American Producers Win a Record 75 Awards
A generation ago, ‘American extra virgin’ was barely a category. Then US producers took home a record haul of awards at the world competition — the vast majority from California — and made the point plain: the New World now presses world-class oil, and freshness is its secret weapon.
American producers won a record 75 awards at the 2018 world olive oil competition — their best showing since it began — with wins spread across gold and silver at a high success rate. The vast majority came from California, with further wins in Texas and Oregon. For a country that barely registered as an olive-oil producer a generation earlier, it was a statement of arrival.
From nowhere to world-class
The rise of American oil is genuinely fast. Not long ago, US-grown extra virgin was a curiosity; now California has a serious modern industry — new plantings, modern mills, and producers who chase quality rather than just volume. The competition results are the proof: dozens of medals, year after year, judged blind against the best of the old world. It’s one of the clearest examples of the olive’s global spread, the same story told in American olives.
Freshness is the home-field advantage
Here’s the practical edge that a medal count only hints at. Olive oil is best fresh, and it fades with every month and every mile. An imported bottle has often spent a long time in transit and storage — a slow boat, a warehouse, a shelf — before it reaches an American kitchen. A California oil bought in America skips most of that journey. So on the single thing that matters most in olive oil — freshness — a good domestic oil often beats a famous import simply by being younger when you open it.
The buy-local logic (that actually holds)
‘Buy local’ is often sentiment; with olive oil it’s sound strategy. Wherever you live, an oil grown and pressed nearer to you has a shorter, cooler journey and reaches you fresher — an American in California, a Briton buying a new-harvest European oil, an Australian buying Australian. It won’t always be the cheapest, and imports can be excellent when they’re fresh. But as a rule of thumb, shorter journey plus recent harvest date is a reliable route to better oil in the bottle.
| Imported famous oil | Fresh local oil |
|---|---|
| Long transit and storage | Short journey to your kitchen |
| Often older by the time you open it | Younger, so usually fresher |
| Trades on a famous flag | Trades on freshness and traceability |
| Can be superb — if genuinely fresh | Reliable edge on the thing that matters most |
The takeaway
- American — above all Californian — oil is now genuinely world-class, winning by the dozen.
- Freshness is the real home-field edge: a shorter journey means a younger oil.
- Wherever you are, a fresh local oil often beats a famous, well-travelled import.
- Judge by harvest date and traceable origin, not by the fame of the flag.
American olive oil’s rise: common questions
Is American olive oil actually good?
Increasingly, yes. California in particular now presses world-class extra virgin and wins dozens of blind-judged awards, with Texas and Oregon also on the board.
Why does local oil often taste fresher?
Olive oil fades with time and travel. A locally grown oil skips the long transit and storage an import endures, so it’s usually younger — and fresher — when you open it.
Does that mean imports are bad?
No — a genuinely fresh import can be superb. But a well-travelled bottle is often older by the time you buy it, which is why local, recently harvested oil has a reliable edge.
How did California rise so fast?
New plantings, modern mills and a focus on quality turned a curiosity into a serious industry in a generation, confirmed by consistent competition wins.
What should I look for on the label?
A recent harvest date and a traceable origin. Those matter far more than the fame of the country on the front.
A generation ago, ‘American extra virgin’ was barely a category. Now California presses world-class oil and wins by the dozen — and being fresher (no slow boat) it often beats famous imports on the only thing that really matters in olive oil: freshness. The lesson generalises. Wherever you live, a fresh, recently harvested local oil usually beats a well-travelled famous bottle. Buy the harvest date, not the flag.
Drawn from May 2018 reporting on American producers’ record showing at the world olive oil competition.