Gold in a Hard Year: The 2023 World Olive Oil Awards
Not every olive story in a hard year is disaster. When the world’s biggest olive-oil competition hands out its golds, the winners are a quiet act of defiance — proof that great oil is still being made, lovingly and at real cost, by growers who refuse to cut corners.
Amid the drought, extreme weather and soaring production costs of a hard season, the world’s largest olive-oil competition still announced a full slate of winners — producers across Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Türkiye, California and beyond taking awards in spite of every reason not to succeed. Reading the price and fraud headlines, it’s easy to forget that excellent oil never stopped being made. An awards list is a map straight to it.
Why the good news gets buried
Crisis makes the news; competence does not. A record price or a fraud bust is a headline; a Calabrian family pressing a flawless oil for the twentieth year running is not. So a run of bad years can leave the impression that olive oil is all shortage and swindle. The competitions are a useful corrective — a yearly reminder that the base of the whole thing is still craft, and that plenty of people are practising it superbly, drought or no drought.
What a hard-year medal really shows
Winning in a good year is one thing; winning in a drought is another. A poor season stresses the fruit, compresses the harvest window, and pushes costs up — and still some producers turned out oil good enough to top a blind panel. That tells you something about them beyond a single bottle: the attention, the timing, the willingness to spend on quality when it would have been easy to coast. Those are exactly the growers worth seeking out and sticking with.
How to actually use an awards list
Competition medals are one of the few honest signals on a crowded shelf — a real panel tasted real oil, blind — but they aren’t magic. Use them as a shortlist, then apply the checks that protect you: a recent harvest date and a single, named origin. In a year thick with fakes, a small award-winning estate oil is a far safer bet than a cheap famous-flag bottle — and a better way to reward the growers who earned the gold.
| Use a medal to… | Don’t use it to… |
|---|---|
| Find a producer worth trying | Assume every bottle they sell is the winner |
| Discover origins beyond Italy/Spain/Greece | Skip checking the harvest date |
| Cut through shelf marketing | Trust an old ribbon on a new, cheaper batch |
| Reward careful, honest growers | Replace your own taste and judgement |
The takeaway
- Great oil is always being made, even in the worst years — the headlines just don’t cover it.
- A hard-year winner signals a producer with real discipline, not just luck.
- Treat a medal as a shortlist, then confirm a fresh harvest date and a named origin.
- Choosing a small award-winning estate rewards exactly the growers the industry needs.
The 2023 awards: common questions
Does drought lower the quality of award-winning oils?
It makes good oil harder to produce, but the best growers still hit top quality. A win in a drought year signals real skill and care, not just favourable conditions.
Why do competitions matter more in a crisis?
Bad news dominates the headlines, so it’s easy to forget excellent oil is still being made. An awards list points straight to the producers doing it well.
Is a medal enough to buy on?
It’s a strong shortlist, not a guarantee. Pair it with a recent harvest date and a single named origin before you buy.
Which countries win these awards?
Italy, Spain and Greece feature heavily, but so do Portugal, Türkiye, California and many others — the quality map is genuinely global.
Is an award-winning estate oil worth the premium?
Usually, yes — a small, traceable, freshly harvested medal winner is a far safer buy than a cheap bottle trading on a famous flag.
Competition medals are one of the few honest signals on a crowded shelf — not perfect, but a real panel tasted real oil, blind. Use them as a shortlist, then apply the usual checks: a harvest date and a single named origin. In a year thick with fakes, a small award-winning estate oil is a safer bet than a cheap famous-flag bottle — and buying it does something quietly good, putting your money behind a grower who made something excellent when the year gave every excuse not to.
Drawn from published world olive oil competition results and trade coverage of the 2023 season.