Producers from Puglia and Lazio Star at 29th Ercole Olivario

Taking place in person after being conducted remotely last year, producers came together to celebrate Italian olive oils and their producers.
Photo: Ercole Olivario
By Ylenia Granitto
Jun. 15, 2021 06:58 UTC

The 29thErcole Olivario con­cluded with the tra­di­tional final event attended by the com­pe­ti­tion win­ners in Perugia, Umbria.

While the last edition’s award cer­e­mony was restricted due to the Covid-19 pan­demic, this year’s edi­tion of the all-Italian olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion once again fea­tured some of the country’s best pro­duc­ers, who were able to meet and receive recog­ni­tion for their qual­ity work in per­son.

Thanks to all the farm­ers who, with their com­mit­ment and deter­mi­na­tion, gave us, once again, great extra vir­gin olive oils,” said Giorgio Mencaroni, the pres­i­dent of the Chamber of Commerce of Umbria.

Despite the par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion, and thanks to the pro­fes­sion­al­ism of the panel led by Alfredo Marasciulo, we man­aged to orga­nize the tast­ings per­fectly,” he added. Everything went well, and we could plan this heart­felt event in the best way.”

See Also:Olive Oil Competitions

Since 1993, the orga­niz­ers of Ercole Olivario have brought pro­duc­ers from around the coun­try together to cel­e­brate the diver­sity of Italy’s olive oil cul­ture, land­scapes and tra­di­tional pro­duc­tion.

With 110 par­tic­i­pants, Ercole Olivario rep­re­sents the final round of a series of selec­tions car­ried out on a regional basis. Twelve extra vir­gin olive oils took part in the con­test after win­ning Orii del Lazio (Golds of Lazio).

The tast­ing ses­sions for the 28th edi­tion of the regional com­pe­ti­tion were car­ried out at the chem­i­cal lab­o­ra­tory of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome.

Out of six cat­e­gories, pro­duc­ers from Puglia earned top marks in three: PDO/PGI medium fruity, light fruity and intense fruity. Meanwhile, pro­duc­ers from Lazio were awarded in the PDO/PGI light fruity and intense fruity cat­e­gories. One Sardinian pro­ducer won for the medium fruity cat­e­gory.

After enjoy­ing suc­cess in Lazio, Lucia Iannotta won first place at the national level in the PDO/PGI intense fruity cat­e­gory with her PDO Colline Pontine Itrana mono­va­ri­etal.

This is a his­toric com­pe­ti­tion, and we are very hon­ored to be rec­og­nized for our qual­ity,” the farmer from Sonnino said. The last sea­son yielded lower than aver­age vol­umes, yet we were able to obtain a very good prod­uct. Since the Itrana vari­ety is char­ac­ter­ized by a strong alter­na­tion, now we expect a new abun­dant har­vest.”

During the event, a trib­ute was paid to the late Giorgio Phellas, a beloved fig­ure who played a lead­ing role in the orga­ni­za­tion of Ercole Olivario.

A com­plete list of the 2021 Ercole Olivario win­ners may be found here.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles