`Through the Blue Glass to the Origins of Great Olive Oils - Olive Oil Times
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enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Through the Blue Glass to the Origins of Great Olive Oils

By Curtis Cord
Mar. 7, 2012 19:52 UTC
Summary Summary

The first Extrascape com­pe­ti­tion in Molise, Italy aims to rec­og­nize the impor­tance of the farm and land­scape in cre­at­ing the world’s best olive oils, with entries eval­u­ated by pro­fes­sional tasters and Italian uni­ver­si­ties before win­ners are announced at a May Day cer­e­mony. The com­pe­ti­tion seeks to high­light the eth­i­cal, sus­tain­able, and his­tor­i­cal aspects of olive oil pro­duc­tion, empha­siz­ing the con­nec­tion between great olive oils and the land­scapes they come from.


Azienda Agricola Colle Para

Next Month I’ll join a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary panel of judges in Molise, Italy to decide the win­ners of the first Extrascape com­pe­ti­tion. Does the world really need another olive oil con­test?

Each sea­son judges from Los Angeles to Beijing swirl, sip and scru­ti­nize sam­ples for their organolep­tic qual­i­ties and declare the world’s best olive oils (and thank good­ness they do). But there’s another story that needs to be told.

Now more than ever we need to be con­cerned with the story behind the bot­tle and look at the farm it came from. Ethics, sus­tain­abil­ity, his­tor­i­cal her­itage and har­mony with the sur­round­ings should also be weighed.

Extrascape will look through the cobalt blue tast­ing glass to the ori­gins of great olive oils and rec­og­nize the impor­tance of the farm and its land­scape in the cre­ation of the world’s best olive oils.

Entries will first be eval­u­ated by a panel of pro­fes­sional tasters before under­go­ing another round of tech­ni­cal analy­sis by the agri­cul­tural sci­ence and land­scape archi­tec­ture depart­ments of a trio of Italian uni­ver­si­ties. Finally, a jury will take into acount all of the rec­om­men­da­tions and decide the out­come.

Winners will be announced at a May Day cer­e­mony in Molise coin­cid­ing with a local event, La Carrese. They will be hon­ored at a spe­cial exhi­bi­tion at the well-known Chicago restau­rant Spiaggia, and pro­filed in these pages and the inter­na­tional press.

The first Extrascape com­pe­ti­tion will be a trib­ute to the great olive land­scapes of the world, and a recog­ni­tion of the sim­ple truth that great olive oil can only come from a great land­scape.

Producers can reg­is­ter here.

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