Award-Winning Olive Oil

Quality Silver Medal · London International Olive Oil Competition

We found out on Friday. And we jumped for joy — me, Aleksandra, the whole family. Pure celebration. That kind of news hits you in the chest before your brain even processes it.

And then, after a few minutes, once the excitement settled, something came to me. Gratitude. The deep, almost overwhelming kind that comes when life reassures you that you’re on the right path, that the passion you chose, the things you believed in quietly for years, are real. That you’re doing things right.

And at the same time: there’s gold. There’s platinum. There are more competitions, more harvests, more to learn. We are not at the top of the mountain. We are somewhere on the path, looking up.

And honestly? That’s just as exciting as the medal itself.

What this competition actually is

The London International Olive Oil Competition is one of the most prestigious olive oil contests in Europe. In the Quality Competition, judged purely on what’s in the glass. No packaging, no marketing, no brand recognition. Entries are submitted anonymously and blind-tasted by a jury of expert judges from across the continent. No labels, no country of origin visible. Just the oil. Just the flavor, the aroma, the quality, speaking for themselves.

We went up against oils from Italy, Spain, Greece, and beyond, companies that have been producing oil for years. And in that blind field, in our very first year, our oil from a single small estate in Paciano, Umbria earned a place on the podium.

The people behind this bottle

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

Stijn Taillieu is my dear friend and our Maestro dell’olio. He was there for the flowering, there at harvest, and he made the calls that matter. Paolo Vestri at Frantoio Olivestri was there that night at the mill, turning a great harvest into a great oil. Aleksandra, my wife, who holds so much of this together behind the scenes. The families who supported this dream when it was just an idea. And every single customer who believed in this project and helped get it off the ground.

That’s the thing nobody tells you, 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. I knew it that night driving the olives to the mill. I knew it in the color of the oil, in the way it smelled the moment it came off the press.

But knowing something in your bones and having it confirmed by a panel of European experts who can’t see your name, those are two different things.

This is validation. Real, external, blind validation.

And here’s what moves me most: we’re a tiny artisan operation in our first year. We pick by hand. We drive the olives to the mill that same night. We publish our lab results. We name our growers. We don’t blend, we don’t cut corners, we don’t hide behind a label. We just try, as genuinely as we know how, to make the best oil we can, and then tell you exactly where it came from and how it was made.

The fact that that approach can stand on the same podium as oils from 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’re heading back to Umbria. Friends and family are coming with us. Stijn will be out there in the groves, doing what he does. Paolo will be at the mill. And we’ll be doing what we do — trying to coax the best out of this land, with our hands, with love, with everything we’ve got.

That’s what drives us. Not perfection already achieved, but the honest pursuit of it — together, season after season.

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

We’re making 600 bottles this year. That’s it. Last year we sold out within a few months, and this year’s oil will be even better — fresher, from a harvest we’ve been preparing with everything we’ve learned.

Extra virgin 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