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Short, practical guides from the panel that tastes and scores every oil in the library.
These are the working notes behind the scores: how we taste, what the three positives actually are, why colour tells you nothing, and how to keep a good oil from going flat before you finish the bottle.
Each guide is written by a member of the tasting panel and revised as the method changes. Where a guide names an oil, it links to that oil's entry in the library so you can taste along with it.
Categories
7 categories · 11 guidesHow the panel scores fruitiness, bitterness and pungency, and how to taste at home.
1 guideDecanting, dark glass, heat, and how long an open bottle really lasts.
1 guideHarvest dates, designations and the small print that tells you what is in the bottle.
3 guidesPolyphenols, acidity, methods and what the figures on a technical sheet really measure.
3 guidesThe olive behind the oil: what each cultivar tends to taste like and why.
1 guideJaén to the Edremit Gulf: the habits of each producing country and region.
1 guideHow the medals are judged, what they mean, and which tables we republish.
1 guideWhat the harvest date on the label really tells you
A bottle of extra virgin carries up to a dozen claims. Two of them tell you how fresh it is, one tells you how it was made, and the rest are decoration. Here is how to read them.
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