Sudoliva and the First South American Olive Oil Contest Lima 2017
On September 13th, 14th, and 15th, the First South American Olive Oil Contest was held in Lima, organized by specialist Gianfranco Vargas Flores. Gianfranco had gathered a group of olive oil enthusiasts months before to prepare us for olive oil tasting. The contest was sponsored by the Municipality of San Isidro, the Ministry of Production, the University of San Martin de Porres, the Wine and Pisco Institute, the University of the Pacific, Piscos and Tacos, Peru Olivo, and the Peruvian Association of Tasters (ASPERCAT). Judges and tasters from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and Peru participated.
The event began on Wednesday the 13th at the Wine and Pisco Institute of the University of San Martin de Porres, with an opening ceremony and a welcome to the invited jury or "Organoleptic Committee." The next day, Thursday, the competition began, with Mrs. Ana Claudia Ellis from Uruguay appointed as the Director of Tasting, explaining the methodology of the competition and the tasting process. The competition was divided into two stages, with the first stage in the morning (semifinal) in which 38 samples from the five participating countries - Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, and Peru - were tasted by two groups of nine judges each. In this first stage, only extra virgin olive oils without any defects were evaluated, with one defect eliminating the sample from the competition. In the afternoon, the semifinalists were evaluated, and the organoleptic tasting ended at around 9 pm. In the final, 16 samples were evaluated by 10 expert judges from the five countries.
The competition concluded on Friday with the award ceremony, presentations about olive oil & its history, and the official announcement of the rediscovery of the oldest olive tree in Peru, called "El Olivo Monumental," planted around 1637 by the Peruvian saint San Martin de Porres and located in the Olive Grove of San Isidro. The event ended with a visit to the mentioned olive tree. It's worth congratulating Gianfranco Vargas Flores again for his dedication and, above all, his passion for olive oil, which infected other enthusiasts who accompanied him on this beautiful olive adventure, including Beto Kouri, Miguel Catalina, Jaime Torrejón Montero, Martin Cayo, Marco Antonio Trigoso, Edmundo Arévalo, Cesibell Sánchez, Livio Pastorino Wagner, Arturo Inga Batállanos, Giovanna López Muñoz, and Patricia Linares, Guillermo Arancibia, and hopefully, we have not forgotten anyone.
We have new challenges, such as making the competition sustainable in the following years, homologating the Peruvian Tasting Panel before the International Olive Council (IOC) & the Latin America Olive Oil Panel, and thus continuing to promote olive culture.
A special and particular thanks to the judges who visited us from Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina at SUDOLIVA 2017, Senior Tasters: Ana Claudia Ellis, Marcelo Scofano, Sara Dicenta, Esteban Santipolio, Jorge Enrique Pereira Benítez, Roxana Gardilcic Boero, and Juliano Garavaglia.
See you at SUDOLIVA Chile 2018: Monumental Olive Tree of Azapa: "Mr. Ocurica".
Please find the competition results attached. clic aquí