U.S. Wins 50 Awards at International Olive Oil Competition

At the fourth annual New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC), where a panel of 15 renowned judges spent four days tast­ing and assess­ing the largest col­lec­tion of inter­na­tional olive oils ever assem­bled, 50 American olive oils were named among the World’s Best. On April 14, the results were announced at a press con­fer­en­cein New York attended by 200 producers,journalists and food indus­try pro­fes­sion­als.
See Also:The Best American Olive Oils for 2016
Producers from the United States have good rea­son to be proud. The coun­try placed third over­all, after Italy which received 109 awards, and Spain, which took home 78. 121 American pro­duc­ers sub­mit­ted oils to the com­pe­ti­tion, a suc­cess rate of 41 per­cent.

Sierra, an olive oil har­vested from cen­tury-old trees in California’s Sierra foothills by Apollo Olive Oil, has won four gold awards in four years, a truly extra­or­di­nary show­ing. It’s rich and robust yet ele­gant, based on California’s clas­sic Mission, with Tuscan vari­eties Frantoio and Leccino.

Steve McCulley, a part­ner at Apollo, said it ​“means a lot to be judged as a Gold Award win­ner by the inter­na­tional panel in New York. It means our oils are equal to Europe’s best oils.” America’s suc­cess helps make the case to buy­ers and con­sumers that the coun­try is indeed craft­ing world-class extra-vir­gin. ​“Our sin­gle focus is on qual­ity rather than quan­tity,” said McCulley.

Bill Sanders, the man behind First Fresh Extra Virgin Olive Oil, was over­joyed at hear­ing the news that First Fresh received a Gold, its third NYIOOC award. ​“Consumers are seek­ing trust with their olive oil. The NYIOOC award equates to trust,” Sanders said. First Fresh is an exclu­sive blend of Arbequina, Ascolano, Arbosana and Manzanillo olive vari­eties from trees span­ning three cen­turies in Corning, California by Lucero Olive Oil, which also pro­duced four award win­ners under its own brand.

Sanders and McCulley agreed that edu­ca­tion is para­mount to a robust American olive oil indus­try. ​“The biggest chal­lenge is edu­cat­ing the cus­tomer as to what real extra vir­gin olive oil really is and why it costs more than super­mar­ket olive oil,” McCulley said. According to Sanders, ​“the con­tin­ued glut of cheap, defec­tive olive oil in the U.S. mar­ket” is proof that ​“ongo­ing edu­ca­tion effort with con­sumers and retail­ers is vital to our growth and suc­cess.”

Frantoio Grove, another four-time win­ner, was one of two U.S. oils to win a cov­eted Best in Class Award. Frantoio Grove is redo­lent of green grass, almond, and pear, with excep­tional har­mony and com­plex­ity. The other Best in Class went to Pacific Sun for its Tuscan Blend, in addi­tion to three Gold Awards for its Eva’s Blend, Organic Blend and Proprietor’s Select.

American pro­duc­ers are cre­at­ing seri­ously great olive oils, which for Sanders take on an even greater mean­ing: ​“Life is about col­lect­ing moments,” he said. ​“Olive oil brings us all closer together in small ways.”

For the full list of win­ners, head to bestoliveoils.org.

• The World’s Best Olive Oils