Generally speaking the quality of the oil from the 2005/2006 harvest is very good but some of it is lighter in style than usual. This is certainly true of some of the oils from the Sitia DOP region at the eastern end of the island. Typical herbaceous tones are still evident but apples and nuts with some pear tones soften the oil. Bitterness and pepper are at medium levels at most.

At the other end of the island inland from Chania and in the Kolymbari DOP region there is more variation. I tasted oils which were quite aggressive with bitter culinary herb tones and salad leaves and some which were rather sweeter in style. Quantities everywhere are down but not hugely so.

Organic Production

This visit I concentrated on the western end of the island and found some very interesting oils which are following dedicated organic methods. My first call was to the Biolea estate set on hill sides above the ROKA gorge. Despite the bitter wind and heavy rain which was driving in in cold blasts from the sea, I set out for the village of Astrikas to visit Christine Lacroix and George Dimitriadis.

Christine and George returned to Crete in the early nineteen nineties with a vision which is soon to be fully realised. Their plan was to initiate an organic regime in the valley around their own estate and to create an eco-friendly, traditional processing plant which would also utilize the best of modern technology. Renewable energy and sustainability were the key words. This mill would then become a show place and centre for organic agrotourism.

In the early days the going was difficult. Tough organic regulations meant that many local farmers fell by the way when the olive fly struck and at one point the Biolea olive groves were the only organic groves in the area. Also the cost of building and setting up the new mill was high and grants were slow in coming through. It has taken nine long years to get where they are now.

Nevertheless the couple’s perseverance is really showing some wonderful results. A new mill has been built in traditional Cretan style with local materials. It is designed in such a way that visitors can view the process from a viewing platform in the showroom and tasting rooms. Inside the plan separates the dirty olive cleaning area from the clean processing area a third area is used for storing the new oils and a fourth one is for bottling the product. It all was constructed to conform to ISO and HASP standards.

The processing equipment is equally traditional. Three new granite millstones brought from the Alpes start the grinding process. The paste then goes through a malaxer and onto stainless steel mats which stack on the hydraulic presses. The pressed out oil must, instead of being exposed to the air by dripping in open pits, it is collected by Hydra pumps directly from the presses and it is pumped into settling tanks mounted on the wall where it immediately starts to separate, by gravity, into oil and water. A centrifugal separator claims any quantity of olive oil remained unseparated in the water which is the first to come out of the low end of the settling tank. When the separated olive oil appears in the transparent piping is collected by controlling vans, before the centrifugal separator.

Part of the philosophy of the operation is that there should be no waste of any kind.

BIOLEA is committed in finding ways to not only control and eliminate waists but convert them in to valuable commodities.

* Through a four year cooperation with the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania they have developed production methods for turning olive leaves to Certified organic " Olive Tea" which we export to Japan.

* The Agronomic University of Athens in cooperation with Biolea prepared a study for a process which is using the extracted olive pomace as fuel to create steam which drives a power generator for the needed electric power and the excess gasses are used to evaporate and concentrate under vacuum the waste water in order to become a valued commodity from which phenols and polyphenols extracted. Such antioxidants are sought after for the development of natural food preservatives.
The the Polytechnic University of Crete has agreed to undertake the construction and development of the project. The proposal has been presented to the Ministry of Energy and we are at the process of acquiring the necessary licensing in order to proceed . This project it is expected to be in production in two years from now.

* Biolea at present is actively participating in a multinational research program ( Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, Czech Republic) by the name "POLYVER" which is funded by EU and its target goal is to develop a process to derive BIO - POLYMERS (used in manufacturing biodegradable plastics) from the olive wastes. A commodity in very high demand.

The quality of the oil is not forgotten in this clever mix of traditional and modern. George in experimenting with using a small percentage of Tsunati or Mastoidis olives from the higher slopes of the mountains to give more subtly to the flavour of the Koroneiki olives which are grown on the surrounding farms. By paying a premium he is encouraging people to actually pick these olives rather than allowing them to fall into nets as they did in the past.

The result is an excellent oil with light but complex aromas of different fruits and nuts. The taste is equally complex with a growing dry herbaceousness and well balanced bitterness and pepperyness.

NB.

In this Travel Diary I usually concentrate on regions rather than specific producers but I felt that the concepts of sustainable agriculture, organics, renewable energy and recycling which are inherent in the work at the Biolea Estate are so interesting that it merited a section to itself.