Thanks for this, Curtis Cord! You remind me of a tale told in Mort Rosenblum's delightful book Olives, in which he recounts asking Juan Vicente Gomez Moya: "So! What's the world's best olive oil?" At which Juanvi leaned back in his chair and said, very gently: "What's the world's best cheese? What's the world's best wine?" Implying, as you do here, it's an impossible question--and does not do justice to all the great cheeses, wines, and, of course, olive oils, that there are in the world.

Best in class is fine by me. As so much of the scoring is subjective anyway, you might then think, well lets do away with silver medals as well as best in class, because that scoring is subjective. Maybe we shouldn't have Gold awards either as that is subjective too. If you are using judges for an expert analytical process, why not also use the same judges expertise, however differing from each other to proclaim what they feel is best in class, good enough for gold and silver, why not best in class. Keep it.

Sometime olive oil is discriminated based on the country of origin. For example Turkish, Moroccan or Tunisian are considered sub standard compare to Italian or Spanish. Why?

And I would add the “top 20” and “top 100” lists. There are many more than 20 or 100 oils that all are on the same high level of quality. Some competitions are criticized for awarding many oils but the truth is there are that many that are deserving of the top acclaim. As you say, isolating one, or 20 or 100 of this group is not helpful or justified.

Well said, Curtis. One must remember that, as with beauty pageants, the first step is self nomination. Small producers also must consider the contest entry fees. The awards are great recognition. Good producers can produce great olive oils. But a producer with five selections may only send one or two to competitions each year.

Really interesting insight into a process I wondered about. Thank you Mr. Cord.