`Host Argentina Wins Big at Olivinus Competition - Olive Oil Times
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Host Argentina Wins Big at Olivinus Competition

By Sarah Schwager
Sep. 2, 2010 11:00 UTC

By Sarah Schwager
Olive Oil Times Contributor | Reporting from Buenos Aires

Argentina cleaned up at the 4th International Olive Oil Challenge held in Mendoza last week. The prin­ci­pal pro­ducer of extra vir­gin olive oil in South America and host of the event, Argentina took away 78 awards in the OLIVINUS 2010 com­pe­ti­tion, includ­ing 15 top ​“Gran Prestige Gold” Awards”.

Spain, Uruguay, Chile, Portugal and Israel were also big win­ners shar­ing 50 Gold Prestige medals and 40 Gold medals with Argentina. Uruguay won three Gran Prestige Gold Awards – mean­ing the oils sur­passed 90 points on qual­ity – and Spain won two.

Raul Castellani, President and Director General of OLIVINUS, the only inter­na­tional olive oil com­pe­ti­tion to be held in Latin America, told Olive Oil Times the qual­ity of the oils pre­sented before the tast­ing pan­els has been increas­ing with each edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion and this year was no excep­tion, with many great qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oils and a good vari­ety of cut­ting and blend oils too.

But he said the prod­ucts put out by Argentina – a rel­a­tive new­comer to the olive oil indus­try, pro­vid­ing just 1% of world con­sump­tion – are quite out­stand­ing.

Raul Castellani

“The per­for­mance of the Argentinean com­pa­nies was very good, rep­re­sent­ing all of the olive oil-pro­duc­ing provinces, and so Mendoza – which was the biggest win­ner – was very well matched by the provinces of Catamarca San Juan, La Rioja, Córdoba and Buenos Aires,” Mr. Castellani said. ​“This shows that the var­i­ous provinces of Argentina are very com­pet­i­tive at a global level.”

Mr. Castellani, recently bestowed the title of Wine and Olive Oil Ambassador in Jerusalem, said nine of the 15 olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­tries entered in the com­pe­ti­tion did not reach the nec­es­sary extra vir­gin qual­ity nec­es­sary to be con­sid­ered by the tast­ing pan­els, that is, of 75 points or more, despite the excel­lent qual­ity of many of the oils. These were Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Croatia, Slovenia, South Africa, the United States, Peru and Malta.

Castellani said unfor­tu­nately reg­u­la­tion meant no more than half of the com­pet­ing oils could win, so with the out­stand­ing qual­ity pre­sented this year, some really good oils missed out on Gold rat­ings even though they com­plied with reg­u­la­tory extra vir­gin qual­ity.

The best rated extra vir­gin olive oil of the com­pe­ti­tion was a Coratina vari­ety from Mendoza by Almaoliva S.A. which received 95 points once the scores were adjusted.

Second place also went to a Coratina oil from Uruguay made by Agroland S.A, third to Mendoza’s Aceite Santa Augusta and fourth place to a Blend by Spanish com­pany SOCAPMA.

Seven oils man­aged 94 points or more. Castellani said there­fore there was a big debate over which was the best.

The vari­etals of the olive oils to win the Gran Prestige Gold medal were: Coratina (3), Arauco (1), Arbequina (2), Blend (8), Frantoio (1), Nevadillo (1), Manzanilla (2) and Picual or Marteña (2).

Mr. Castellani said it was impor­tant to note that some awards were still forth­com­ing as there were a few oils that did not arrive in Mendoza until the last day of the com­pe­ti­tion due to dif­fi­cul­ties with Customs. These include one from Israel and a few from Spain, Portugal and Chile. He said while this could change the final result in these coun­tries it would not change the results of those olive oils that had already won prizes.

OLIVINUS 2010 Gran Prestige Gold Award win­ners:

VarietyCompanyProduct NameCountry
AraucoTapizTapiz AraucoArgentina
ArbequinaSolfrut S.A.Oliovita Aceite de Oliva Virgen Extra ArbequinaArgentina
CoratinaAlmaoliva S.A.Almaoliva CoratinaArgentina
FargaEnrique A. TittarelliFinca Belvedere Frutado IntensoArgentina
FrantoioFamilia SottanoFamilia Sottano FrantoioArgentina
Manzanilla (tie)Familia ZuccardiFamilia Zuccardi Manzanilla 2010Argentina
Manzanilla (tie)Vargas Arizu S.A.Vistalba ManzanillaArgentina
NevadilloAceite Santa AugustaSanta Augusta NevadilloArgentina
BarneaPromas S.A.prOliva Varietal BarneaArgentina
NocellaraCompañía Olivícola Industrial de Pomán S.A.Triada Agua, cielo y tierra Aceite de Oliva Extra Virgen NocellaraArgentina
Changlot RealOlivícola Pedernal S.A.Dacia Aceite de Oliva Extra Virgen Changlot RealArgentina
ArbosanaMalbec de Los Andes S.A.Cuatro Familias ArbosanaArgentina
HojiblancaAroden S.A.T.Cladivm HojiblancaSpain
Picual (tie)Lam S.A.Eliá Aceite de Oliva Extra Virgen PicualArgentina
Picual (tie)Somacor S.A.De La Sierra PicualUruguay
Blend (tie)AndeolivaAndeoliva Aceite de Oliva Virgen Extra Blend (Manzanilla-Nevadillo-Farga-Arauco)Argentina
Blend (tie)Cuna de OlivaresVero Andino by Cuna de Olivares BlendArgentina
Blend (tie)Once OlivasOnce Olivas Aceite de Oliva Virgen Extra Blend (Manzanilla-Arbequina-Farga)Argentina
Blend (tie)Sociedad Coop. Agrícola Provincial Montañas Alicante ​“SOCAPMA”Lucentum Aceite de la Montaña de Mariola Virgen Extra Blend (Blanqueta-Manzanilla)Spain
Blend (tie)Agroland S.A.Colinas de Garzón Aceite de Oliva Extra Virgen Blend (Arbequina-Coratina)Uruguay

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