Elisa Menendez
A BRITISH expat has scooped up numerous coveted food awards for her Andalucian-inspired products.
Creator of Fino Olive Oil, Susie Taylor, has won two prizes at this year’s UK Great Taste Awards – world’s largest and most trusted of its kind – for her dark and white balsamic vinegars.
The foodie entrepreneur from Oxford uses produce from the heart of Cordoba to create her gold star award-winning balsamics.
Both the white and dark vinegars are made from the Pedro Ximenez grape and are ‘skilfully produced by masters in their field’ at the historic but modest Bodegas Navarro in Montilla.
Secrets of their wine making expertise have been handed down from generation to generation since 1830.
The expat started her Spanish adventure in 2003 when she moved to Casarabonela in Malaga for a new life soaking up the culture with her partner and three children.
After mastering the language, Taylor bought 30 acres of land boasting a large cow barn and olive trees before securing planning permission to transform it into their dream home.
And that’s where her love of olives was born.
Taylor started olive-picking with locals to create the ‘village olive oil’, which would then be pressed at the ‘cooperativa del pueblo’ before being drizzled across villagers’ dinner plates.
In 2016 the expat sold the house but has been able to keep strong ties with Casarabonela, selling olive oil produced in the village where she had ‘such happy times’.
