AWARD – WINNING OLIVE OIL

Quality Silver Medal – London International Olive Oil Competition

We found out on Friday. Me, Aleksandra, the whole family, pure celebration. That kind of news hits you in the chest before your brain even processes it.

Then, once it settled, came gratitude, the deep kind that arrives when life tells you the thing you quietly believed in for years is real.

And at the same time: there’s gold, there’s platinum, there’s more to learn. We’re not at the top of the mountain, we’re on the path, looking up. And honestly? That’s just as exciting as the medal.

What this competition actually is

The London International Olive Oil Competition is one of Europe’s most prestigious. The Quality Competition is judged purely on what’s in the glass, entries blind-tasted by a jury of experts. No labels, no brand, no origin. Just the oil.

We went up against oils from Italy, Spain, Greece and beyond, producers with years behind them. In that blind field, in our very first year, our oil from one small estate in Paciano, Umbria earned a place on the podium.

The people behind this bottle

When I say “we,” I mean it completely, this didn’t happen alone. It never does.

Stijn Taillieu my friend and our Maestro dell’olio, was there for the flowering, the harvest, and every call that mattered. Paolo Vestri turned a great harvest into a great oil at the mill. Aleksandra holds so much of this together behind the scenes. And every customer who believed in this when it was just an idea.

Nobody tells you this: it takes a whole lot of people and a whole lot of heart, to get something like this off the ground.

This medal belongs to all of us.

What I actually feel

I’ve always known we had quality, that night driving the olives to the mill, in the color of the oil, in the way it smelled off the press.

But knowing it in your bones and having it confirmed by experts who can’t see your name are two different things. This is validation, real, external, blind.

What moves me most: we’re a tiny first-year operation. We pick by hand, mill the same night, publish our lab results and name our growers. No blending, no shortcuts, no hiding behind a label, just the best oil we can make, and the full story of where it came from.

That this approach can stand on the same podium as the great Mediterranean producers, in year one? That means everything.

The road ahead

I’m not going to pretend we’ve arrived. Silver is beautiful. Gold is better. Platinum exists. And next year’s harvest will give us another chance to grow, to be better, to learn more, to push further.

This fall we head back to Umbria, friends and family along. Stijn in the groves, Paolo at the mill, all of us coaxing the best from this land, by hand, with everything we’ve got.

That’s what drives us: not perfection achieved, but the honest pursuit of it, season after season.

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The presale is open for customers, and this is the best time to get it

We’re making just 600 bottles this year. Last year we sold out in months, and this harvest will be even better.

Olive oil is at its peak when it’s young. Getting in early isn’t just about price, it’s about getting the oil at its best.

Thank you for being part of this. Truly.

Ricardo & Stijn