Twenty-Eight New Olive Oil Sommeliers Certified in London

Summary

Twenty-eight par­tic­i­pants com­pleted the Olive Oil Times Sommelier Certificate Program in London after five days of inten­sive study focused on sen­sory analy­sis, pro­duc­tion, qual­ity, nutri­tion and the pro­fes­sional eval­u­a­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil. The pro­gram added a new inter­na­tional cohort to a grow­ing net­work of trained tasters, edu­ca­tors, retail­ers, pro­duc­ers and food pro­fes­sion­als work­ing to deepen pub­lic under­stand­ing of olive oil.

Twenty-eight par­tic­i­pants com­pleted the Olive Oil Times Sommelier Program in London after five days of inten­sive study focused on sen­sory analy­sis, pro­duc­tion, qual­ity, nutri­tion and the pro­fes­sional eval­u­a­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil.

The March 9 through 13 ses­sion added a new inter­na­tional cohort to a grow­ing net­work of trained tasters, edu­ca­tors, retail­ers, pro­duc­ers and food pro­fes­sion­als work­ing to deepen pub­lic under­stand­ing of olive oil.

As in pre­vi­ous ses­sions, the London pro­gram drew par­tic­i­pants from a wide range of pro­fes­sional back­grounds. Some enrolled to improve the oils they pro­duce, while oth­ers sought to strengthen cus­tomer edu­ca­tion, develop tast­ing expe­ri­ences or build a more rig­or­ous tech­ni­cal foun­da­tion for careers in food and hos­pi­tal­ity.

For many in the group, the week’s most sig­nif­i­cant take­away was a more dis­ci­plined under­stand­ing of olive oil qual­ity. Through guided tast­ings and for­mal instruc­tion, par­tic­i­pants learned how to iden­tify pos­i­tive sen­sory attrib­utes, rec­og­nize defects and con­nect pro­duc­tion deci­sions to the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the oils they eval­u­ated.

That prac­ti­cal empha­sis res­onated with atten­dees already work­ing in the sec­tor. Rainer Nagel, who divides his time between Munich and Greece, said he plans to apply what he learned to the pro­duc­tion and mar­ket­ing of high-qual­ity organic Koroneiki and Manaki oils in the PDO Kranidi area. ​“Our goal is to pro­duce and mar­ket the best pos­si­ble qual­ity,” he said, adding that he also hopes to encour­age nearby small pro­duc­ers to pur­sue higher stan­dards and bet­ter prices.

Nagel described the London ses­sion as ​“a tremen­dously pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence,” cred­it­ing ​“com­pe­tent as sym­pa­thetic experts” and ​“a group of ener­getic par­tic­i­pants with hugely diverse back­grounds and high ambi­tions in the space.”

Others arrived with a retail focus. Katie Dobie, who oper­ates an olive oil shop and tast­ing room in British Columbia, said the course gave her the tools to become a more effec­tive olive oil edu­ca­tor and to guide cus­tomers ​“through the jour­ney of the olive,” from grove man­age­ment and prop­a­ga­tion meth­ods to the final oil in the bot­tle.

Dobie said the pro­gram also strength­ened her con­fi­dence ​“to tell the story of olive oil” and to high­light ​“the her­itage and hard work behind every drop,” along with the nutri­tional value and culi­nary uses of high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

In California, Mike Seder took the course to sup­port an olive farm in Santa Ynez and improve prod­uct qual­ity. He said the train­ing would help him cre­ate ​“an olive oil edu­ca­tion plat­form and tast­ing envi­ron­ment,” giv­ing con­sumers a deeper under­stand­ing of the prod­uct.

Maria Blackburn, based in the United Kingdom, said the hands-on for­mat stood out. She described the pro­gram as ​“well-struc­tured and engag­ing,” adding that the tast­ing ses­sions and expert instruc­tion ​“strength­ened my con­fi­dence and improved my under­stand­ing of olive oil qual­ity and sen­sory analy­sis.” She said she plans to apply what she learned by edu­cat­ing cus­tomers and devel­op­ing tast­ing expe­ri­ences.

The course also attracted culi­nary pro­fes­sion­als seek­ing greater rigor around an ingre­di­ent they use every day. Mansour BouKaram, a chef whose brand focuses on Mediterranean food, said he enrolled because olive oil is ​“the ingre­di­ent I use most in almost every­thing I cook,” and he wanted a deeper under­stand­ing of its role in fla­vor, bal­ance and iden­tity.

Taken together, the par­tic­i­pants’ responses sug­gest that inter­est in olive oil edu­ca­tion con­tin­ues to broaden. Formal train­ing is attract­ing not only pro­duc­ers and spe­cial­ized buy­ers but also retail­ers, chefs, entre­pre­neurs, and com­mu­ni­ca­tors look­ing to bridge the gap between tech­ni­cal knowl­edge and every­day use.

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That shift is sig­nif­i­cant because extra vir­gin olive oil remains widely con­sumed but often insuf­fi­ciently under­stood. Many con­sumers know what they like, but fewer under­stand how cul­ti­var, har­vest tim­ing, milling prac­tices, stor­age and fresh­ness shape what ends up in the bot­tle.

The Olive Oil Times Education Lab fac­ulty brings together a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary group of inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized experts in olive oil edu­ca­tion, sen­sory analy­sis, pro­duc­tion, health and culi­nary appli­ca­tion. The team includes Curtis Cord, founder of Olive Oil Times and exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Education Lab; Carola Dümmer Medina, an NYIOOC panel leader and jour­nal­ist; Pablo Voitzuk, a mas­ter miller and con­sul­tant; Simon Poole, a physi­cian and author known for his work on the Mediterranean diet; Antonio Jesús Puentes Campos, an agri­cul­tural engi­neer and sen­sory analy­sis expert; and Daniel García Peinado, a chef and olive oil ambas­sador. Together, they offer par­tic­i­pants a broad and prac­ti­cal per­spec­tive that con­nects olive grow­ing and milling with tast­ing, nutri­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and pro­fes­sional use.

That breadth of exper­tise is a defin­ing strength of the pro­gram. Rather than approach­ing olive oil from a sin­gle angle, the instruc­tors reflect the full scope of the sec­tor, from orchard man­age­ment and pro­duc­tion meth­ods to sen­sory eval­u­a­tion, pub­lic edu­ca­tion and culi­nary excel­lence. The result is a learn­ing envi­ron­ment shaped by pro­fes­sion­als with deep field expe­ri­ence and inter­na­tional cred­i­bil­ity, giv­ing par­tic­i­pants direct access to the knowl­edge and stan­dards that define high-qual­ity olive oil today.

Over the course of the week, par­tic­i­pants worked through the tech­ni­cal and sen­sory frame­work needed to assess oils more pre­cisely, while also explor­ing food pair­ing, nutri­tion and the role of edu­ca­tion in expand­ing appre­ci­a­tion for qual­ity.

By the end of the ses­sion, what began for many as per­sonal curios­ity had evolved into a clearer pro­fes­sional direc­tion. The newly cer­ti­fied som­me­liers will take that train­ing back to groves and mills, shops and tast­ing rooms, kitchens and con­sumer out­reach ini­tia­tives in mar­kets stretch­ing from California and Canada to Greece and the United Kingdom.

The March ses­sion marked another step in that effort, with 28 new som­me­liers leav­ing London pre­pared to apply a shared vocab­u­lary and a com­mon foun­da­tion to busi­nesses and projects across the olive oil sec­tor.

The next ses­sion of the Olive Oil Times Sommelier Program will be held in New York from June 8 through 12.