Greece Reaffirms Its Global Standing at 2025 NYIOOC

Summary

Greek olive oil pro­duc­ers excelled at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, earn­ing 96 awards, includ­ing 54 Golds, show­cas­ing the resilience and inno­va­tion in the Greek olive oil land­scape. Among the stand­out pro­duc­ers were AMG Karabelas and Collias Estates, who both expressed the impor­tance of win­ning at the com­pe­ti­tion and the ded­i­ca­tion they put into craft­ing high-qual­ity olive oil despite fac­ing chal­lenges like drought con­di­tions.

Greek olive oil pro­duc­ers made a strong come­back at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, earn­ing 96 awards, includ­ing 54 Golds. The per­for­mance marked a mean­ing­ful rebound from 2024 and reflected the diver­sity, resilience, and inno­va­tion shap­ing the Greek olive oil land­scape today.

Heritage and Innovation from Olympia to Crete

AMG Karabelas emerged as one of the competition’s stand­out pro­duc­ers, earn­ing four Gold Awards. ​“For us, win­ning at the NYIOOC is very impor­tant. It is the most impor­tant extra vir­gin olive oil com­pe­ti­tion because we are totally con­nected with the U.S. mar­ket,” said co-owner Alexis Karabelas. ​“With four Gold Awards this year, we feel great and will pro­mote it across our farm and social chan­nels to thou­sands of American vis­i­tors.”

Based in Olympia, the com­pany pro­duces oil at its mill, known as the Olive Temple, and has earned 11 NYIOOC awards since 2022 across five dif­fer­ent brands​.

Debut Winners Make Their Mark

Another suc­cess came from Collias Estates of Chania, Crete, which earned a Gold Award for its Agia Marina Premium brand — a medium Koroneiki in its debut com­pe­ti­tion entry. ​“Winning at the NYIOOC is an incred­i­ble honor,” said owner Spiro Collias. ​“It val­i­dates all the hard work and care we put into every step, from grove to bot­tle. It helps build trust with cus­tomers who value qual­ity.”

Despite pro­duc­ing just 1,500 liters of oil in one of the dri­est years on record, care­ful irri­ga­tion and tra­di­tional prac­tices enabled the com­pany to suc­ceed under pres­sure.

Crafting Quality Through Adversity

Newcomer Yialós Olive Oil also cap­tured atten­tion with its first-ever award. ​“As a small, fam­ily farm, this means so much to us,” said co-owner Vlasi Vlahosotiros. ​“Though we’ve been mak­ing olive oil for gen­er­a­tions, this is the first time we’ve shared it with the world.”

Like many Greek pro­duc­ers this year, Yialós faced intense drought con­di­tions. ​“We faced one of the harsh­est droughts the region has ever seen,” Vlahosotiros said. ​“Despite these obsta­cles, we remain ded­i­cated to craft­ing the finest extra vir­gin olive oil using sus­tain­able, nat­ural meth­ods”.​

Specialty Varietals Gain Recognition

Gaea, another Olympia-based pro­ducer, earned top hon­ors for its mono­va­ri­etal Olympia brand, stand­ing out in a field dom­i­nated by Koroneiki. ​“Offering con­sumers an ancient olive vari­ety like Olympia and receiv­ing an award for its qual­ity is dou­bly reward­ing,” said mar­ket­ing man­ager Harry Lalousis. ​“It was an inten­sive year for our sen­sory team, and 75 per­cent of sam­ples didn’t make the cut. That makes this award even more mean­ing­ful”.​

New Voices and Fresh Perspectives

Sarmakinas, founded by Sarah Redenböck, cel­e­brated its first har­vest with a Silver Award. ​“Winning an award at the NYIOOC with our first har­vest is an incred­i­ble honor,” Redenböck said. ​“What mat­ters most is that every bot­tle reflects who we are: hon­est crafts­man­ship, a strong sense of place, and a bold new chap­ter for Greek olive oil.”​

A Vibrant Future

From large estates to fam­ily-run groves, Greek pro­duc­ers at the 2025 NYIOOC demon­strated what’s pos­si­ble through per­se­ver­ance and ded­i­ca­tion. Despite one of the most dif­fi­cult grow­ing sea­sons in recent mem­ory, their award-win­ning oils affirmed Greece’s place at the fore­front of qual­ity and tra­di­tion.

All of these pro­duc­ers are fea­tured in the Olive Oil Times World Ranking, which aggre­gates per­for­mance across com­pe­ti­tions to rec­og­nize long-term excel­lence.