Southern Hemisphere Sol D’Oro Competition: International projection for New World Extra Virgin Olive Oils

SOL D’ORO COMPETITION: The best Extra virgin Olive Oils

The most important olive oil competition in the world comes to Chile with Southern Hemisphere Sol D’Oro. Between September 29 and October 3, the world’s olive oil industry will turn its eyes to Chile, as the most important competition for high quality olive oils, Sol d´Oro, organized by Veronafiere in Verona, Italy, moves beyond its borders for the first time in its 12-year history and comes to Santiago for the First Southern Hemisphere Sol D’Oro.

Southern Hemisphere Sol D’Oro aims to provide a showcase for extra virgin olive oils from the leading producers from the southernmost countries of the world—Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, and Chile, in a format that allows them to express all of their potential and quality and be internationally recognized with the seal of quality that only Sol D’Oro can offer.

The initiative, led by the Panel Cata Chile Association, backed by Veronafiere and supported by Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture, will operate under the strictly enforced rules of the Sol d´Oro Competition in Italy. It will be led by the international expert Dr. Marino Giorgetti, who will ensure compliance with the requirements and standards of the Italian version along with a panel of eight expert judges from Italy, Spain, Greece, United States, and South America.

What is Panel Cata Chile.

Panel Cata Chile is an association of tasters trained in the classification of olive oils and the identification of defects in accordance with the parameters used by the IOOC (International Olive Oil Council). Their members are also trained in evaluating the olfactory-gustatory quality of extra virgin olive oils and preparing organoleptic descriptions.

Panel Cata Chile participates in projects in the following areas:

• Research, development, and dissemination of organoleptic analysis of Chilean olive oil with member tasters who participate in juries in prestigious international competitions.
• Cooperation with producing companies to improve the quality of Chile’s extra virgin olive oils through consulting services to producers and consumers of EVOO.
• Promoting extra virgin olive oil consumption through activities especially for consumers, such as tastings and olive harvests.
• Training for new tasters through beginning, intermediate, and advanced tasting courses.
• The members of Panel Cata Chile were trained over the course of four years by the Italian expert Marino Giorgetti and have served as jurors in prestigious international olive oil competitions such as Sol D’Oro Verona (Italy) and the new York International Olive Oil Competition (USA).