Chapman River Champions, Two Years Running

Chapman River Olives, 24km north of Geraldton has just taken out Best Oil of the Show for the second year running at the 12th annual Perth Royal Extra Virgin Olive Oil competition.
They picked up the award, as well as Best WA Oil of the Show, for their ‘Murphy Yetna’ blend which judges described as having a clean finish, with “intense tropical fruits of guava, passionfruit and honey dew on [the]nose with both sweet and bitter green pepper flavours.”
Owner Russell Lewis remains focused;
“We’re entering the shows just to support our marketability, we’re not too interested in accolades so much as helping sell it,” he said.
Olive oil is a grand, old thing but as is human nature, the quality of such goods are more often than not compromised in lieu of other interests.
Here is just one article detailing the excesses of corruption in the olive oil industry – it’s even said that the Godfather’s Vito Corleone was based on real life crime boss and ‘Olive Oil King’, Joe Profaci.
In this sense, it’s reassuring to know that here in Western Australia we are in good hands.
WA producers won nine gold medals in the competition, out of 70 entrants and 124 entries.
Richard Gawel, again leading the judging panel, was very impressed with how the standard had improved:
“There were more gold medals awarded this year as a proportion of total entries than ever before, which is consistent with my overall impression,” he said.
Preston Valley Grove in Donnybrook won Best Flavoured Oil for a chilli infused entry while Best Boutique Oil went to Karridale Olive Farm, tucked in between Margaret River and Augusta, for their St Boniface Cathedral Olio Verde Novella which featured peach and tomato notes.
The IGA Perth Royal Show will run in the school holidays from 29th September to 6th October.
You can check out the award-winning oils at the Perth Royal Deli in the IGA Fresh, inside the WA Pavilion.