Organoleptic parameters:

These determine the quality of the virgin olive oil. They are sensory attributes, both positive and negative.

They are sensations that can be detected by the senses, fundamentally related to the flavour and smell.

The features that shape the sensory characteristics of Spanish virgin oils – fragrance, sweetness, almond after-taste, apple flavour, fruitiness, freshness, etc.- reveal the complex sensations that are awoken in smelling and tasting them.

The family of olive trees, the type of soil in which they grow, the characteristics of the ground in which they stand, the circumstances in which the olives have ripened, the care taken to harvest and mill them, as well as the climatology of each harvest/production, affect the ever-alternating level of some taste parameters.

There are as many varieties of table olives in Spain as there are areas of production.

During the tasting, the attributes and defects of the virgin olive oil are evaluated, and from the whole array, a point between 0 and 9 is obtained which, together with the physical-chemical indices, produces the final classification of the virgin olive oil.

The total of these results confirm, or not, the extra virgin or virgin category of the olive oil.

It is of little use for an oil to have magnificent chemical indices if its organoleptic characteristics are not pleasant.

Fruitiness attribute: Fundamental in virgin and extra virgin olive oil. It must relate back to the olives it has been extracted from.

It is the whole set of olfactory sensations, dependent on the variety of olive and characteristics of the oil that has come from healthy and fresh fruit, green or ripe, perceived either directly or retronasally.

Other attributes : bitter, spicy, sweet, green, etc. What virgin olive oils should have.

Defects: winey/vinegary, muddy sediment, metallic, musty/humid, fusty, rancid, etc.
Most of these are due to some defect between cultivation and harvesting of the fruit, and production of the oil and bottling (ripening condition, remains of phytosanitary products, plagues, lack of hygiene, prolonged time before milling, etc.) which are normally well controlled.

The Fruitiness Average MF is the statistical average of the positive attributes of the virgin oil being tasted. It is, basically, the statistical average of the qualification awarded for each component by the “Panel” to each part of the positive attributes (fruity, spicy and bitter) of the virgin olive oil.

The Defects Average Md is, basically, the statistical average of the qualification awarded for each component by the “Panel” to each part of the negative attributes (fusty, hay, muddy) detected in the virgin olive oil by the Tasters forming the "Panel".

Defects Average Md = 0 for extra virgin olive oil