Winning Wairarapa olive oils
“There’s something in the water” or so the song goes, but for Wairarapa olive growers it’s more like the soil, the dry heat, and the wind reports Sue McLeary.
This magic combination produces distinctive, complex oils, in many ways expressing similar qualities as the local wines.The region continued its recent winning ways, taking 58 medals and four of the five top New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards in October. This cemented its reputation as our top region for mostly boutique-sized olive groves. See www.olivesnz.org.nzfor details.
Featherston-based Olive Black won Best in Show 2020 with its Gold in the Commercial Intense – Blends category. Owned by Richard Nga Wai Chiu with grove management by Mark Bunny, Olive Black is a medium-sized grove with 1,000+ trees. Olive Black supplies specialist Auckland food stores with the olive oil stylishly presented in a boxed bottle, and also exports to Asia.
Best in Show Awards 2020
Best in Show Olive Black
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Reserve
Best in Show Loopline Picual
Best Boutique Juno Olive Oil Picual
Best Flavoured Oil Leafyridge Olives Chilli
Best in Class 2020
Boutique Intense – Blends Blue Earth Intense (Mike and Margaret Hanson)
Boutique Intense – Single Varietal Juno Olive Oil Picual (Karen and Ian Juno)
Commercial Intense – Blends Olive Black Extra Virgin (Richard Nga Wai Chiu)
Commercial Intense – Single Varietal Loopline Olives Picual (Stephen Davies Howard)
Flavoured Citrus Leafyridge Olives Lime (Craig and Ruth Leaf-Wright)
Flavoured Other Leafyridge Olives Chilli (Craig and Ruth Leaf-Wright)
Best Processor The Olive Press, Greytown
Organisationally, 2020 was an “interesting awards year” says Olives New Zealand spokesperson Gayle Sheridan. “Our international judges couldn’t come here under Covid-19 rules. We were fortunate that we had enough internationally experienced judges available in New Zealand. We decanted the entries and sent the oils to them.
Around eight hundred small dark green bottles were marked with the category and entrant number (no identifying names), packaged up carefully and couriered to six judges. Judges sniffed and swirled their way through 128 entries, and the results were collated by an independent facilitator. Head Judge was New Zealander Charlotte Connoley, who started as an assistant judge in 2001 and has watched the industry “evolve immeasurably”.
“The quality of the award entries is superb and shows what great shape the New Zealand olive industry is in. We have been told that 2020 is THE year for NZ olive oils, and the standard of entries bears this out,” Charlotte said.
“Much like wine, you can smell and taste different notes in olive oils, anything from fresh-cut grass to banana and tropical fruits, floral notes and spices such as aniseed.
“This season also saw higher polyphenol content in many oils, which increases the health benefits of the oils and contributes to longer shelf life,” she said.
International success
The New York International Olive Oil Competition is considered the most prestigious global competition, with 1000 entries and a large panel of international judges. In May 2020, Gold medals were awarded to Loopline Picual and Picholene single varietal oils, and a Gold to Olea Estate Picual. This was a huge achievement.
But that’s not all. 2020 also saw Martinborough’s Lot Eight (Nalini and Colin Baruch) and Dali (Ross Vintiner and Andrea Stewart) take important international prizes.
At the Paris 2020 Olio Nuovo Awards, Lot Eight won Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil Oceania - Oil Makers Blend, 2nd Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil Oceania - Reserve Blend, and Best Design in Oceania.
Dali won New Zealand’s first-ever placing in the category ‘Best Luxury Olive Oils in the World 2020’, one of only three southern hemisphere olive groves in the top 26 producers.
