Waikawa Glen and Noble Estate win big at NZ Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards

Rob and Tricia Noble-Beasley with their haul at the New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards. Photo / Rosalie Willis

Kāpiti continues to dominate the New Zealand Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards with Waikawa Glen Olives winning Best in Show and Noble Estate winning Best Flavoured Oil, among a host of other gold, silver and bronze medals.

Noble Estate owners Tricia and Rob Noble-Beasley have been tending their olive orchard since 2000 and have won gold medals for their olive oils for the past 20 years.

Noble Estate is a boutique grove of less than 600 olive trees, located at Peka Peka.

This year was the first time winning the Best Flavoured Oil trophy for their Kaffir Lime oil.

Lisa Buchan and Glenn Wigley from Waikawa Glen with the award presented by Roberto Zecco.

After first winning the best-flavoured citrus oil, they went on to win the overall best-flavoured oil.

"We've always been happy with a gold medal, but it's great to finally win the big award," Rob said.

The Kaffir Lime agrumato is olive oil infused with kaffir limes from their garden orchard, along with limes from friends when their trees don't yield a big enough crop.

Starting because of the romantic notion of owning an olive oil grove, Noble Estate also produces a chilli agrumato, lime-infused and garlic-infused flavoured oils along with their extra virgin olive oil mission and frantoio blends.

"Rob had a dream that making olive oil would be romantic," Tricia said.

The NZ Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards trophy for Best Flavour Oil won by Noble Estate in Kāpiti. Photo / Rosalie Willis

"We had been overseas a number of times, to France and Spain and had stayed on an olive grove and worked on them and had this Mediterranean dream."

Making olive oil is a retirement hobby for the couple.

"It was and still is a hobby that is so much fun but it does require hard work at times.

"However, with mechanical assistance, we don't have to do everything by hand like we used to."

With no telling what, when they put the olives into the press, the yield will be, Rob said that's part of the fun.

"There's no telling when you put the olives into the press how much it will yield.

"You can't tell what the fruit will produce unless you use expensive scientific methods to measure how much the olives will give you.

"So it's one of the mysteries – it's the fun part not knowing if it's going to be a winner or not."

The couple still enjoys educating the public on the benefits of olive oil.

When they started back in 2002, little was known about the benefits of olive oil.

"Educating people over the years has been exciting, introducing them to such a healthy superfood."

Waikawa Glen, owned by Lisa Buchan and Glenn Wigley also won big, taking out the commercial intense blends Best in Class before winning the Best in Show.

"We were told two years ago when we won three gold medals, two best in class, and a runner-up to the boutique best in show, that we should never expect to have such a year again, so we were quietly pleased to get another gold medal last year," owner Lisa Buchan said.

"It came as a complete surprise to get another gold medal at this year's awards and then to be announced as best in our class for the commercial intense blends and even more amazing to be announced as best in show.

"I guess we were a bit overwhelmed."

Waikawa Glen's award winning oil was a mix of Frantoio, Leccino and Koroneiki.

Each of these varieties brings its own contribution to the palate - the Koroneiki was described by the judges as having an aroma of jasmine, clover, almond and pineapple with chilli pepper at the back of the throat, while the Frantoio/Leccino had an aroma of almond and black pepper.

"When these varieties get mixed, they bring the entire range of the palate into play.

"The judges said the blend had a 'hint of clove, smooth and creamy mouthfeel with a warm peppery finish'.

"We knew the blend was pretty special, but I had a wee moment last week when I had some of it on a salad and my senses went into overdrive, so that was when I started thinking maybe this could be a winner."

The 2022 Awards had 152 entries.

"The achievement of 47 gold medals, 88 silver medals and 12 bronze medals awarded out an entry of 152 olive oils across all of the growing regions in New Zealand was an excellent achievement for the industry," Olives NZ spokeswoman Emma Glover said.

Wairarapa received 66, Kāpiti 24, Canterbury 13, Hawke's Bay 10, Auckland 9, Central Otago, Nelson, Northland and Waiheke Island five each, Marlborough four and Bay of Plenty one.

The awards were judged by two panels, each comprising four experienced judges, judging to International Olive Oil Council Panel (IOC) standards.

The eight judges then re-judged all of the Best in Class winners to confirm the major winners.