Los Angeles Times
May 16, 2002

Judges put taste buds to work on wines and olive oils
Pam Noles

POMONA -- Inside this quiet place, where men and women with solemn faces sit at small tables draped with white linen, the sound is so unexpected it is almost shocking.

Sllluuurrrp.

It was a thick noise, with a little trill in the middle and an abrupt bite at the end. It happened so fast it was hard to tell which of them did it. They do not react at all, continuing their mostly quiet work lifting small blue jars, sniffing, sipping, taking notes. It is the first day of judging for the Los Angeles County Fair Olive Oils of the World Competition, and this is how it's done, with a few top experts, a warming pad, and the occasional burst of rude and funny noises.

Not that anyone in this room inside the Sheraton Hotel at Fairplex is laughing. It is serious and not so easy work for a dozen people to taste and judge 92 different oils over the course of three days, with little more than a bite of an apple to clean the palate between each silky candidate.

The industrial strength slurps are necessary, explains Arden Kremer, who runs Enterprise Vineyards in Sonoma County with her husband. Air must be forced through the oil onto the tongue to release the full flavor inside the mouth for proper evaluation.

"It enhances what we call the retro nasal effect so you can get the flavor inside your nose rather than outside," she said. "You want to be able to repeat the flavor of the oil."

Six months ago the California Olive Oil Council became the first American group qualified to taste oils at an international level, said Roberto Zecca, past council president and chair of the fair's oil competition. It is now one of 40 in the world to earn such a designation, each judge certified to meet strict guidelines set by the International Olive Oil Council in Madrid.

Reaching that goal helped attract more oils than ever, Zecca said, with oils arriving from Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Chile and elsewhere.

"Of course now other countries feel confident sending their best to us," he said. "We just needed to tell them we were doing this."

The oils are kept on a warming pad at 80 degrees, the perfect tasting temperature. Each vial has a tiny paper disk on top to prevent flavor from drifting away on vapors, and each tasting vial is blue so that color will not influence the judge on taste.