Olive Oil Producers: Vanja Dujc

Vanja Dujc is one of the most famous and respected olive oil producers in Europe. 

Olive oil VANJA has a lot of top awards at the most prestigious international competitions in New York, Shanghai, Milano, Split, Zurich, Paris and in many other international exhibitions. 

His olive oils are included in the Feinschmecker's catalog and on the menus of high-end Michelin-starred restaurants.    

 

At the same time, unlike many of his colleagues, Vanja Dujc did not inherit his craft and secret knowledges from his ancestors. He became an olive oil maker just by accident.  
 

This happened in the 1980s when Vanja was working as a mechanical engineer.
He was looking for an opportunity to earn some extra money and someone offered him to buy a piece of land near Slovenian Adriatic coast.  

Vanja bought this parcel (about 4 hectares) on credit. He did not know anything about growing olives and making oil and there was no one to teach him. 
In Slovenia, the last professional olive growers refused this business long time ago due to severe frosts destroying the harvest year after year.    

The first results were not very impressive: in 1985 all olives froze.
This meant that there would be no harvest for several more years.
Vanja had two options - to give up or start all over again.
So he decided to take out another loan and to restore the olive farm.
 

After ten years of hard work and study of old Italian books about olive growing the first achievements appeared.

Best gourmet stores and restaurants began to buy Vanja's olive oil. Several years later Vanja Dujc started to get the first prizes in Croatia, Italy and Germany. 

In February 2021 at the International competition Olio Nuovo in Paris olive oil VANJA was rewarded as the best olive oil in the Northern Hemisphere.  

One more official title for a famous master. 
However, no official award can match the sincere respect of colleagues and gourmet olive oil connoisseurs. 
Do you know what they call him? “Olive oil whisperer”.