About Us

Our company

Since the early 1800s,our family’s traditions have been closely linked with olive cultivation in privately-owned olive groves on the eastern slopes of Mt.Taygetos. In 1905 the family expanded into oil production, establishing the Ioannis Klonis and Co. olive oil mill.

Melitini Ltd. was established in 2006 as a Model Plant for the production, packaging and sale of high quality agricultural products, with production centered in the area of Aegies in Laconia, formerly belonging to the historic Melitini municipality and today a part of the EasternManiMunicipality, just 35 km from Sparta.

This decision of ours was inspired by:

• Our love for our land’s traditional crops and our dedication to the idea of sustainable development as a way of life and a duty to generations both future and past.
• The superior quality of Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Laconia, which is recognized as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).
• Year-round sunshine, a dry climate, mild weather conditions, an ideal altitude (270m to 320m) and the beneficial local breezes.
• The particular terrain with the sloping loamy soil that ensures excellent drainage, and the pristine aquifer of Mt.Taygetos.
• The land’s “purity”, being located far from major urban centers and unburdened by heavy industry and intensive agricultural cultivations or affected by rivers encumbered by pollutants.
• The area’s potential for the production of high quality traditional agricultural products.

Our philosophy

Our goal at MELITINI Estate is to develop original, exquisitely flavored and aesthetically pleasing packaged foods that meet the highest safety standards. We also plan to produce functional food items by developing innovative, high value added products that will identify our company’s brand with quality. Our entire production consistently adheres to the strictest quality and food safety standards.

Our long-term objectives include the establishment of a zone of cooperating pesticide and herbicide-free olive grove farms.

The olive oil mill

Certain points worth mentioning since they clearly show our company’s steadfast commitment to issues involving food safety and quality:

• The bottling area is located in the center of our facility, creating control zones that ensure food safety
• The bottling area is bounded by a wall with triplex shatterproof glass panes over it.
• The floor and walls in the bottling and filtering areas are covered by ceramic tiles with cove-shaped joints between floor and abutting surfaces, to facilitate the effective cleaning of all surfaces and inside corners.
• The grout joints between the ceramic tiles in the bottling and filtering areas have been caulked with a non-absorbent sealant -specifically formulated for food industry flooring, creating a non-reactive substrate.
• All wood and wooden items are prohibited in the bottling area.
• A positive air pressure system in the bottling area allows the inflow of filtered air for ventilation and precludes the entry of airborne contaminants.
• The equipment used in the bottling area is either stainless steel (INOX) or made of polymers suitable for food production.
• Packaging and related materials enter our facility through a different ingress point than the exit used for finished goods to avoid cross-contamination.
• The entire facility uses a network of waste water drainage channels with a semicircular configuration to avoid ‘hidden corners’. Special mesh filters located at regular intervals retain solids and other waste.
• All windows that open for venting are equipped with a metal mesh to screen out insects.
• In the storage areas, the external doors and those connecting with the bottling area are equipped with insect repellent blinds, creating two exclusion zones for insects – pollutants.
• All the facility’s transparent glass panes are made of GlassPolicy triplex shatterproof safety glass.
• All other areas – storage, holding and machine shop, have epoxy flooring with cove-shaped joints between floor and abutting surfaces in a radial configuration to facilitate cleaning.
• All machinery and equipment, as well as storage systems and auxiliary tables and benches are located at an adequate height above the floor to facilitate inspection and thorough cleaning.
• All paints used to coat the facility’s walls are eco-friendly paints approved for food processing areas.

• The tank storage area is delineated by a 40cm wall in case of accidental leakage.
• All storage tanks are made of INOX stainless steel.
• The storage tank area is protected by a highly insulated heavy roof structure employing thermally inert material to preclude the build up of high temperatures and protect the olive oil from oxidation during storage. 
• All windows in the tank storage area are equipped with sun screening blinds for temperature control purposes.
• Temperature control and variation, as factors affecting quality, are verified by a temperature logging system on each olive oil storage tank.
• All the piping used for olive oil is either stainless steel or plastic certified for oils and installed without using plasticisers.
• All the facility’s different areas, including those for final products, tank storage, packaging materials, and quarantined items among others, as well as employee ingress and egress points and walkways are appropriately designated and marked.
• There are special controlled areas for ancillary and cleaning materials.
• There is a special holding and storage area for final product and raw material samples.

The modern and exemplary olive oil mill of MELITINI Ltd. produces and processes only extra virgin olive oil. The entire plant is free from not only pomace oils, to preclude any adulteration, but also from traces of any other oils that may cause allergic reactions.

This specialization reflects our consistent investment in quality and constitutes a significant comparative advantage for our company. Moreover, the design and construction of our building facilities as well as our production process are based on the principles of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), while the company’s quality assurance infrastructure complies with BSI-PAS 220:2008, FSSC 22000 and IFS standards, some of the most up to date, strict and innovative worldwide.

