July 07, 2006
The results of the 2006 Yolo and Los Angeles county Fair Olive Oil competitions have been released. Yolo is the second largest olive oil competition in the United States, second only to the L.A. County Fair Wine and olive oil competition. Fifty five oils were submitted and six judges were on the panel at Yolo.
The Los Angeles County Fair received 386 oils from 246 producers. There were a total of 28 Best of Class Awards, 138 Gold Medal Awards, 121 Silver Medal Awards, and 46 Bronze Medal Awards. This year’s competition received oils from Argentina, Australia, Crete, Chile, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States.
LA County Fair: 2006 SPECIAL AWARDS Stella Cadente Olive Oil California Olive Ranch Lunigiana Estate Mas Des Bories Te Arai Olive Estate Olivares de Quepa SA Round Pond Olive Oil
Kudos to Sue Ellery at Stella Cadente who received Best of show and a gold medal for her new Persian Lime oil at Yolo as well as the best light extra virgin oil at the LA competition. According to a recent article in Forbes, "She is the only California producer to have won this prestigious award twice in the history of the olive oil competition." As well as being honored with Best of Show, Stella Cadente also won a Gold Medal and "Best of Class" in the same category, and a Gold Medal for their Meyer Lemon Oil. Forbes reported that they have won more awards for their oils than any other California producer.
California Olive Ranch won the medium intensity flavor domestic category proving that a big producer with mechanized equipment can turn out a boutique quality product.
The Intense category award went to Lunigiana Estate, a label that Ed Stolman created in 1995 at The Olive Press. Lunigiana Certified Organic Olive Oil won the
Best of Show Medal as well as a Gold Medal in the Organic Olive Oil Category at the Yolo County Fair. Lunigiana has won First Place in Italy's BIOL Organic Olive Oil competition every year since 1999. In addition, Lunigiana was named "Best Foreign Oil" in Spain's ECOLIVA competition in 2002. The Olive Press won a total of 9 awards at Yolo and 9 at Los Angeles.
Best Flavored Olive Oil went to Round Pond in Rutherford. Their Blood Orange Olive Oil is a unique fusion of estate-grown Blood oranges and Round Pond Spanish variety olives.