`Spanish Olive Oil Among 'Top 50' in UK Great Taste Awards - Olive Oil Times
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Spanish Olive Oil Among 'Top 50' in UK Great Taste Awards

By Naomi Tupper
Aug. 24, 2012 08:38 UTC

The Cortijo de Suerte Alta Coupage Natural extra vir­gin olive oil, pro­duced in Cordoba, Spain, has beaten a strong con­tin­gent of inter­na­tional foods to be named as one of the Top 50 foods in England at the Great Taste Awards held in the UK.

The oil, which falls under the DOP Baena reg­u­la­tory coun­cil con­trol, was cho­sen from over 8,800 dif­fer­ent spe­cialty foods and bev­er­ages from all cor­ners of the world by a panel of 350 judges. The Top 50 prod­ucts were selected by these judges, who are pro­fes­sional gourmets and tasters, and will appear in an exclu­sive annual guide.

Judges present at the 2012 awards included well-known faces such as UK Masterchef win­ner Mat Follas, restau­rant critic Charles Campion and food writ­ers Lucas Hollweg and Xanthe Clay, in addi­tion to more than 300 food buy­ers from lead­ing food halls and del­i­catessens, such as those of Harrods and Selfridges.

The awards, held by the Guild of Fine Food in the UK, are highly com­pet­i­tive, with var­i­ous stars awarded to prod­ucts accord­ing to the tasters opin­ions. Products may be given a one, two, or three gold star award, or the high­est honor of all, a place on the top 50 list. To gain the three star rat­ing a prod­uct must sat­isfy at least 25 of the tasters, but to reach the high­est level Top 50 list, 50 or more tasters need to approve the prod­uct for unique taste.


Cortijo de Suerte

The Cortijo de Suerte oil is the only olive oil to make the top 50 cut this year, amongst a list of the best British and imported food prod­ucts, rang­ing from smoked rack of bacon from Ireland to Grecian Thyme Honey. Other olive oils to obtain gold stars included Spanish Artisan Delicatessen Ultracomidas’ Prado de Rey extra vir­gin and Beneolivas’ Señorio de Jaime Rosell extra vir­gin oil.

Cortijo de Suerte Alta is an organic extra vir­gin oil, pro­duced from a blend of Picudo, Hojiblanco and Picual olives at a tra­di­tional fam­ily-run estate in Southern Spain. Established in 1924, the estate com­prises of 255 hectare of olive groves, with a yield of around 250,000 Kg of oil per annum.

In April, the Spanish Association of Municipalities of the Olive Tree (AEMO) rec­og­nized Francisco Bujalance, head of Production for Cortijo de Suerte Alta, as ​“Best Mill Master” for ​“his pro­fes­sion­al­ism and care in han­dling his mod­ern eco­log­i­cal mill.”

The focus of the estate is to carry out the entire process from the tree to bot­tling of the oil, which has resulted in an exclu­sive olive oil boast­ing the titles of estate pro­duced and bot­tled, organic and D.O. Baena. Aside from the inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion at the Great Taste Awards, Cortijo de Suerte has won numer­ous Spanish oil awards includ­ing the first prize for the best olive oil mill in Spain in 2007 – 2008.


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