Alto Olives take international award

Robert Armstrong purchased his remote high country grazing property in the Abercrombie wilderness in 1998 and subsequently established an organically certified olive grove encompassing 15,000 trees and 13 different oil and table olive varieties.

Since the first harvest in 2003, the extra virgin olive oils produced from this pristine place have been consistent trophy winners at numerous major olive shows including the prestigious 2010 Los Angeles International EVOO Competition and 2009 Sydney Royal Fine Food Show where the ALTO flagship oil Vividus won the Champion Australian Extra Virgin Oil Trophy.

They entered two oils in this year's competition in New York and won 'best in class' in the blended extra virgin olive oil and single varietal extra virgin olive oil categories.

This competition is regarded as one of the largest and most esteemed judgings, fields approximately 700 entries from all over the world.

This year, two Australian producers took out four of the 16 'best in class' awards.

Westerly Isbaih, whose family owns Alto Olives, said Australia was now starting to beat the Europeans at their own game.

"We beat producers from all over the world, including the traditional producing nations of Italy, Spain, France and Greece," she said.

"We've taken out these awards with oils that are essentially much older than anyone submitting oils in the northern hemisphere.

"That is amazing.

“That just goes to show the quality of our product."

Ms Isbaih said Cobram Estate, another Australian producer, also won awards this year.

"They also did extraordinarily well. They also got two 'best in class," she said.

"They had nine oils in the competition, or maybe more."

“Crookwell oils are competing with oils in the northern hemisphere that are younger than the ones shown by Alto.

“It is amazing that we are winning against other oils that are younger - with ours coming close to the end of their year long life.

“This win puts Australian oils on a global scale in the forefront of producers that have done the same thing to produce their oils for thousands of years.

“It is making other countries look to Australia to see how we are producing the top quality oils with very little effort.

“This has boosted our entire industry and people now recognise that what comes out of Australia is of the highest quality.”