Our mountain – century old – groves

Our olive groves are located next to the ancient city of Elyros in the rocky, mountainous area of Selino in the prefecture of Chania on the island of Crete, at an altitude of 500 to 700 meters above sea level. Most of them are very difficult to reach, since there are no roads leading to them.

Cultivation and harvesting are extremely challenging due to the morphology of the ground and the size of the trees. Following the tradition of more than four generations and respecting what Cretan nature generously offer us, we have learned to treat each tree individually, according to its needs. With an average height of 11m (when some others can reach the 20m) and an average age of 200 years, for us each tree has a different "personality", and this is exactly why we believe that every tree deserves individual attention.

Our ally in this effort is the ideal microclimate of the area: sunny and windy while the trees start to blossom, with cold, rainy days naturally protecting them from disease and feeding them before the harvest.

Our production

Challenging, Painstaking, Traditional, Innovating.

These are the four words that describe best the full procedure of creating the best quality olive oil. The rough and rocky terrain prohibits the use of heavy machinery, so harvesting is done by hand with the aid of electric harvesters that due to the tree height have to be carried on to the tree whilst climbing higher and higher.
Harvesting is carried out while the olives have still a light green colour, that is before start getting darker. Harvesting usually starts in mid- October and lasts about four weeks or until all the fruits have been harvested.

Milling and pressing of the olives is done at the day of harvesting at a specific temperature – under 27c- (cold pressed olive oil). And last for a maximum of forty  minutes for each load. This way we ensure that our gourmet, extra virgin olive oil, will keep all its aromas and valuable phenols. Even if we might have some loss regarding the produced quantity, we compensate by offering a product of  exceptional quality to our customers which contains all the health benefits of the organic olive oil.

Then the olive is stored in stainless steel containers away from sunlight and under strictly controlled temperatures. We also use nitrogen gas in our tanks, which is suitable for foodstuffs, this way ensuring that our olive oil will keep its first day freshness and quality for the longest possible time.

Finally, bottling is done by a semi-automatic machine and each bottle closed then by hand ensuring that all our passion and love for exceptional olive oil reaches intact to your table.