Maslina 2017, Split

This past Saturday, February the 25th 2017, the 14th international manifestation Maslina 2017 took place in Split (Dalmatia, Croatia). “Maslina” means “olive” in Croatian. This international event drew in high quality olive oil samples from approximately 500 olive oil producers from Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montegenro. And it was exactly yours truly EVOO Bilini that took the title of the best extra virgin olive oil of the event!

Maslina 2017 – Awards

Each year, the Maslina manifestation starts with awarding diplomas and medals for the olive oils evaluated by the panel of experts. This year was extremely good for the quality of olive oil. From 500+ received samples, only two were labeled as lampante. All other olive oils were labeled virgin and extra virgin.

We waited for our Family farm name to be called on with great impatience. And then, after our Vedrana Rakovac was called upon to take her envelope – featuring the grade of our EVOO Bilini – we hardly awaited to open it. Inside was a gold medal. You can see it below on the picture – I was holding it here, Vedrana had her share of holding prizes that evening. Read on. 🙂

We knew there was something special in store for us that evening. The panel of expert judges graded our EVOO Bilini with 99.25 out of 100.00 points!

Since there were more than 500 samples delivered to the contest, the procedure of handing the grades and diplomas took well over an hour.

Bilini voted best extra virgin olive oil of the event

Then, around 6:30 PM, a gala dinner took place, during which special prizes were given to the fortunate few. This was the part of the manifestation during which the best extra virgin olive oil was awarded.

We were astonished! Our Vedrana, owner of the family farm Rakovac received the following prizes and awards:

• Plaque for the highest grade on the panel, for organoleptic characteristics of our olive oil (99.21/100),
• Plaque for Top extra virgin olive oils – Premium,
• Cup and plaque for the champion olive oil in the class of blended extra virgin olive oils,
• Cup and plaque CHAMPION OF MASLINA SPLIT 2017 MANIFESTATION
• Transitional champion cup of the Maslina Split manifestation. The last year’s champion handed it to us, and we will have to hand it over to the next year’s winner.

Pictured below, we can see the overwhelmed champion Vedrana flanked by vice-champions of the Maslina 2017 event.

Hereby, we would like to thank the organizers for all of the prizes. This presents a great honour, but also a great obligation. We also want to congratulate all other awarded olive oil producers from the event.

And next day, after a 6 hours drive back to Istria from Split, I succeeded in persuading Vedrana not to go home, but to stop in our olive groves and do some serious pruning. After all, if we’re not gonna do it, who else would do it for us? 🙂

Thank you, Maslina Split, and see you next year! Dear readers, you can taste the voted best extra virgin olive oil by visiting our web shop. ??