. Twelve extra vir­gin olive oils took part in the con­test after win­ning Orii del Lazio (Golds of Lazio).

The tast­ing ses­sions for the 28^th edi­tion of the regional com­pe­ti­tion were car­ried out at the chem­i­cal lab­o­ra­tory of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome.

Out of six cat­e­gories, pro­duc­ers from Puglia earned top marks in three: PDO/PGI medium fruity, light fruity and intense fruity. Meanwhile, pro­duc­ers from Lazio were awarded in the PDO/PGI light fruity and intense fruity cat­e­gories. One Sardinian pro­ducer won for the medium fruity cat­e­gory.

After enjoy­ing suc­cess in Lazio, Lucia Iannotta won first place at the national level in the PDO/PGI intense fruity cat­e­gory with her PDO Colline Pontine Itrana mono­va­ri­etal.

“This is a his­toric com­pe­ti­tion, and we are very hon­ored to be rec­og­nized for our qual­ity,” the farmer from Sonnino said. ​“The last sea­son yielded lower than aver­age vol­umes, yet we were able to obtain a very good prod­uct. Since the Itrana vari­ety is char­ac­ter­ized by a strong alter­na­tion, now we expect a new abun­dant har­vest.”

During the event, a trib­ute was paid to the late Giorgio Phellas, a beloved fig­ure who played a lead­ing role in the orga­ni­za­tion of Ercole Olivario.

A com­plete list of the 2021 Ercole Olivario win­ners may be found here.