Olive Oil Production

Farming: olive trees have been found in fossilized form in Ancient Greek ruins showing a history that dates back 50,000 years.  Olive farming for olive oil production dates back to the Mycenaean and Minoan periods and let it be noted that the area of Mycenae includes where modern day Nafplio sits.  Trees used to rely on nature for fertilizer, pest control and water, but now modern agriculture has improved yields with chemicals and irrigation systems.  Our farms use pesticides only when necessary to combat insects that can destroy a crop and our irrigation systems are used only when a crop is at risk of suffering due to drought.  By relying on nature, our farmers reduce their costs, but the net result is a better olive with which to make olive oil. 

Harvesting: our olives never touch the soil.  Using mechanical and hand picking methods, we ensure that our olives never touch the soil.  The real insurance however are the “elaiopana”, these are large canvas sheets that are placed below the trees during the harvest to ensure that olives don’t touch the soil.

Pressing: First cold press. We press our olives by dawn the next morning for reasons of quality.  Also, to ensure an impressively low acidity.

Filtering: We believe in allowing our olive oil to settle rather than agitating it through a violent filtering process.   Filtering will allow you to market the olive oil faster, however it does impact the lifespan, flavor and color of the olive oil.   Nature continues to work for us as gravity separates residual sediment from the oil. These sediments are a natural byproduct of unfiltered olive oil.

Storage: we store our olive oil in basements with moderate humidity and temperatures that range from 40-65 degrees.  It is imperative that we limit our olive oil’s exposure from hot temperatures as we believe it affects the product’s quality.