`Spain Wins Again at Second 'Extrascape' Competition - Olive Oil Times
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Spain Wins Again at Second 'Extrascape' Competition

By Luciana Squadrilli
May. 3, 2013 13:37 UTC


This photo of a Molise olive grove, by Tony Figliola, won the Extrascape.jpg pho­tog­ra­phy con­test.

Soon after the clos­ing of the New York International Olive Oil Competition, another kind of olive oil com­pe­ti­tion took place in an iso­lated and lit­tle-known vil­lage in the Molise region, in the Center of Italy.

Extrascape is a pecu­liar com­pe­ti­tion, set up by Molisextra, a small yet very dynamic pro­duc­ers’ asso­ci­a­tion led by Francesco Travaglini, together with local admin­is­tra­tions and a net­work of Italian Universities study­ing the land­scape under its aes­thetic, func­tional, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nomic aspects.

It is the first inter­na­tional olive oil com­pe­ti­tion that not only awards the best extra vir­gin olive oil, but also the best olive land­scape, accord­ing to dif­fer­ent cri­te­ria includ­ing sus­tain­abil­ity, bio­di­ver­sity, respect for the envi­ron­ment and har­mony with their sur­round­ings.

The 2013 edi­tion fol­lowed last year’s guide­lines: while two expert pan­els – the oil tast­ing and the land­scape one – exam­ined and eval­u­ated oils and pic­tures com­ing from all over the world with a pre­pon­der­ance from Italy and Spain, the ancient cas­tle of the vil­lage now con­verted into a pub­lic build­ing hosted an inter­est­ing archae­o­log­i­cal expo­si­tion about oil and wine pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion in the local area, and a num­ber of con­fer­ences and work­shops.

On day one, a num­ber of sci­en­tific speak­ers such as Prof. Maurizio Servili (University of Perugia), Prof. Claudio Massimo Colombo (Molise University) and Dr. Biagio Zullo (Science and Technology Park of Molise) reported about the Italian olive oil qual­ity para­me­ters and poten­tial­i­ties, and about the pos­si­ble uses of olive pomace and waste­water deriv­ing from olive milling.

On day two, speak­ers dis­cussed olive oil qual­ity in its dif­fer­ent aspects. General Cosimo Piccinno (anti-sophis­ti­ca­tion corps of Carabinieri) and Lieutenant Colonel Amedeo De Franceschi (Corps of for­est rangers) talked about the dan­ger of frauds and food adul­ter­ation and the inves­tiga­tive and oper­a­tive tools to pre­vent and repress them, also point­ing out that the ori­gin cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is one fun­da­men­tal asset to pre­serve both con­sumers’ safety and pro­duc­ers’ job. This per­fectly aligns with the impor­tance of pre­serv­ing and endors­ing the land and land­scape where olive oil is born, con­nect­ing prod­ucts, places and peo­ple.

Prof. Achille Ippolito (La Sapienza University of Rome and coor­di­na­tor for the inter-University Sapienza- Tuscia and Molise University Ph.D. in Environment and Landscape Planning and Management) spoke about well-being and land­scape qual­ity, based upon the cul­tural trace­abil­ity.

Angela Galasso, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Aicare (Italian Agency for Rural Sustainable and Ethical Agriculture) talked about the Association’s activ­i­ties and intro­duced the Olio Giusto (Fair Olive Oil) Award that will be appointed to the most ​“eth­i­cal” olive oil coop­er­a­tive pro­ducer join­ing the net­work.

Gino Celletti, the panel leader at the New York com­pe­ti­tion, illus­trated the poten­tial­i­ties of sev­eral local vari­eties (Molise counts 19 dif­fer­ent cul­ti­vars) while Himeyo Nagatomo – a Japanese pro­fes­sional taster, and part of the inter­na­tional jury – talked about the con­fused reg­u­la­tion of olive oil in Japan.

On day three, just before announc­ing the awards, the PhD stu­dents pre­sented the results of their work­shop about tourism, cul­ture and extra vir­gin olive oil, propos­ing inter­est­ing projects for the touris­tic and cul­tural exploita­tion of Molise, a land full of nat­ural beauty, excel­lent prod­ucts and tra­di­tions.

For the com­pe­ti­tion, fifty-eight extra vir­gin olive oils com­ing from dif­fer­ent areas – from Molise to Uruguay, were eval­u­ated accord­ing to the fruity and con­ven­tional or organic cul­ti­va­tion. Those assess­ments were then com­bined with the results of the land­scape experts, eval­u­at­ing pic­tures of olive tree groves and oil mills divided into the tra­di­tional (wild) or inno­v­a­tive (high-den­sity) cat­e­gories.

Results showed a strong cor­re­la­tion between the qual­ity of a farm’s land­scape and the oil it pro­duced. Spain and Italy won almost every cat­e­gory, even if Spanish farms appeared to be bet­ter than Italian ones at tak­ing care of the land­scape and dis­play­ing it, with some excep­tions of course.

A spe­cial award was given to Agroland Cultivos from Uruguay, whose land­scape was con­sid­ered ​“a model” by the land­scape jury.


2013 Extrascape Winners

Gran Premio Extrascape 2013: Mueloliva Venta del Barón (Spain)

Special Award Extrascape 2013: Agroland Sa (Uruguay)

Special Award Oil Mill Architecture: Tenuta Venterra (Apulia)

Conventional Farms Traditional Landscape

Light fruity:

Masseria Maresca Dop Colline di Brindisi (Apulia)

Tamaro Giorgio, Oliva Nera di Colle Torto (Molise)

Marina Colonna Dop Molise (Molise)

Medium fruity: Potosi 10 Fuenroble (Spain)

Intense fruity: Mueloliva Venta del Barón (Spain)

Conventional Farms Contemporary Landscape

Medium fruity: Casas de Hualdo – Picual (Spain)

Intense fruity: Oleificio Silvestri Ascolana Tenera (Marche)

Organic Traditional Landscape

Light fruity: Masseria Maresca Bio (Apulia)

Medium fruity: Il Frantoio di Vicopisano IGP Toscano Bio (Tuscany)

Intense fruity: Rincón de la Subbética ( Spain)

Organic Contemporary Landscape

Medium fruity: Oro del Desierto (Spain)



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