New Class of Olive Oil Sommeliers Affirmed in London

From Virginia to New South Wales, olive oil pro­fes­sion­als and enthu­si­asts gath­ered at the CIEE Global Institute in Central London for the sold-out Olive Oil Times Sommelier Certification course in late January.

Over five days, par­tic­i­pants exam­ined olive oil sen­sory analy­sis, farm­ing and pro­duc­tion best prac­tices, health ben­e­fits, nutri­tion, culi­nary appli­ca­tions and qual­ity assur­ance.

Leading the rig­or­ous pro­gram were renowned experts from six coun­tries. The group ana­lyzed over a hun­dred olive oil sam­ples from every pro­duc­ing region.

Among the atten­dees was Chasity Pritchett from the United States-based retailer Emblem Olive Oil, which focuses on sell­ing domes­ti­cally-made extra vir­gin olive oil.

“This course taught me so much and gave me incred­i­ble insight into the pro­duc­tion process of olive oil,” she said. ​“It opened my eyes to a whole new world of tastes and com­plex­i­ties from dif­fer­ent cul­ti­vars.”

Pritchett plans to use what she has learned in the course to facil­i­tate access to edu­ca­tional mate­r­ial and research for under­served com­mu­ni­ties, such as African Americans and Native Americans.

“This mis­sion is deeply per­sonal, and the work con­tin­ues as I strive to edu­cate and raise aware­ness across the nation about the health ben­e­fits of olive oil,” she said. ​“Being sur­rounded by peo­ple who were just as pas­sion­ate and enthu­si­as­tic about olive oil as I am was truly inspir­ing.”

Thelka Galazoudi, the founder of London-based Back2Roots, also left the Sommelier Certification Course feel­ing inspired.

Galazoudi, who imports and dis­trib­utes Greek organic extra vir­gin olive oils and other prod­ucts, plans to use what he learned in the course to edu­cate curi­ous con­sumers at his tast­ing events.

“The olive oil som­me­lier course is a nat­ural pro­gres­sion in my jour­ney to deepen my knowl­edge and exper­tise,” she said. ​“It brought me together with like-minded, pas­sion­ate indi­vid­u­als who share a deep love and respect for olive oil.”

Stefano Chessa of Oliveto Imports joined the course to fur­ther his ini­tia­tive to mar­ket Mediterranean extra vir­gin olive oils in London.

“I am work­ing on a project to improve the U.K. dis­tri­b­u­tion net­work for Domenico Manca,” he said. ​“Their prod­ucts are avail­able through a spe­cial­ized dis­trib­u­tor to the hotel and restau­rant sec­tor, but there is a com­plete absence of their pres­ence in the spe­cial­ized retail mar­ket.”

Chessa said he thor­oughly enjoyed the course, cit­ing the ​“refresh­ing” approach to how the course teaches about the world of extra vir­gin olive oil.

“All the instruc­tors were pleas­ant and pro­fes­sional but incred­i­bly knowl­edge­able,” he said. ​“The event was excep­tion­ally well-orga­nized. I now feel much more con­fi­dent in my under­stand­ing of the extra vir­gin olive oil indus­try. I am cer­tain this will enhance my inter­ac­tions with cur­rent and future cus­tomers.”

Along with retail­ers and importers, olive oil pro­duc­ers attended the course to learn the lat­est indus­try trends and the wider olive oil sec­tor.

“I know the prod­uct now,” said Jorge Miranda, who recently joined the award-win­ning Spanish pro­ducer Casas de Hualdo to man­age exports.

The pur­suit of qual­ity brought another Spanish olive oil pro­ducer, Inigo Garel-Jones Garrigues, to London. ​“I am a pro­ducer look­ing to improve the qual­ity of the fruit and oils that I pro­duce and that of our coop­er­a­tive at large, he said.”

“The course was a real eye-opener for me. Given that I had been exposed to one coun­try [Spain] and region, it gave me a broader view of the sec­tor and pro­duc­tion,” Garel-Jones Garrigues added. ​“Most impor­tantly, of course, I now have a far more in-depth knowl­edge of extra vir­gin olive oil and the capac­ity to dis­cern a gen­uine qual­ity prod­uct.”

Even expe­ri­enced pro­duc­ers found value in the course, which pro­vided the lat­est sci­ence and inno­va­tions in farm­ing, har­vest­ing and milling to com­ple­ment their decades of expe­ri­ence work­ing in the field.

“I’ve been liv­ing and mak­ing olive oil in Tuscany for 20 years,” said Elizabeth Ward-Booth. ​“Many things per­tain­ing to olive oil pro­duc­tion have changed over these years. Now, mov­ing to a new area within Tuscany with a rep­u­ta­tion for excel­lent olive oil pro­duc­tion, I aim to use my expe­ri­ence and new knowl­edge to pro­duce the best qual­ity olive oil.”

Ward-Booth said the course deep­ened her under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of extra vir­gin olive oils out­side Italy.

“I believe the wide knowl­edge gained regard­ing olive oil, par­tic­u­larly the impor­tance of atten­tion to detail in har­vest­ing, milling and stor­age, will be invalu­able in pro­duc­ing a fine qual­ity olive oil,” she said.

Along with the course’s con­tent, par­tic­i­pants also took the oppor­tu­nity to inter­act with the eclec­tic mix of instruc­tors and peers.

“The course also pro­vided net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, allow­ing me to con­nect with grow­ers and buy­ers from around the world,” said Hedzer Roodenburg Vermaat of the Olive Oil Club.

Roodenburg Vermaat cur­rently sources award-win­ning Tunisian olive oils with plans to extend his selec­tion to other coun­tries.

He said becom­ing a som­me­lier will help him bet­ter assess the qual­ity of the olive oils he imports and improve how he guides indi­vid­u­als and cor­po­rate clients in his olive oil mar­ket­ing events.

“The course has been instru­men­tal in help­ing me achieve my goals by enhanc­ing my cred­i­bil­ity as an olive oil pro­fes­sional, sharp­en­ing my abil­ity to assess olive oils, and expand­ing my indus­try net­work — all of which will con­tribute to grow­ing the Olive Oil Club,” he added.

Shannon Hurd, who runs the U.S.-based Cesena Family Imports, found the course to be ​“thor­ough and applic­a­ble. Speakers were knowl­edge­able and engag­ing, offer­ing insights and clar­i­fi­ca­tions on top­ics that were over­loaded with infor­ma­tion.”

“I wanted to acquire knowl­edge to ensure that each bot­tle we select reflects our com­mit­ment to excel­lence and authen­tic­ity,” Hurd added. ​“Knowledge gained as a som­me­lier enhances my abil­ity to edu­cate con­sumers of the ben­e­fits extra vir­gin olive oil offers.”

While pro­fes­sion­als mainly attended the course, curi­ous con­sumers also took part to expand their olive oil knowl­edge.

“I have no con­nec­tion with the olive oil trade – just a pas­sion for great food and cook­ing and a desire to retire to Puglia,” said Andrew Waters.

“I started the course know­ing of extra vir­gin olive oil but very lit­tle about it,” he added. ​“The breadth of the course and the amount I learned was really impres­sive.”

Enrollment for the May Sommelier Certificate Program in New York City is already open.