Greek Olive Oil Producers React to NYIOOC Wins

Summary

Greek olive oil pro­duc­ers had their best per­for­mance yet at the New York International Olive Oil Competition, win­ning 46 awards, 20 of them gold, despite a dif­fi­cult har­vest year. Producers such as Hellenic Agricultural Enterprises and PJ Kabos took home mul­ti­ple gold awards, show­cas­ing their ded­i­ca­tion to excel­lence and qual­ity in the indus­try. The awards have brought recog­ni­tion and sat­is­fac­tion to the Greek pro­duc­ers, reaf­firm­ing their com­mit­ment to pro­duc­ing top-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oils.

This year, Greek olive oil pro­duc­ers over­came a dif­fi­cult har­vest for their best per­for­mance yet at the New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC), more than tripling last year’s suc­cess rate and tak­ing home more awards than ever before: 46 awards, 20 of them gold. The impres­sive accom­plish­ment dur­ing an eco­nomic cri­sis, in com­pe­ti­tion with a record-break­ing 910 olive oils from 27 coun­tries, con­firmed Greek pro­duc­ers’ ded­i­ca­tion to excel­lence.

A num­ber of the pro­duc­ers, mar­keters, and exporters of the world’s best Greek extra vir­gin olive oils shared with Olive Oil Times what their NYIOOC awards meant to them, how they man­aged to pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oils (EVOOs) good enough to earn the indus­try’s top hon­ors, and how this fits in with their com­pany philoso­phies.

Two Greek com­pa­nies won not one, but two, Gold Awards. One of these was Hellenic Agricultural Enterprises, with Golds for two medium extra vir­gin olive oils pro­duced from the rare Kolovi olive native to Lesvos. Ellie Tragakes said they ​“are thrilled with the results of the NYIOOC, because our pre­mium brand ACAIA won Gold for the sec­ond year in a row, and our much newer brand Aeolian Olive also won Gold. We hope that the pres­tige of the NYIOOC will mean that both our brands will receive grow­ing world­wide recog­ni­tion for their excep­tional qual­ity and taste.“

The other Greek com­pany with two Gold Awards at the NYIOOC this year was PJ Kabos, with Golds for PJ Kabos and PJ Kabos 11 – 12-16, both medium Koroneiki EVOOs from the Ancient Olympia area. As James Panagiotopoulos com­mented, ​“even though God has blessed us with awards every year since we started par­tic­i­pat­ing in com­pe­ti­tions, the antic­i­pa­tion and hope of see­ing our name in the award ​‘cred­its’ live from New York each year is still there. Actually it is an even more intense feel­ing than the first year we par­tic­i­pated; reach­ing the top is easy com­pared to the effort and moti­va­tion it takes to stay there!”

Three Greek com­pa­nies each won a Gold Award accom­pa­nied by a Silver Award this year. Great Stories P.C., pro­duc­ers of 39/22 EVOO, won a Gold for their 39/22 Medium Koroneiki and a Silver for their 39/22 medium Manaki. Lefteris Komatas con­sid­ers this more ​“proof that we are good at what we do, and we aren’t a fire­work” that merely pro­duces a short-lived, bril­liant dis­play, but a con­sis­tently mul­ti­ple-award-win­ning enter­prise. ​“Quality for us is the secret and our pri­or­ity at every level, even if we have to ​‘sac­ri­fice’ quan­tity, money, time or any­thing else.” They are also proud to offer a choice of three mono­va­ri­etal EVOOs, which they never blend, pre­fer­ring to let each vari­ety show­case its own spe­cial qual­i­ties.

Panagiotis Kotsilimpas said of the NYIOOC Gold Award for Amphora Olympia PGI Organic Early Harvest, a del­i­cate Koroneiki, and the Silver for Amphora Olympia PGI Classic Early Harvest, a medium Koroneiki, ​“there is no higher honor. The holy grail, the NYIOOC, has val­i­dated our ideals and efforts,” exten­sive research and painstak­ing atten­tion to all phases of pro­duc­tion. Since receiv­ing ​“mind­bog­gling” results from a lab test­ing his family’s EVOO, it has become his ​“life­time ambi­tion to gather the great­est olive oil minds pos­si­ble, and give hope to local pro­duc­ers that their efforts will not go unseen.”

Founders Michael Olaes and George Kapeleris of Patrida Imports, pro­duc­ers of Lidrivio EVOO, were ​“incred­i­bly excited that all of our hard work and ded­i­ca­tion has been rec­og­nized” by their NYIOOC awards, a Gold for Lidrivio, a medium blend, and a Silver for Lidrivio LE, a medium Athenoelia. Olaes empha­sized the impor­tance of their use of Athenoelia olives, ​“a rare olive only avail­able in the south­ern region of Greece.” He explained that Grandmother or ​“Yiayia, our fam­ily matri­arch who lived to the incred­i­ble age of 114, was the dri­ving force behind Lidrivio. Her pas­sion for life, olive oil, and the Mediterranean diet inspired us to keep the fam­ily tra­di­tion of pick­ing and press­ing olives alive.”

Several of this year’s Gold Award win­ners also shared their thoughts with Olive Oil Times. Evgenia Andriopoulou dis­cussed her pride in Makaria Terra’s sec­ond NYIOOC Gold Award for their medium Koroneiki in recent years. With their other awards, this ​“proves our con­sis­tency and com­mit­ment to the pro­duc­tion of the finest olive oil every year,” which they achieve by ​“treat­ing our olive trees with abun­dant respect,” as ​“mem­bers of our fam­ily.”

Panayiotis Skopeteas cred­ited the unique com­bi­na­tion of soil, water, sun­shine, and ​“sta­ble ambi­ent tem­per­a­ture” that make up the ​“idyl­lic Mediterranean cli­mate” of Exohorio, Mani, Peloponnese for the qual­ity of ​“our mirac­u­lous olive oil,” Gold Award win­ning Immortalitas, a del­i­cate Koroneiki.

Konstantine Melissinos was sur­prised by the Gold Award for Melissinos Estate Reserve, an Organic Medium Blend of ancient olive vari­eties, ​“because our focus this year was to cre­ate an olive oil with high phe­no­lic con­tent to explore the med­i­c­i­nal aspects of the prod­uct. So we are very excited that we were able to pro­duce an olive oil that was rec­og­nized for both taste and qual­ity, and its health ben­e­fits.”

Vitsentzos Kornaros, a sec­ond-time NYIOOC Gold Award win­ner for Chrisopigi PDO Sitia Lasithiou Kritis, a medium Koroneiki, men­tioned that this dis­tinc­tion at the world’s larges­tex­tra vir­gin olive oil com­pe­ti­tion ​“gives our cus­tomers the sat­is­fac­tion of hav­ing made the right choice, and opens more paths for new col­lab­o­ra­tions.”

Fotis Mavroudis said Olympian Green was not sat­is­fied with last year’s 10 awards, since none came from the NYIOOC, but now ​“we are really thrilled and hon­ored to be awarded the 2017 Gold NYIOOC Award” for Olympian Green Oly Oil Traditional, a medium Koroneiki, which he expects will ​“strongly enhance” their inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion.

Panagiotis Kotsilimpas of Amphora Olympia believes ​“these awards carry a great respon­si­bil­ity. A respon­si­bil­ity to do what is right always, espe­cially when no one is watch­ing.” Many pro­duc­ers do. For PJ Kabos’s James Panagiotopoulos and oth­ers, this work ​“is more than just pro­duc­ing olive oil; it is a way of life.”

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