The essence of dedication, care and time
Menelaos olive oil products
The essence of dedication, care and time
Menelaos olive oil is a single-variety, ultra-premium organic extra virgin olive oil made from 100% Koroneiki olives. Whether drizzled over a salad, enjoyed with fresh bread or used in cooking, its strong, fruity flavor with notes of freshly cut grass and herbs enhances any dish. Its high polyphenol content - especially when eaten raw - provides a peppery finish and a slight bitterness. We only produce a few thousand liters from our 1200 trees, making Menelaos olive oil a rare treasure.
Around 100 of our trees are Manaki olive trees. From these we produce our Agamemnon olive oil (Menelaos' brother, for those who are well versed in Greek mythology). Like Menelaos, Agamemnon is an extra virgin ultra-premium organic olive oil. In Greece, Manaki olives are highly prized for their unique taste and quality. Manaki oil is characterized by its mild and soft character, has a mild bitterness and a velvety consistency. It has a fruity taste with grassy notes and a hint of tropical fruits such as bananas.
More organic is not possible
Strict sustainability in cultivation and processing
Our olive oil is grown and produced organically according to strict sustainability criteria. It goes without saying that we only use organic fertilizers and pest control methods and take the utmost care in all stages of production.
It is the core of our philosophy to always work with the utmost respect for the surrounding landscape and nature. We combine knowledge and tradition handed down over the centuries with the latest findings and methods to create an exceptional olive oil experience. In this spirit, we strive to sustainably produce one of the world's best organic olive oils.
Sustainable and ecological
We are committed to sustainable and organic farming and carry the prestigious Greek DIO seal for high-quality organic products. Products bearing the DIO label must meet strict organic standards that comply with both EU and international regulations. We do not use herbicides, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Our olives are harvested exclusively by hand, which is particularly important for the protection of birds and insects. This also protects the olive trees themselves and the harvested olives. This prevents oxidation and is an important factor for a low content of saturated free fatty acids - one of the factors for high-quality olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil must not exceed a value of 0.8%, while the limit for ultra-premium is 0.3%.
The olives are mechanically crushed and processed into a pulp from which the oil is then cold extracted, means without heat at a maximum of 27 degrees Celsius. This means that the oil is produced using exclusively mechanical processes, which fully preserves the valuable ingredients and the typical taste of Koreneiki olives. The resulting pomace is processed into animal feed or used for heating.
Pure organic oil - highest quality instead of quantity
Organic farming makes it much more difficult to control pests, fungi, diseases or even harmful plants that draw nutrients and water from the soil. No herbicides, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers can be used. A healthy, organically cultivated Koroneiki tree produces an average of 5 liters of oil with a good harvest - that is only around 50% of the yield from conventional cultivation. Early harvesting reduces this amount by a further 10%-15%, as the riper the olives are, the more oil they contain. However, this increases the content of free saturated fatty acids and reduces the quality. We deliberately forego yield in order to achieve maximum quality. The result: Menelaos Ultra-Premium Organic Olive Oil.
Our olive trees grow on a seaside plot opposite the picturesque Saronic island of Hydra, in the far east of the Peloponnese. Apart from the small coastal villages nearby, our groves are far from major roads and towns that could affect water and air quality. The countryside here is quiet and life follows the ancient rhythm of cultivation and harvest.
The Argolis region is one of the most productive olive oil producing areas in Greece with a high percentage of extra virgin olive oil, mostly produced from Koroneiki olives or in a blend of Koroneiki and Manaki. For this reason, the region enjoys a wealth of experience in the production of olive oil of the highest quality and an infrastructure that has grown over generations. Olive oils of this class, like good wines, also have a strict certification of origin, called P.D.O.: Protected Designation of Origin. Menelaos oil carries the P.D.O. Kranidi, Argolis.
We are Katja and Rainer, Katja is Greek and German, Rainer is German and we have three children together. We are both successful entrepreneurs in Munich, but for many years we have spent as much time as possible in Greece, which is much more to us than just a second home.
As a Greek-German family, we bought Villa Asterias with its more than 3 hectares of olive groves from a family of traditional olive growers. Friends told us that the Koroneiki olives on our property were the best oil olives in Greece, perhaps even in the world, and that we should definitely produce oil. So we developed our Menelaos oil - a little uncertain at first, but then with increasing enthusiasm.
