The First National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Tasting Team Championship in France

Tasting skills of olive oil enthusiasts to be assessed in Provence 

France will be hosting its first ever national olive oil tasting competition September 16 in Lançon-de-Provence, an exciting event for olive oil producers, growers, and olive oil enthusiasts. The country might not be known as a big olive oil producing country, but France’s exceptional terroir produces sublime extra virgin olive oil and what better way to encourage excellence in extra virgin olive oil?

The main organizing committee for the competition Savantes, The Association FrancaiseInterprofessionnelle de L’ olive (AFIDOL) and Cécile Le Galliard creator of  Jus d’Olive are understandably thrilled to be a part of this exceptional competition where the main focus will be on the olive oil tasters and not  on extra virgin olive oil.

Founder and Director of Savantes Simon Field from Australia will be working together with the organizing team to oversee the championship: The Savantes tasting program is recognized worldwide also for its marketing program for extra virgin olive oil.  Also assisting in the competition will be the technical team whose task is to ensure the highest technical standards.

Tasting Teams

The organizers say they hope to ‘create a relaxed atmosphere around olive oil,’ they say they would like the teams to enjoy a pleasant day surrounded by other olive oil enthusiasts.

Cécile Le Galliard, French olive oil expert  says enthusiastically: “We have been planning and working hard to prepare this event since last year. We have 15 teams registered. “

She says that participants do not have to have to be experts on olive oil tasting to take part that they should relax and enjoy the day.

The tests

The first test will test each participant’s knowledge individually.

The second test will be a team effort where each team will be given the same blend of extra virgin olive oil.  Points will be given for correct identification of the given oil.

Test 3, also a team effort involves analyzing 6 six monovarietal numbered samples from 6 producing regions.

The setting up and organizing of this competition at Château Virant in Provence is a tremendous achievement, a superb opportunity for French olive oil enthusiasts to test their knowledge and to discover new extra virgin olive oil. What’s great about this sort of event is that that participants will be discussing that primary method of describing olive oil – the flavor of course.

                                         Olive Oil expert Cécile Le Galliard judging olive oil at a recent competition


Credits: terraolivo Jeruslame 2017