The Willow Creek Olive Estate Directors’ Reserve extra virgin olive oil has been awarded its first international gold medals for the 2016 season.

The robust Directors’ Reserve was the only South African olive oil to be honoured with a gold medal at the Domina international olive-oil contest, and was also awarded Prestige Gold at the Terra Olivo competition in Israel.

 The Domina International olive-oil contest was founded to promote and develop the global sector of high-quality extra-virgin olive oil.

The world-renowned olive oil expert and president of the competition, Antonio Lauro, lead the panel of judges.

“The high standards of the oils participating in the competition intimidated me at first, but then I became extremely proud and conscious of the great responsibility of assessing these olive oils,” says Lauro.

In addition to the Directors’ Reserve’s Prestige Gold in the Terra Olivo competition, Willow Creek was also awarded two gold medals for its Estate Blend (Gran Prestige Gold) and for its lemon-flavoured olive oil (Gold). Some 630 entries were received from 19 countries worldwide. Antonio Lauro was also the tasting panel chief for this esteemed competition.