INITIATION À L'OLÉOLOGIE

Description

You serve olive oil every day. You sell it, you cook with it, you recommend it – or you simply drizzle it over your tomatoes. And if someone were to ask you what makes this oil special, you would probably lack the words. This is not a lack of taste. It is a lack of vocabulary – and it can be fixed in just one day.
A full day led by an olive oil expert. The basics of olive oil production
Organoleptic and physicochemical classification
IOC and EU regulations: what the quality classes actually mean
The mechanisms of tasting – how we taste, and why we can be deceived
The three fruitiness profiles: green, ripe, mature olives
Single-varietal tastings
Tastings by terroir
Tastings along the ripeness index
Professional tasting materials, documents, and oils will be provided.
Who leads the day
Cécile Cron, oleologist and olive farmer, will lead the entire day. She is a certified expert in tasting extra virgin olive oil, trained at the University of Jaén in Spain as part of a program funded by the International Olive Council – the very institution that sets the international standard that is the focus of this day. She has also completed further training at IFAPA in Cabra and at the Centro del Olivar y Aceite in Úbeda. Since 2007, she has been producing her own organic extra virgin olive oil at the Cova Fumada estate in Catalonia. She not only teaches tasting – she produces what she talks about. Her book « Ôde à l'olivier » has just been published, a photo book created with Sergio Castañera and with a foreword by Mauro Colagreco, a three-Michelin-star chef.
For whom
The day is aimed equally at taste professionals and curious amateurs. Chefs, sommeliers, wine merchants, delicatessans, restaurateurs, olive producers. And anyone who buys olive oil without really knowing what they are buying. No prior knowledge is required. The day stands on its own: it is not necessary to have attended the two preceding days on olive cultivation, nor to own an olive tree.