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Jennie Rhodes
Malaga
Friday, 14 February 2025, 12:45
Sharon Page discovered the world of olive oil when she was offered a job translating a website from Spanish to English, the only catch was that the company that wanted the translation done could only pay her in olive oil.
That was in 2010 after she moved to Seville having spent 13 years living in Chile where she had worked mainly in the copper mining industry in the town of Antofagasta.
The deal led to more work with the company and sparked a 15-year love affair with the Andalucía's 'liquid gold'. Sharon is now a specialised olive oil taster who has trained at several prestigious tasting schools in Andalucía and holds the title of Expert in Elaiaotechnics, which she describes as "the production and tasting" of different types of olive oils, from the University of Cordoba.
Sharon, 58, gives tours in English and Spanish at olive oil cooperatives and mills and when she was asked to take a group of people to Jerez to learn about sherry, that turned into an interest in another Andalusian product. She did the Sherry Academy's advanced course in Jerez-Xérès-Sherry-Manzanilla de Sanlúcar de Barrameda and can now talk with authority on the two products.
Originally from London, Sharon's family moved to Hampshire when she was a baby. She discovered languages at an early age - she took extra Latin and German classes at school - and went to Edinburgh where she studied a degree in simultaneous interpretation for the EU.
However, it was a gap year in South America, before a planned move to France, that saw her life take a very different turn. Instead of spending three months doing the various Inca trails in Peru, she visited Chile on the recommendation of a couple she'd met at Machu Picchu. It would be another 13 years before she returned to Europe.
In the end Sharon explains that various factors including her, by then, aging parents and working in "a very chauvinistic" industry, led to the decision to be closer to home. However, she admits that she "couldn't go back to the UK." Having spent 13 years near the Chilean desert, she confesses, "I couldn't face the grey, drab climate."
On the basis that she'd had "a good weekend in Seville in 1986" Sharon and her Chilean cats settled in the city. "The cats appeared on the luggage carousel with my suitcases," she laughs.
There was "no plan" when she arrived in Seville but Sharon recalls that it was difficult to find work. This was 2010 and Spain was in the midst of a crippling financial crisis.
Eventually she was offered the translation work with payment in olive oil and this led to a job with La Cultivada, a family-owned olive finca in Cordoba.
"That's when I started my journey in olive oil," Sharon says, adding that while she has done many courses over the years, a lot of what she has learned she has picked up "on the job".
Now with a successful business still working on a freelance basis with the company and offering olive oil, sherry and tapas tours, Sharon says what she loves most is sharing her knowledge about these traditional Andalusian products.
Sharon will be talking at the annual La Molienda in English in Riogordo, tomorrow, Saturday 15 February, which is organised every year by local resident and fellow olive oil aficionada, Leila Lawson, along with Riogordo town hall. Sharon and Leila met through a mutual friend who has an olive oil company in Archidona.
Sharon will be talking about the process involved in the production, categories and flavours of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), which she says, "always takes people by surprise". She goes on to say, "When people understand a product they fall in love with it a bit more."
The EVOO expert reveals that she always has oil and tomato on toast for breakfast "without fail". She admits that her EVOO of choice is, understandably, "mostly La Cultivada and with four varieties I have plenty to choose from", but confesses that "other EVOOs do sneak in from time to time".
La Molienda in English is fully booked but the Spanish event runs from 21 to 23 February.
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