A Few Words About Our Olive Oils – We Will Discuss More Over Time!
First and foremost, the entire production line of our olive oils is owned by us. This means that the olive groves, olive mill, and bottling plant are all under our ownership and kept confidential. This ensures that no other producer can use our facilities for producing or bottling their olive oil. Through this, we guarantee that the organic olive oil we produce remains clean, and we have complete control and traceability from start to finish. We maintain strict attention to every detail, conducting more experiments each year to ensure quality.
Our olive oils are derived from mountain olive groves situated far from the city and away from environmental pollution. In addition to the regular chemical analysis for BIO certification and high phenolic analysis (certification), we also conduct analyses for petroleum and chemical compounds that might be present in olive oils due to atmospheric pollution.
We specialize in two varieties: Tsounati, sourced from olive trees averaging 400 years old, located in the southern part of the island at an elevation of around 650 meters; and Koroneiki, approximately 70 years old on average, located in the northern part of the island at an elevation of about 400 meters.
Within our olive mill, we've developed new machines and technologies in collaboration with two universities over the past seven years, enabling us to produce olive oil with over 1000mg/kg phenols each year. After washing and drying the olives, a team of five people manually separates the good from the bad olives based on color. We exclusively use the green, small, and healthy olives. After depitting the olives (we produce depitted olive oil, not crushing the olives with pits), we malax the crushed paste using inert gas argon. Depending on olive ripeness, we occasionally use inert gases during separation in the decanter.
There's much more to our process that's best experienced firsthand.
During bottling, we use inert gas to fill the gap between the olive oil's surface and the cork, preventing oxygen from entering until the bottle is opened. Bottles are thoroughly sterilized, and the procedure commences at the perfect olive oil temperature. While stored in stainless steel tanks, the tanks are also pressurized with 1.0 bar of inert gas Argon. Storage conditions maintain temperatures between 12°C to 15°C and a maximum of 40% humidity, significantly extending the olive oil's shelf life. Consequently, we only bottle upon orders to ensure freshness.
Since 2019, we are the first and only globally certified and approved Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) to serve as a food supplement by the Belgian, Luxemburgish, and French governments. It can be legally prescribed by doctors and is available in pharmacies.
A notable detail regarding our bottles is that the glass is made in Italy, Venice, without the use of Pb (lead) to ensure the chemical quality of our olive oils. Also, the bottle's top is designed to lean backward. This design allows for smooth pouring by leveraging air pressure.
Lastly, our cork is a single-piece wooden cork, topped with a wooden finish attached using natural glue made from sugarcane. (We avoid plastics.) The black plastic capsule on top can only be opened from the back of the bottle. As you insert your finger in the hole to open the bottle, the capsule easily tears from the back in each bottle. Every capsule is applied and positioned manually.
The label tie is crafted from potato paper, securely fastened with black fishing rope to prevent easy breakage. The tiny pin in the rope is gold-plated in the monovarietal and silver-plated in the blend. All these processes are carried out by hand.
These details provide insight into our olive oils, and there's much more to discuss.
