Record Wins for Slovenian Producers in New York

The num­ber of Slovenian olive oil pro­duc­ers send­ing entries to the New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC) has been slowly increas­ing with each pass­ing year.

NYIOOC 2019 saw eight oils from this small coun­try par­tic­i­pat­ing in the com­pe­ti­tion and six rec­og­nized, with three Gold and three Silver Awards. This is the high­est num­ber awarded to Slovenian pro­duc­ers so far and one more than the five they took home at NYIOOC 2017.

Sharing bor­ders with Italy, Austria and Croatia (and a sliver with Hungary to the east), Slovenia is both a Mediterranean and Alpine coun­try. It is also in the north­ern-most region of the Mediterranean where olives are cul­ti­vated.

This includes an area bor­der­ing Italy in west­ern Slovenia and the hills of Istria, a penin­sula in the Adriatic Sea. Growing here are Italian cul­ti­vars includ­ing Leccino, Maurino, Frantoio and Pendolino as well as vari­eties native to Istria, includ­ing Istrska Belica, Buga and Črnica.

Slovenia has a very mod­est annual pro­duc­tion at approx­i­mately 400 tons, but it makes up for this with the high qual­ity of its oil.

Extra vir­gin olive oil from Slovenia has been rec­og­nized for its supe­rior qual­ity since 2007 when it was granted a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) at the European Union level.

Earlier this year, a multi-coun­try PDO for olive oil pro­duced in both the Slovenian and Croatian parts of the Istrian penin­sula under the appel­la­tion ​“Istra” was reg­is­tered.

The NYIOOC has seen entries from Slovenia only for the past four years. Two of this year’s win­ners have won awards for the third year run­ning.

The Morgan fam­ily has won Gold in the past three edi­tions of NYIOOC for its Cuvee, an organic robust blend.

“We have par­tic­i­pated for the last three years and as a result of our good work we were rewarded with Gold each year,” Marko Opašić, of Olje Morgan, told Olive Oil Times. ​“It’s always a good feel­ing when you are awarded, we were very happy.”

“Especially win­ning at a big com­pe­ti­tion, like the NYIOOC, where pro­duc­ers from all over the world are par­tic­i­pat­ing and the com­pe­ti­tion is strong,” he added. ​“It’s impor­tant for us because it shows that we’re on the right path to pro­duc­ing the high­est qual­ity organic olive oil deserv­ing of Gold. Also, win­ning an award from NYIOOC helps us to pro­mote Slovenian olive oil world­wide.”

The major­ity of the Morgan fam­i­ly’s groves are planted with the native Istrska bel­ica but cul­ti­vars such as Leccino, Maurino, Moraiolo and Rosciola also grow here in the north­ern tip of Istria. That fact that their oil is pro­duced organ­i­cally is a mat­ter of pride.

“Our oil is made with heart,” he said. ​“It’s organic, it has the right bal­ance of bit­ter­ness and spici­ness and is rep­re­sen­ta­tive of our indige­nous vari­eties. As we are not a giant pro­ducer we can focus on qual­ity. We mon­i­tor our trees daily at all stages of growth until the olives reach the opti­mal matu­rity to pro­duce the best olive oil.”

Another Gold went to the Bučinel fam­ily for their name­sake Bučinel, a medium intense oil made from Briška drob­nica, an indige­nous cul­ti­var from the region of Brda, tucked in between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea in west­ern Slovenia.

The Bučinel fam­ily has already col­lected a slew of national and inter­na­tional awards and their high-qual­ity oil is on the tables of restau­rants across Europe and North America.

“This was our first time par­tic­i­pat­ing in NYIOOC,” Aleš Bučinel said. ​“We were pleas­antly sur­prised. I think that a Gold Award from a com­pe­ti­tion like NYIOOC means that we are on the right path to suc­cess and that we should carry on doing what we love most: pro­duc­ing extra vir­gin olive oil and shar­ing it with those who are lucky enough to taste it.”

On the Bučinel farm, in the vil­lage of Gradno, grow not only olive groves but also fruit orchards and vine­yards.

Bučinel explained why the cul­ti­var native to his region is unique: ​“Briška drob­nica is a very unique indige­nous cul­ti­var from the Goriška Brda region of Slovenia. The result is a very har­mo­nious oil, of medium inten­sity, with pleas­ant fruiti­ness and medium bit­ter­ness and spici­ness. Its spe­cial har­mo­nious taste comes from the fact that trees strug­gle to sur­vive here in the north­ern-most olive grow­ing region.”