Our olive groves

In our family-owned olive groves we cultivate the select varieties of Koroneikiand Athinolia that yield olive oil with the highest concentration of antioxidants and finest sensory characteristics in the world.

Our olive trees are cultivated according to local traditions and with the greatest respect for the environment, avoiding the use of pesticides and using only environmentally friendly traps to counter the threat of olive fruit flies.

The olives are carefully picked by hand from each tree and placed in baskets to avoid bruising or other degradation. They are then always pressed within 24 hours of harvesting to ensure the highest quality. The precious ‘juice’ from our olives is carefully extracted at a temperature 3° C lower than the one specified by law for ‘cold-pressed’designation.

Available in cases of 6 or 12 bottles of 500ml and 750ml and 12 or 24 bottles of 250ml.

Green olive oil, the most valuable oil

Have you heard about it? You have tried it? Green olive oil is the oil of semi-mellow olives, a precious olive oil only available for a few months. Would you like to know more about it?

 Green olive oil, the most valuable oil

Characteristic rich, fruity, aggressive and spicy taste. This oil brings unprecedented scents of nature, authentic olive taste,  aromas that highlight and enrich every dish they accompany. Green olive oil, the most precious juice of the olive, arrives on our plates just only for a few months time and is a perfect choice taste-wise and health-wise.

 Why should we prefer it

 Collection: green olive oil is collected in mid-November from unripe olives and semi-mellow olives. That's why their juice is considered qualitatively superior and richer in flavor and aroma.

    Distribution: This time period that olives are unripe but suitable for harvest is the reason why green olive oil does not circulate throughout the year on the market.

3     Expiration date: The green olive oil, like other confectioned oils, has expiration date, so we are confident that as consumers each time we open the bottle, we poor on our food the best nature can offer.

4.      Nutritional value: The green olive oil is nutritionally and organically superior to any other oil. Due to its freshness, it contains much more antioxidants and on the same time a unique taste.

5.     It also contains: Contains all the vitamins and provitamins of olive oil, minerals and polyphenols, which protect cells from oxidative stress, the active oxygen and the free radicals.

  Idea!

Green olive oil fits perfectly with fresh salads (raw or boiled) and perfectly accompanies any meal where we add raw oil (fish, steamed vegetables, cooked food).

 

 We recommend 

Melitini Estate green olive oil is the first production of Extra Virgin Olive High Quality on this year's crop and will be available early next year, unfiltered, rich in density with bright golden-green color and spicy, aggressive, fruity, fragrant, authentic olive taste and aroma that will stand out even through the bottle.

Eating Greek Greek Olive Oil

By Judy Ridgway
Photography: Constanine Pittas, Vassilis Stenos

Say “olives” and most people will respond with “Greece.” But say “olive oil” and Greece is not always the first region that comes to mind. Yet Greece, with annual production figures of around 400,000 tonnes, is in the major league of olive oil producers, with the third highest production in the world.
Yet, the quality and the range of taste and flavor of Greek olive oil is something of a well-kept secret. This is because so much Greek olive oil either is sold at home or exported into well-known brands and own-label oils packed in other countries.
However with the growing popularity of PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) oils, there are now 14 such regions in Greece. More individual oils are beginning to emerge and bottled and sold in their own right.
Over the last decade, for example, the number of individual brands has increased tremendously. These oils are well worth seeking out for they offer both culinary versatility and value for money.
In Greece, olives and olive oil have been an integral part of the way of life since Homer’s time. Indeed so important was olive oil to the economy of 6th century BC Greece that anyone caught cutting down an olive tree was executed!
The ancient Greeks revered the olive tree not only for its practical attributes but also for its divinity.
In later millennia that reverence was absorbed into the liturgy of the Greek Orthodox Church.
During the Byzantine Empire monasteries were instrumental in ensuring the continuity of olive oil production. Each one had its own olive grove and produced its own olive oil for use in both holy services and in the kitchens. A wonderful example of just such a grove has been restored at the Kaisariani monastery on Mount Hymettus just a few minutes from the center of Athens. A few years ago I attended a fascinating tasting of monastery-produced olive oils which would not normally be available to anyone other than the monks. The oils were as varied in taste and in quality as at any commercial tasting.