We are committed to sustainable and organic farming with a simple goal: to produce one of the best organic olive oils in the world. We now carry the prestigious Greek DIO seal for high-quality organic products. We harvest our 1200 or so trees early and by hand, with a high proportion of olives still green, extract cold and then filter immediately. Harvesting and oil production is a great experience for our family every year. The result is our single-variety Menelaos olive oil made from Koroneiki olives: a natural, sensual and healthy treat; a precious product born from an ancient Greek tradition. Speaking of ancient: our oldest tree is already over a thousand years old.
Our Olive: The Koroneiki
One of the best oil olives in the world
We can tell you a lot about "our" Koroneiki. But the most important thing is thatthis traditional variety, which is widespread in Greece, has a reputation for being one of the best oil olives in the world. What is certain is that it is one of the olives with the highest natural polyphenol content and its oil is therefore particularly beneficial to health.
And the high polyphenol content also means that the oil has a particularly long shelf life, provided of course that
it is stored correctly, i.e. in a dark place and not too warm or cold.
The olive tree is a living symbol of Greece and the Greeks, and in some cases, with thousand-year-old trees such as in Argolis or Crete, these trees are living natural monuments. Even the oldest tree in our Villa Asterias is more than a thousand years old.
But the olive tree is not just a symbol of Greece. It is a part of its history and mythology. Just like the treasure it carries: olive oil.
Olive oil is the green gold in the symbolic tree of Greece. The leaves of wild olive trees have been found in sixty thousand year old fossils from Santorini and Nisyros. In the late Bronze Age, the olive tree began to spread from Crete to Spain. At this time, olive cultivation developed and the use of wild and cultivated olives became widespread.
This makes the olive tree one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world. Olive trees can live for several thousand years. The oldest tree in our Villa Asterias, for example, is more than a thousand years old.
The olive tree is also the symbol of the city of Athens. According to mythology, Poseidon and Athena competed to become the protector of Athens. The god of the sea offered the trident as a symbol of power, while the goddess of wisdom planted the olive tree as a symbol of fertility. Athena emerged victorious and from the first olive tree she gave the city emerged the sacred olive trees, the destruction of which was punishable by death.
Similarly significant was the wild olive tree of Olympia, from which the Kotinos was made, the crown of Olympic champions - the most prestigious prize a mortal could receive. Even then, the branch of an olive tree symbolized peace and the end of all hostilities.
Aristaeus, the son of Apollo, is the first olive grower in history; in addition to this role, he is also a mythical healer who, unsurprisingly, uses oil to heal wounds and diseases.
Olive oil was also used in Christianity as a means of purification by applying it to the baptized person in the form of a cross during baptism and wrapping the baby (in most cases) in an oil-soaked cloth after baptism.
The Koroneiki is robust, tolerates heat, but also frost down to -7° C. It is not suitable for the artificial irrigation methods of large industrial plantations, as the trees do not like standing in water. It also needs to be pruned back hard every year, which we always do with great care and patience. The Koroneiki is an olive that needs a lot of manual work to fully develop its best qualities. And because we treat our trees and olives as well as we do, we are rewarded with one of the finest olive oils in the world: our Menelaos oil with its exquisite aroma and complex, peppery and slightly bitter, strong flavour with notes of freshly cut grass and herbs.
Olive oil is the green gold in the symbolic tree of Greece.
It is considered the healthiest edible oil, but has the lowest production volume of all edible oils worldwide. For example, around 65 million tons of palm oil are produced annually, but only around 3 million tons of olive oil.
With four hundred and fifty thousand tons, Greece is the third largest olive oil producer in the world. Seventy-five percent of this is extra virgin olive oil, making Greece the largest producer of premium olive oil.
At the same time, only 3% of the olive oil that is traded internationally is Greek. This is partly because a third of Greek oil is consumed by the Greeks themselves - the Greeks have the highest per capita consumption in the world at around fifteen liters - and partly because Greek production is mainly based on small, traditional, family-owned olive groves that are personally tended.
This is in contrast to the dense or even super-dense plantations with intensive cultivation that are mainly operated in Spain, the world's leading country in terms of production.
As it is almost impossible to market their own oil in an economically viable way due to the small quantities per production company, the Greek family businesses mostly sell their oil to large Italian brands, which add the Greek premium oil to their own in order to achieve a higher quality.
