The Central Coast Olive Oil Competition has released the results from the 2024 competition which featured premier oils produced across California. Taking home the Best of Show awards were the following:

• Best of Show Robust – Ola (Lindsay)
• Best of Show Medium–  Toothacre Ranch (Ramona)
• Best of Show Delicate –  Cobram Estate (Woodland)
• Best of Show Flavored – Calivirgin (Lodi)

After calculations, Calivirgin was named the 2024 Olive Oil Producer of the Year, for the second year in a row. It was a close race, but the Lodi California family-owned business had 6 total entries entered and all 6 received medals: Best of Show Flavored, Best of Class Citrus and Best of Class Ascolano. 1 Double Gold, 3 Golds, 1 Silver, and 1 Bronze. Calivirgin will receive a custom-made belt buckle, dawning the Central Coast Olive Oil logo amongst an array of jewels.

“California’s producers harvested a decent amount of fruit this last year 2023-2024, but flowering and fruit maturity were both later than normal.  With medium amounts of fruit and later ripening, the results for quality were excellent.   The earlier harvested fruit produced oils that are especially robust with great herbal complexity, nice bitterness and strong pungency.  The later harvested oils were especially good because the fruit was slightly less ripe than normal.” said Chief Judge Paul Vossen. “We had more oils entered this year than last year and quite a few received gold, silver, and bronze medals – with 18 receiving best of class awards.  This year’s award winning oils are truly exceptional.” 

All entries entered were also judged on their marketing efforts as part of the Central Coast Packaging and Design Competition.

• Best of Label – Single Bottle: Toothacre Ranch
• Best of Label – Series: Boccabella Farms
• Best of Packaging – Single Bottle: Bearbird Ranch
• Best of Packaging – Series of Bottles: Ola

Thank you to our chief judge Paul Vossen and cast of judges for a great competition; Thomas Curry, John Hadley, Arden Kremer, Sue Langstaff, Nancy Lilly, Astrid Lorig, Julie Menge, Olga Orlova, and Glenn Weddell.

Be sure to check out the complete results at https://centralcoastwinecomp.com/olive-oil/ and support the participating producers and businesses.