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In the spring of 2011, in San Martino Italy, a panel of judges was about halfway through assessing 50 extra virgin olive oils entered in a competition called “Estrascape,” which rates producers on the quality of their oils, as well as the sustainability of their farms. Among the judges were Gino Celletti, the well-known olive oil expert, and Curtis Cord, the publisher of Olive Oil Times. “Suddenly the judges started rejecting every olive oil that was placed before them,” Cord remembers. “There was this strange run of around a dozen oils in a row that made the judges wince, before striking the score sheet with a big ‘X’ to indicate the oil was defective and disqualified.”