Today the production of olive oil in Greece is based on numerous small farms scattered across the regions. Some farmers sell their produce to privately owned mills. Others belong to local cooperatives, which in turn are members of secondary cooperatives developed in the second half of twentieth century to handle and sell oil in bulk. These organizations have done much to raise standards both in the groves and in the mills so that the proportion of extra virgin olive produced in Greece has risen to almost 80%, which is a much higher percentage than in other Mediterranean olive oil- producing countries.
Olive trees are everywhere in Greece. Certain regions, however, stand out for the quality of their oils. The mountainous regions of the Peloponnese are among best known for their olive oil. The PDO region of Kalamata in the west produces an excellent oil not from the Kalamata olive, most of which goes for table olives, but from the Koroneiki olive. The groves here spill down from the mountains to the sea in a funnel shaped valley which spreads along the coast.
These oils are usually quite robust, with plenty of grassy tones, bitter almond skins, and spicy pepper.
The Koroneiki olive is the base for a good many Greek oils and accounts for the deeply herbaceous tones found in so many of them. Sometimes it is pressed on its own and sometimes mixed with other local varieties. In nearby Messinia, for example, the farms grow small quantities of Manaki and Athinolia olives which often go into the mix with Koroneiki. The result is a lighter oil with more citrus and nutty tones.
Further south, down the Mani peninsula, the Koroneiki olives offer softer, gentler oils but still with those characteristic herbaceous tones. This is a remote area which sticks to traditional methods and many of the oils are certified organic. Over the Taigetos mountains, Lakonia offers more first-class oils with three PDO regions and a more general PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) for the whole region. I received my first introduction to Athinolia olive oil here. It was poured straight from the press onto a hunk of lightly toasted bread, liberally sprinkled with salt and served with very ripe tomatoes and fresh goat’s milk cheese — delicious.
The Greeks themselves praise the sweeter oils of Lygourio and Kranidi, also PDO areas, in the eastern Peloponnese, where the Manaki olive is dominant. These oils offer subtle aromas of apples and citrus fruits, with only a touch of bitterness and pepper.

Extra virgin olive produced in Greece has risen to almost 80%, which is a much higher percentage than in other Mediterranean olive-oil-producing countries.

Olive oils from Mytilene (the island of Lesbos) are also much admired.
Everyone who visits the Greek islands knows that they each produce their own olive oil and many of them have their own PDOs, but until recently very few of these oils found their way off their home island. This is slowly changing as island producers look further afield for markets. The organic oils of Zakynthos, for example, with their fragrant mix of apples, salad leaves, and herbs can now be found in the UK.
Of all the islands, Crete is most prominent for olive oil. In fact Crete led the islands into the international market. Crete boasts seven PDO regions as well as a PGI. The two best known regions are situated at either end of the island, atKolimvari in the west and Sitia in the east. Most production is in cooperatives but there is also a number of smaller producers who press excellent oils. Koroneiki dominates here, as it does on the mainland, but there are some local varieties such as Tsounati in Chania, Throumbalia in Rethymnon, and Hondrolia in Heraklion. The taste and flavors of the oils are quite varied. The Greeks “eat” olive oil as the British eat butter, consuming around 20 litres per head per annum. This is more than the Spanish or the Italians and much more than those in the non-producing countries, but when I visit Greece I understand why this is the case. The herbaceous style of the oil really compliments the everyday diet with its emphasis on fresh vegetables, grains, cheese and fish. It is difficult to resist a simple dish of baby beetroot, steamed with its own greens, chilled, and served with a splash of lemon juice and a good slug of Cretan oil!
But good as Greek oil is within the culinary traditions of its homeland it is also an excellent choice for a wider range of cooking. Many leading chefs choose Greek oil for their kitchens because it is so versatile. I have enjoyed Greek extra virgin olive oil served as a dip with dukka in Sydney, drizzled over a warm salad of chicken livers and pancetta in Brussels, and served with char-grilled tuna steaks on a bed of rocket in California.

OLIVE OIL IN THE GREEK KITCHEN
Greeks use olive oil with abandon. It is used in frying, sautéing grilling, roasting, and baking. Olive oil goes into marinades for grilled fish, meats and vegetables and is used as a base for various sauces, both raw and cooked. One of the simplest such sauces is a smooth, whisked elixir made from olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and herbs that gets drizzled over grilled whole fish. Raw, as a condiment, olive oil is bread’s most natural partner, a duet that makes for one of the best snacks and breakfasts in the world. Olive oil also is used to preserve all sorts of foods, from cheeses to cured meats and fish, to grilled vegetables, and, of course, olives.
There is a whole range of Greek dishes called lathera or olive-oil based, which are generally one-pot vegetable and bean stews in which olive oil is one of the main
flavoring agents. In the traditional pastry kitchen, olive oil replaces butter during the periods of fasting; there are even shortbread cookies made with olive oil instead of butter.
Phyllo and olive oil go hand in hand, in both savory and sweet pies. Olive oil cakes and creams, often countered with a generous dose of lemon or orange to offset the unctuous texture imparted by the oil, are among the most healthful sweets in the Mediterranean. Modern pastry chefs have been experimenting with olive oil as well as with olives to create a whole new lexicon of Greek desserts.

VITAL STATISTICS

50 Number of municipalities, out of a national total of 54, where olives are cultivated
140.000.000 Number of olive trees in Greece
400.000 Number of tons of olive oil Greece produces annually
190,000 Number of tons of olive oil exported
95 Percentage of Greek olive exports to the European Union
75 Percentage of Greek olive oil production that is extra virgin
19 Number of liters of olive oil consumed per capita, per annum, in Greece
<1 Number of liters of olive oil consumed per capita, per annum, in the United States

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