Hailing from the same region is the Sirk fam­ily who won Silver at NYIOOC 2019 for their Belica, a medium intense olive oil made of Istrska bel­ica. The Sirk fam­ily has been pro­duc­ing wine and grow­ing fruit for three gen­er­a­tions, with the youngest gen­er­a­tion, more recently branch­ing out to olive oil pro­duc­tion, with great results.

“This is our first time par­tic­i­pat­ing in NYIOOC,” Ivan Sirk said. ​“We were very sat­is­fied that our oil won a very well-known award. It con­firms that our work is done well and effi­ciently. It also con­firms that our olive oil is one of great qual­ity.”

The third Silver awarded to Slovenian pro­duc­ers went to the Jerebica fam­ily, and their organic Jerebica brand, a blend of Istrska bel­ica, Leccino, Leccione and Pendolino olives.

The fam­i­ly’s olive farm is in Nova Vas, perched at almost 985 feet above sea level and close to the bor­der with Croatia. Growing here, just nine miles from the sea, are groves of 200-year old olive trees as well as younger addi­tions.

“In 2014, we won a Best in Class Award in the robust cat­e­gory for our blend,” Kristjan Jerebica said. ​“This year we decided to again to test our oil at NYIOOC, and we won a Silver Award in the medium cat­e­gory.”

“We’re very excited and so proud that our oil is among the best olive oils,” he added. ​“We pro­duce only organic olives and extra vir­gin olive oil. Winning an award is very impor­tant to us because it con­firms that our hard work was not wasted.”

Another multi-time win­ner at NYIOOC is Miha Jakovčič, who took a Silver for his Giuliana blend this year, and Golds in 2017 and 2018.

“After two Gold Awards, this year’s Silver Award is def­i­nitely not less impor­tant,” Miha Jakovčič said of the fam­i­ly’s win. ​“Like every year, we stayed up late wait­ing to see the live stream of the awards pre­sen­ta­tion from New York.”

“I think it was around 3 am when my wife and I shouted a vic­tory scream after see­ing Silver next to our brand name,” he added. ​“We are very proud pro­duc­ers of one of the world’s best olive oils – to receive a Silver or Gold Award in a com­pe­ti­tion like NYIOOC, the biggest olive oil com­pe­ti­tion in the world is a great recog­ni­tion of our good work.”

This is another fam­ily busi­ness with a long tra­di­tion of grow­ing olives in their hilly groves over­look­ing the Adriatic Sea. Jakovčič and his fam­ily fol­low the exact­ing and tedious process required to pro­duce a high-qual­ity oil by hand-har­vest­ing and trans­port­ing the olives to the mill within hours of being picked.

“We are a rel­a­tively small pro­ducer or bet­ter, a bou­tique pro­ducer,” he said by way of intro­duc­tion to the fam­i­ly’s approach to pro­duc­ing olive oil. ​“We deal with each of our trees indi­vid­u­ally: we can say that we ​‘lis­ten’ to our trees and give them what they need at the right moment.”

“We nur­ture them like they are our chil­dren,” he added. ​“The result is a fresh oil with a great smell and fla­vor, which leaves a unique and sen­sa­tional after­taste in your mouth.”

“I’m very pleased to see that every year more olive oil pro­duc­ers from Slovenia com­pete in NYIOOC,” Jakovčič con­tin­ued, mak­ing note of this year’s record num­ber of entries. ​“Knowing that Slovenia will be a ​‘European Culinary Destination 2021’, it’s impor­tant for olive oil pro­duc­ers in Slovenia to show the world that we pro­duce pre­mium extra vir­gin olive oil. Although we are not an impor­tant player in the indus­try regard­ing quan­tity, I can proudly say that the qual­ity of Slovenian olive oils was always very high.”

To back up this fact, he shares a bit of ancient his­tory: ​“An inter­est­ing his­tor­i­cal fact, which many peo­ple don’t know, comes from the old­est Roman cook­book ​“Apicius” writ­ten in the first cen­tury AD. The author described the pro­ce­dure of doc­tor­ing cheap, smelly oil from Beatica with minced herbs and roots, to make it smell and taste like the prized oil from Istria.”

“Knowing this and details from a few other his­tor­i­cal records, we can say that the high­est qual­ity olive oil has been pro­duced in our region for thou­sands of years. All the inter­na­tional awards that Slovenian olive oil pro­duc­ers received in the last 10 years just con­firm this fact.”