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<pre>Dear Mike

You confirm my final point nicely: "Flavoured oils, as with stuffed
olives, originally derived from products that needed a flavour change".

My main point, however, relates to the purported legality of
nomenclature. I do not know what internal Australian legislation allows,
but was merely stating the IOOC position, governing the members of the
IOOC. I am under the impression that Australia is not a full member, but
has had spectator status at the IOOC for a couple of years. It would
probably be incumbent of your Olive Board or Association to take the
matter up with IOOC in such a case. Rules are never cast in stone, and
could possibly be amended to cater for changing market needs. However, I
know the IOOC is terribly sensitive to any type of "adulteration" of
olive oil, and are very protective about the terms "Extra Virgin" and
"Virgin", even though the strict organoleptic qualifications of EVOO
have had to be relaxed to allow the bulk of commercial Spanish oil to
qualify. As you can infer, I am not a fan of the typical heavy Spanish
Picual and Hojiblanco commercial oils. My own opinion is that the New
World oils are far superior, especially when made with the typical
Italian oil cultivars.

I stick to my guns, however, on the point that it would be ludicarous to
contaminate a top quality EVOO with foreign flavours. Similarly so with
wine. No self-respecting wine estate would degrade their Cabernet,
Merlot, Shiraz or even Chardonnay with frivolous fruity flavours (and
even less advertise the fact).

As a matter of interest, a number of young local olive oil producers out
here have been doing the same thing, and selling the product as
"*****-enhanced Extra Virgin Olive Oil". Their rationale seems to be
that we are not members of the IOOC.

Personally I am against such products being labelled as "Extra Virgin
Olive Oil" as the main descriptor, probably because I have been in the
business for a while, and it just goes against all efforts at building
up the unique position that EVOO currently holds in the mind of the
consumer. I can assure you, it has not always been as easy as it is
today to sell good quality olive oil at a reasonable price.

Not only the IOOC, but organizations like The Oil Masters Guild (Oleo
Mastri), Olive Matters, MICO, etc., as well as any of the accredited
IOOC taste panels (including the Australian one), would very definitely
not classify a flavoured oil as "extra virgin", or even as "olive oil",
if it detects any taint of foreign flavour. It would be interesting to
hear the views of the Californian Olive Oil Council as to whether they
would allow COOC certification of flavoured oils.

I wish I had an answer for you. Maybe blend it with some Spanish oil to
make it (the Spanish oil) more palatable.

Seriously though, as long as you describe your product reasonably
accurately, and your customer knows what he or she is getting, it is
probably not a terribly major issue unless the IOOC is at liberty and
likely to step in. Far more innocuous than adding sunflower seed oil and
colouring matter to the product.

Regards,

Guido Costa
Paarl
South Africa


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Wilson
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:31 PM

Dear Guido,

You mount a convincing case for the defence of the EVOO standard.

However:

If I have produced a stack of olive oil, all of which is EVOO standard,
free of any fault and fitting within the IOOC guidelines, but it is from
over-ripe fruit and therefore boring, lacking in any depth or bite, what
should I do with it?

It is an extra virgin oil, it will never sell against the decent stuff
from other olives I've picked earlier, so why shouldn't I be able to
produce "Extra Virgin Olive Oil infused with Garlic and Herbs"? I can
assure you that this is most defiantly what the punters want to buy, as
it outsells my regular oil 3 to 1.

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, NSW.
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