What makes a truly great extra virgin olive oil?

Walk into any supermarket and you'll find dozens of bottles labelled "extra virgin olive oil." Most of them have very little in common with the real thing.

The term "extra virgin" is legally defined — it means the oil was produced by mechanical means only (no heat, no chemicals) and has a free acidity below 0.8%. But the legal definition is a floor, not a ceiling. The gap between a bottle that barely clears the threshold and one that genuinely earns the label is enormous.

It starts with the olive

Great olive oil begins with a great olive, harvested at the right moment. The Koroneiki variety — the small, intensely flavoured olive grown across Crete and the Peloponnese — is one of the world's finest oil olives. It's also one of the most demanding. The fruit is tiny, which means more labour per litre of oil. The harvest window is narrow. And the olives bruise easily, which means they need to reach the press quickly.

Most large-scale producers have moved away from varieties like Koroneiki for exactly these reasons. The economics don't work at scale. But the flavour — grassy, peppery, complex — is irreplaceable.

The press matters more than most people realise

Once olives are harvested, the clock is ticking. Every hour between harvest and press, the fruit begins to oxidise. Acidity rises. Polyphenols — the compounds responsible for that characteristic peppery finish and most of the oil's health benefits — begin to degrade.

The best producers press within hours of harvest. Some within two. This is what "cold-pressed" really means in practice: not just that no heat was applied, but that the olives were fresh enough that no heat was needed to extract the oil.

Acidity is a proxy for freshness

Free acidity — expressed as a percentage of oleic acid — is the most reliable single indicator of olive oil quality. Extra virgin requires below 0.8%. The best oils come in well below 0.5%. Our single-estate Koroneiki oil from Crete consistently tests below 0.2%.

Low acidity doesn't just mean better flavour. It means the oil was made from healthy, freshly harvested fruit, processed quickly and carefully. High acidity is almost always a sign of damaged fruit, delayed pressing, or poor storage.

Single-estate vs. blended

Most olive oil — even expensive, well-marketed olive oil — is a blend. Oils from multiple countries, multiple varieties, multiple harvests are combined to produce a consistent product at a consistent price point. There's nothing wrong with this, but it means you're tasting an average.

Single-estate oil is different. Every bottle comes from one place, one harvest, one press. The flavour reflects the specific soil, the specific microclimate, the specific decisions made by one family in one season. It varies slightly year to year — just like wine — and that variation is part of what makes it interesting.

What to look for on the label

When you're choosing an olive oil, look for:

• Harvest date (not just a best-before date — you want to know when the olives were pressed)
• Origin (a specific region or estate, not just "Product of the EU")
• Variety (Koroneiki, Arbequina, Picual — each has a distinct character)
• Acidity (below 0.5% is a good sign; below 0.3% is exceptional)
• Dark glass or tin (light degrades olive oil faster than almost anything else)

The pepper test

Here's the simplest way to tell if an olive oil is genuinely fresh and high-quality: take a small sip and hold it at the back of your throat. A good extra virgin olive oil will make you cough — a mild, pleasant burn caused by oleocanthal, a polyphenol with anti-inflammatory properties. The stronger the pepper, the fresher and more polyphenol-rich the oil.

If there's no pepper, the oil is either old, over-processed, or both.

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Our Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Crete is cold-pressed within hours of harvest from Koroneiki olives grown on a single family estate above Heraklion. Acidity below 0.2%. Discover the full story and explore the collection.