When it comes to the World Olive Oil Competition, my thinking has always been to recognize and celebrate every producer who manages to achieve outstanding quality.

The point, it seemed, was to sell stickers. Ugly "World's Best EVOO" stickers doled out by some guy in Germany with a calculator.

The notion that an oil that received a score of 96 by a panel of judges is better than an oil that scored a 91 is false. Sensory assessment is the best way to declare that an oil tastes good to humans. But it's an imperfect metric.

That's why I decided years ago to do away with the Best in Class award, saying at the time, "Crafting a high-quality olive oil is an arduous task. Every producer who manages to do so deserves to be recognized without unjustified hierarchies."

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