A few weeks back I was cheering on our gold medal via the Golden Olive Awards. We can add two more to this year's tally.

The Australian International Olive Awards, run by the industry association, have released individual results. That is, I know what we got, but won't know who else got what until the awards night.

We received a gold medal for both our early picked harvest, and the late picked. I am thrilled. In three years we have hat-tricked a gold medal, and this year is the first time both of our entries were of a gold standard.

The email letting me know also includes the judges comments.
Early pick:
"Very good quality sample. Intense green fruitiness with a combination of secondary aroma like cinnamon, floral, green banana, fennel, vanilla, and more. Excellent transfer of fresh and clean aromas to the palate. Robust mouth feels with delayed pungency. Long aftertaste that matches a premium sample. Wonderful."

Late pick:
"Fresh cut grass, green banana, mint, oregano, green apple, banana cake mixes and young almond. Savoury, herbaceous, floral, and fragrant nose. Aroma transfer well to a flavoursome clean and even palate with more nutmeg, cinnamon, and banana. Sweet light mouthfeel. Long lasting finish Sichuan pepper sweet bitter tastes and slow building ginger and black pepper pungency. An elegant oil."

I think our oil is good, but its nice to hear a group of independent experts say it.

I was tempted to go to the awards dinner. Its at the end of the annual industry conference. But, again, the conference is lacking in offering much of interest. In two days there is a lot of padding, and presentations by sponsors. There's three short presentations that I would be interested in....in two days. A cooking demonstration takes up half an afternoon. A site tour....no specific point, like pruning techniques, or ,say, regenerative farming. Just a walk around someone else's place.

And, its in Canberra, and I have to be at a market stall the next morning. I'd have to drive home overnight. Nup.