Producers From Lazio, Puglia Shine at 33rd Ercole Olivario

Summary

The 33rd edi­tion of Ercole Olivario, Italy’s olive oil com­pe­ti­tion, con­cluded in Perugia with awards given to 12 extra vir­gin olive oils out of 116 final­ists. Lazio was the most awarded region, and the event also high­lighted oleo­tourism ini­tia­tives and the impor­tance of regional con­tests like Premio Roma Evo.

The 33rd edi­tion of Ercole Olivario, Italy’s only insti­tu­tional com­pe­ti­tion ded­i­cated to the olive oil sec­tor, con­cluded with an award cer­e­mony held in Perugia, Umbria, at the Sala dei Notari in the his­toric Palazzo dei Priori, seat of the town hall.

A land­mark for Italian pro­duc­ers, Ercole Olivario is a national com­pe­ti­tion for the best extra vir­gin olive oils, orga­nized annu­ally by the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce for Industry, Handicraft and Agriculture (Unioncamere), in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Chamber of Commerce of Umbria.

See Also:Italian Producers Extend Reign of Excellence at World Competition

During the clos­ing event, the orga­niz­ers handed out tro­phies con­sist­ing of minia­ture repli­cas of the tem­ple of Hercules Olivarius, built in Rome in the 2nd cen­tury B.C., from which the name of the con­test orig­i­nated.

Winners of the 33rd Ercole Olivario with Federico Sisti, secretary-general, and Giorgio Mencaroni, president of the Umbria Chamber of Commerce, in front of the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia, Umbria. (Photo: Ercole Olivario)

Twelve extra vir­gin olive oils – half of which were Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) cer­ti­fied – out of 116 final­ists were awarded after assess­ments car­ried out by a panel of 16 expe­ri­enced tasters rep­re­sent­ing the com­pet­ing regions.

The panel leader Stefania D’Alessandro led the team com­posed of Antonietta Altieri, Giuseppe Giordano, Francesco Girardi, Antonietta Matteo, Erika Pozzetto, Stefano Roggerone, Gianfranco Pontoglio, Donatella Di Sebastiano, Paolo Di Paolo, Nunzia Floriana De Palma, Piera Bacciu, Giovanna Montalto, Franco Pasquini, Piero Damiani, Erika Betti and Stefano Scuppa.

“The qual­ity of the extra vir­gin olive oils par­tic­i­pat­ing in this edi­tion was extremely high,” the tasters said unan­i­mously after the tast­ing ses­sions. 

They observed how, despite the many chal­lenges of recent years, the Italian pro­duc­ers have been able to con­stantly improve their exper­tise both in the field and in the mill.

Lazio was the most awarded region with four acco­lades, fol­lowed by Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, and Sicily, each with two awards. Tuscany and Sardinia each obtained one recog­ni­tion.

Another dozen spe­cial awards were pre­sented, includ­ing a men­tion for the best organic extra vir­gin olive oil, which went to a pro­ducer from Lazio. Additionally, two pro­duc­ers from the same region were rec­og­nized for the best monocul­ti­var, along with one pro­ducer from Campania and one from Puglia.

The lat­ter region was the most awarded, with four acco­lades, at La Goccia d’Ercole (The Drop of Hercules), the sec­tion ded­i­cated to small-scale pro­duc­ers. Puglia was fol­lowed by Umbria, with two awards. Sicily, Tuscany, Umbria, Campania and Calabria each took home one award.

Ercole Olivario has always been a show­case for the Italian pro­duc­ing regions. Over the last few years, oleo­touris­tic ini­tia­tives have been put in the spot­light by the com­pe­ti­tion through the intro­duc­tion of a new award, the ​‘Giorgio Phellas Oleotourism Mention of Merit’, intended for com­pa­nies that invest in the sec­tor. This year’s men­tion went to a Sicilian com­pany.

“We must con­tinue to work on the ter­ri­to­ries with pro­mo­tional actions to link food to tourism.”

said Andrea Prete, the pres­i­dent of Unioncamere, dur­ing the award cer­e­mony. ​“We aim at enhanc­ing a qual­ity oleo­tourism offer, with a view to meet­ing the ever-grow­ing demand.”

A dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of Ercole Olivario lies in pre­lim­i­nary selec­tions. Every year, the extra vir­gin olive oils that par­tic­i­pate in the national com­pe­ti­tion are selected dur­ing a first round of assess­ment by regional pan­els. 

In Lazio, this led to the cre­ation of a regional con­test for the best extra vir­gin olive oils, which, over time, has gained a rep­u­ta­tion. The Premio Roma Evo, held at the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, is now in its 32nd edi­tion.

Among the win­ners is Azienda Agricola Alfredo Cetrone. After earn­ing one of the first prizes at Premio Roma Evo, it entered the national com­pe­ti­tion, where it ranked first in the cat­e­gory PDO/PGI Intense Fruity with its Daje Colline Pontine PDO and sec­ond in the intense fruity cat­e­gory with its Cetrone In.

“It is a great sat­is­fac­tion to win in this pres­ti­gious con­test, and espe­cially in the PDO and PGI cat­e­gory, since we have a spe­cial bond with our ter­ri­tory and we aim at high­light­ing it,” co-owner Giulio Cetrone told Olive Oil Times.

His com­pany man­ages 20,000 Itrana olive trees spread across 100 hectares of mainly ter­raced ter­rain at ele­va­tions of 450 to 500 meters above sea level in Sonnino, in the province of Latina.

Traditionally processed for table olives in Lazio, where it orig­i­nated, this olive vari­ety has also been widely used in recent times to cre­ate excel­lent extra-vir­gin olive oils, often char­ac­ter­ized by herba­ceous and tomato notes.

“Our fam­ily has a long tra­di­tion of olive grow­ing, and I am the fifth gen­er­a­tion to man­age these orchards,” Cetrone said. ​“We used to pro­duce table olives until my father, Alfredo, had the intu­ition to har­vest ear­lier and to use Itrana to obtain a mono­va­ri­etal. This choice turned out to be suc­cess­ful.”

“Most of our plants are cen­turies-old and some of them are likely a thou­sand years old,” he added. ​“Our youngest olive trees were planted to pro­duce oils with dif­fer­ent pro­files, but also aim­ing at bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion. We col­lected cut­tings of the dif­fer­ent eco­types of Itrana from across the province. We there­fore planted them on a flat plot to form rows, each rep­re­sent­ing a town on the Pontine Hills. This is a fur­ther way to praise and pro­tect our beau­ti­ful ter­ri­tory.”

Registration is now open until September 30th for Extra Cuoca, a con­test ded­i­cated to pro­fes­sional women chefs work­ing in Italy and other coun­tries. Ercole Olivario will award the best recipes cre­ated with the win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils.

More infor­ma­tion on Extra Cuoca and a com­plete list of 2025 Ercole Olivario win­ners, includ­ing those from the table olive com­pe­ti­tion, can be found on the organization’s web­site and social media pages.