Castel Ruggero Pellegrini Wins Gold at 2021 NYIOOC

Italian producer Castel Ruggero Pellegrini has won a Gold Award at the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world's most prestigious olive oil quality contest.

It's the first time we enter the NYIOOC, and we get Gold... For Castel Ruggero Pellegrini this award means a lot.

Clemente Pellegrini Paolozzi Maiorca Strozzi, co-owner

In the 2020/21 crop year, the company produced 10,000 liters of extra virgin olive oil in Tuscany from Frantoio, Leccino and Moraiolo olives using traditional methods. Castel Ruggero Pellegrini earned the Gold Award for its Ruggente brand, a medium blend.

"It's the first time we enter the NYIOOC, and we get Gold," co-owner Clemente Pellegrini Paolozzi Maiorca Strozzi said. "We'd love to grow in the U.S. market, where we believe that we could be very competitive, and we have chosen NYIOOC as a partner to support us in this process. For Castel Ruggero Pellegrini this award means a lot."

The 2020/2021 season was marked by significant challenges, the company's Co-Owner / CEO said after receiving news of the award.

For the producers behind the Ruggente brand, every year is challenging and 2020 was no different.

"Every year offers different challenges, but there is an opportunity for a farmer to personalize their olive oil every year," Pellegrini Paolozzi Maiorca Strozzi said. "2020 was rich in bitter olive oils, so to merge them in an elegant and aromatic olive oil, like our Ruggente, and win a Gold Award is very rewarding."

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, held each spring in New York, is the world's largest and most prestigious olive oil contest. Its annual listing of award winners is considered the authoritative guide to the year’s best extra virgin olive oils.

The complete list of winners can be viewed on the Official Index of the World's Best Olive Oils.