More Good Oil
Simon Wilson
There were 25 gold medals given out at the New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards in 2004, and a further 29 silver. Our best oils are also winning awards overseas.
So why do we have so many good oils? It’s part of the industry’s overall strategy. Our growers are not trying to compete with mass-produced supermarket oils from the Mediterranean. They see their future at the top end of the market: where just five percent of the world’s olive oil production is extra virgin, in New Zealand it nearly all is.
This is a common enough story for a New Zealand industry – we make things of quality for a niche market. In the case of olive oil, though, it’s also dictated by the growing conditions and the harvest time. The hotter the temperature and the longer the fruit is left on the tree, the milder the taste. New Zealand, with a temperate climate, inevitably produces flavour-filled oils. The industry makes the most of this, by promoting the use of local oils as a piquant flavour additive.
These oils are usually divided into three categories: delicate, medium and intense. Margaret Edwards, olive grower, industry consultant, and an international olive oil judge, suggests that instead of cooking with oils, you may want to try adding them to food afterwards.
She suggests drizzling a little intense oil over barbecued meat. Try a medium oil tossed in pasta. Add delicate oil to the gentle flavours of a green-leaf salad. And her advice is to use vinegar and lemon juice sparingly – maybe even to add the oil on its own first, and see how you like it. Extra flavours can then be added as required.
TASTING THE OILS
Late last year we asked Margaret to put together a selection of medal-winning oils for a Cuisine tasting panel. She included the best oil from each of the country’s 12 olive-growing regions, and all three classes were represented.
Our aim wasn’t to rank the oils or try to find ‘the best’. The awards they won last year already provide an excellent guide to their quality. What we wanted to do was describe their character, to give readers an idea of the ones they might like to try.
Margaret headed the panel herself, and was joined by Cynthia Lund, the senior sensory scientist at HortResearch
and an experienced olive oil judge. The tasting panel also included Cuisine food writers Julie Le Clerc and Fiona Smith, along with editor Simon Wilson and deputy editor Susan Buchanan.
As all the panellists agreed, it is not easy to taste olive oil. For one thing, you have to swallow. “You want to get the whole sensation,” says Margaret. “The levels of pungency and bitterness in the throat are part of the experience.”
Fair enough, but with some of these oils you have to take care. Swallow the wrong way and it can feel as if you’ve just burned the back of your throat. And even if you avoid this, after an afternoon swallowing oil your stomach will most certainly be calling time.
A good oil, however, should give you a genuine sense of the olives – unlike wine, which doesn’t smell or taste of grapes. It may also evoke many other aromas and flavours, from apples and herbs to fresh nuts and caramel. It may be bitter and pungent or ‘peppery’ – characteristics that will be attractive if kept in balance.
In an oil that is ‘out of balance’, the fruit flavours are overpowered. Oil can also deteriorate. Rancidity is common after prolonged exposure to air. There may be mustiness, mouldiness or even a smell of alcohol. Oils overexposed to light or warmth will lose their character and become bland, which is why many are sold in dark glass bottles and why you should store them in the pantry or, preferably, in the fridge. The oil may become thick and cloudy, but it will return to its natural state without harm at room temperature.
In the profiles below, we have noted which medals these oils earned at the New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards 2004.
SOME DEFINI 
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRUCE NICHOLSON
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