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The qual­ity of the prod­ucts eval­u­ated dur­ing the twenty-sev­enth edi­tion of the Ercole Olivario was yet another affir­ma­tion of the com­mit­ment and resilience of Italian olive grow­ers to pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

At the end of a tough sea­son, 185 par­tic­i­pants from 17 regions com­peted in the pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tion for the best Italian extra vir­gin olive oils, show­ing how their efforts trans­formed into excellence.

“Despite the heavy drop in pro­duc­tion recorded this year, Italy has cho­sen to focus on the enhance­ment of qual­ity,” the orga­niz­ers said dur­ing the award cer­e­mony of the con­test, which bears the name of a Roman tem­ple ded­i­cated to Hercules Olivarius.

“Since the first edi­tion in 1993, more than 8,800 labels par­tic­i­pated,” Giorgio Mencaroni, the pres­i­dent of the Chamber of Commerce of Perugia, said.

Perugia’s Chamber of Commerce col­lab­o­rated with the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Handicrafts and Agriculture, the Italian Chamber System and olive grower orga­ni­za­tions to orga­nize the competition.

A national panel com­posed of pro­fes­sional tasters assessed the prod­ucts accord­ing to var­i­ous cat­e­gories, extra vir­gin olive oils and PGIs and PDOs, each of which were divided into light, medium, and intense fruiti­ness.

Special prizes went to the best mono­va­ri­etal and the best organic oil, while the Amphora Olearia award went to the best pack­ag­ing. The Lekythos award, for those com­mit­ted to dis­sem­i­nat­ing knowl­edge on qual­ity olive oil, was given to the Carabineri Colonel Luigi Cortellessa, from the com­mand unit for the agri-food protection.

In all, 16 win­ners cel­e­brated their vic­to­ries on March 30 at the con­gress cen­ter of the Chamber of Commerce of Perugia. Umbrian pro­duc­ers earned four awards, while pro­duc­ers from Trentino, Puglia and Sicily took home two awards each. Producers from Abruzzo, Calabria, Sardinia, Tuscany, Liguria and Lombardy each earned one award.

“This is a great reward for our com­mit­ment over the years, and it encour­ages us to do even bet­ter,” Lucia Talotta, of the Oleificio Torchia in Tiriolo, said. The pro­ducer from the province of Catanzaro, in Calabria, won first prize in the medium-fruity extra vir­gin olive oil cat­e­gory, with a blend of Carolea, Coratina and Nocellara.

“Fifteen years ago, we added new plants to the main olive grove located on hills at an alti­tude between 600 and 700 meters (1,968 and 2,296 feet),” she added. ​“The idea was to make a great blend. Harvesting on these steep slopes is not always easy, but our hard work has paid off, and in dif­fi­cult sea­sons like the cur­rent one, we are more moti­vated than ever to achieve the high­est level of quality.”

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

A dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of the national com­pe­ti­tion lies in pre­lim­i­nary regional selections.

Among these is the ​‘Orii del Lazio — Capolavori del Gusto’ (Golds of Lazio — Masterpieces of Taste), which was first estab­lished as a ter­ri­to­r­ial selec­tion pro­ce­dure and has gained impor­tance over the years.

A total of 45 labels pro­duced by 38 dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies par­tic­i­pated in this pre­lim­i­nary com­pe­ti­tion. Of these par­tic­i­pants, 10 were cho­sen for the Ercole Olivario awards.

“The high level of qual­ity, not affected by the drop in vol­umes, con­firms the excel­lent char­ac­ter­is­tics of the regional prod­uct,” Pietro Abate, the sec­re­tary gen­eral of Unioncamere Lazio, which pro­motes the com­pe­ti­tion, said.

“[More than 200,000 acres of] olives trees and four PDOs give a sense of the impor­tance of the extra vir­gin olive oils within the con­text of of our agri-food prod­ucts,” Lorenzo Tagliavanti, the pres­i­dent of the pres­i­dent of Unioncamere Lazio, said.

The four regional PDOs in this com­pe­ti­tion – Sabina, Canino, Tuscia, and Colline Pontine – each accounted for one category.

The sam­ples were eval­u­ated by a panel of expe­ri­enced tasters at the chem­i­cal lab­o­ra­tory of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome.

Among the var­i­ous recog­ni­tions, spe­cial prizes went to the best mono­va­ri­etal and the best organic oil, the Tonino Zelinotti award went to the best pack­ag­ing, while a recog­ni­tion went to the oil with the high­est con­tent of polyphe­nols and tocopherols.

Cosmo Di Russo was awarded the best intense fruity Colline Pontine PDO, the best mono­va­ri­etal, and a crit­ics’ award given by journalists.

“These recog­ni­tions are impor­tant because they con­sti­tute a fur­ther oppor­tu­nity to rep­re­sent our ter­ri­tory,” the pro­ducer from Gaeta said. ​“They make us proud towards our con­sumers, espe­cially those abroad, who are fond of our qual­ity con­nected to our land.”

An expertly processed Itrana gives life to Don Pasquale, which bears the name of Cosmo’s father.

“This is a trib­ute to him, who put him­self out there, with energy and pas­sion, in the pur­suit of high-qual­ity, which is our main objec­tive,” Di Russo said.

The win­ners of the com­pe­ti­tion (which may be found here by click­ing on the bot­tom right ​“I vinci­tori 2019 — Categorie”) were announced on March 23 in Rome’s Chamber of Commerce, at the Temple of Hadrian.

• Ercole Olivario


• Orii del Lazio