Le Balze di Fontisterni Awarded at 2022 NYIOOC

The Italian producer Le Balze di Fontisterni has won its first-ever Silver Award at the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

I'm delighted to have an opportunity to show my small boutique olive oil production with its exceptional and very Tuscan taste to a vast, interested and knowledgeable audience.

Tom Luger, owner

In the 2021/22 crop year, the company used traditional methods to produce 150 liters of extra virgin olive oil in Tuscany.

"I'm delighted to have an opportunity to show my small boutique olive oil production with its exceptional and very Tuscan taste to a vast, interested and knowledgeable audience," owner Tom Luger said.

Luger earned the Silver Award for his Balze brand, a medium blend where Moraiolo is the predominant variety.

His win at the NYIOOC, the world's largest and most prestigious olive oil contest, comes after an exceptionally dry summer that complicated the harvest.

"The weather in 2021 was extremely dry from March to September, and the olive trees were under serious stress towards the end of the season," he said. "Fortunately they still produced beautiful small olives, with lots of oil and exceptional taste."

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition is held each spring in New York. 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 Guide to the World's Best Olive Oils