Smells like Extravirgin Spirit An Ethnographic Exploration of the Taste Regime of Olive Oil

This article examines how the taste of extra virgin olive oil is socially produced and recognized in contemporary Italian food culture through the framework of taste regimes and practice theory. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with professional sommeliers and analysis of institutional campaigns, it investigates how the metaphor of «virginity» – laden with sensory, moral, and aesthetic meanings – is enacted through three intertwined practices: problematization, ritualization, and instrumentalization. The study emphasizes the methodological value of ethnography in capturing the situated and performative dimensions of taste-making. It also highlights the importance of territorial framing in processes of valorization, showing how cultivars, symbolic geographies, and normative discourses turn olive oil into both a product of excellence and a marker of cultural identity. Within this regime, taste becomes a codified expression of place, distinction, and authenticity.