I am delighted to introduce you to my first online contributor, the industry expert and writer on world olive oils, Judy Ridgway. Read her potted history here and look forward to news and views on everything olive oil as well as her experiences of the Spanish olive oils I am offering on idelica.com. Please take the opportunity over the coming weeks to ‘ask the expert’ and converse with us on anything that befuddles you about the world olive oil.

To ask Judy or myself any questions or leave comments you can post on the website blog below, and to subscribe to the newfeed from my website which will alert you as soon as posts are published, click the RSS feed button below.  Alternatively, you can interact via twitter or facebook as all posts will be published there too.

Introducing Judy Ridgway

“Hi, My name is Judy Ridgway and I spend my time tasting, assessing and writing about olive oil. During the year I travel around the amazing world of olive oil which now takes in the southern hemisphere as well as the Mediterranean basin. Over the coming weeks I shall be writing about the regions that produce the Idelica range of Spanish olive oils and which I visited earlier this year.

I am asked how I came to be an expert on olive oil – after all, I come from a northern European country and grew up with butter as my main fat. Well, the story is a long one. It began around twenty years ago when I was a wine writer. Very often the growers I visited also grew olives alongside their vines and so I would taste the oils as well as the vines. I liked the taste and loved the food it went into and so my interest grew.

Then I was asked to write a book on oils, vinegars and seasonings with an olive oil importer who had no experience of writing. This was a real eye-opener for me. I learnt that olive oil does not just taste like the one your usually buy. I experienced, for the first time an exciting burst of tastes and flavours in oils such as I was used to finding in wines. At the extra virgin level olive oils can be very different indeed.

My next break came when I started to work, on a free-lance basis, with the European Union olive oil promotion teams. I went to the leading European research stations and visited a number of producing regions which were new to me. During that time the European Union commissioned me to write a paper on quality, taste and flavour in olive oil and this included a vocabulary for describing premium olive oils which has been up-dated and is still used today. Most of the EU descriptions set out in legislation refer to faults as they were devised for the official tasting panels which are one of the checks on extra virgin status.

By this time I had started to spend all my time working with olive oil instead of with wine and was invited to sit on the judging panel for the international Leone’D’Oro awards for olive oil, awarded by the Mastri Oleari in Italy. I remained on the panel for seven years, gaining invaluable experience tasting competition standard oils of all styles and flavour tones from around the world.

Today my work is really varied. One week I may be working on a magazine article or a chapter for a book. The next I may be travelling through a producing region or speaking at a conference. And the week after that organising a tasting seminar or an  olive oil appreciation course. In addition, I am often asked by producers to assess their oils or by buyers to advise on new oils for their ranges.”

Watch for more articles from Judy coming soon on idelica.com – subscribe to the RSS feed below.

Visit Judy’s website