A Crete olive oil tour visits the olive groves, mills and tasting rooms of Crete, the largest Greek island. The tour is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville.
This post covers what the tour is, how old olive growing is on the island, the Cretan olive varieties, how the oil is pressed, the protected oils and how tasters judge them.
The ancient trees and olive museums, the best months and common questions come last. The sections include Crete olive oil tours that can be booked online.
What is a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour visits an island where olive groves cover 65% of the farming land. Olive growing and tourism are two key sources of income there. The Messara basin alone has about 92 olive mills.
Traditional groves hold trees over 100 years old and taller than 8 m. They carry only 5 to 8 trees per stremma, a Greek land unit of 1,000 square metres. Grazing animals are a key part of these groves.
Intensive groves hold trees 10 to 50 years old and under 5 m tall. They are planted at 20 to 30 trees per stremma. Drip irrigation there can reach 270 cubic metres per stremma a year.
On a Crete olive oil tour, wild plants grow between the trees. They include asphodel, mallow, wild arum, clover, vetch and thorny burnet. In western Crete’s Mousouroi area, groves resist long droughts and protect soil from erosion.
Of the Messara mills, 79 stand on the plain, where the bulk of the trees grow. One Messara tree gives about 10 litres of oil on average. A grove of 1,000 square metres there holds about 25 trees.
Each Messara mill leaves about 100 tonnes of leaf waste a year. Shepherds collect the leaves to feed their animals.
- Sacks: Olives stored for hours in packed sacks before milling give lower-quality oil.
- More oils: Protected Cretan oils also include North Mylopotamos in Rethymno and Thrapsano in Heraklion.
- Yield: A 1962 book on prehistoric Crete says Cretan trees out-yield those of Italy, Turkey and mainland Greece.
- Neglect: The bulk of traditional groves no longer pay their way and face neglect.
A Crete olive oil tour meets two kinds of grove: old and sparse, or young and dense.
How old is olive growing on a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour follows a story at least 4,200 years old. Olive charcoal and four clay spouted tubs come from Early Minoan Myrtos. They show olives grew on Crete by about 2200 BC. The tubs separated olive oil from water.
From about 2000 BC, groves gave the Minoans fruit, oil for cooking and lamps, roof timber and firewood. Of the Minoan presses and tubs listed, about 60% come from houses. Villas account for 25% and palaces for 10%.
The bulk of Minoan oil gear comes from Late Minoan IB layers. Towns in central and eastern Crete were destroyed then. Ash from the Santorini eruption possibly lay over 20 cm deep on parts of the island.
At Palaikastro, a Minoan house held an oil storeroom, an olive press and large storage jars. On a Crete olive oil tour, Zakros recalls palace officials who gathered, stored and shipped oil overseas.
Linear B wrote olive oil as e-rai-wo, standing for elaiwon, the Greek word for oil. One Knossos tablet, Fh 5503, records an immense 339 units of oil. The Knossos oil tablets chiefly record scented oil for the gods.
In 1590 a Venetian report said Crete made enough oil for two years. It saw Crete becoming a second Apulia within 10 to 15 years. An Ottoman register from about 1650 puts the island’s output at about 2,500 tonnes.
- 1670: An Ottoman census counted 255,686 olive trees in eastern Crete, 78,017 of them around Hierapetra.
- Tax: Until 1705, Ottoman tax took 1 oka per tree, assuming each gave 5 okas.
- 1860: Britannica called olives, oil and soap the staple of Cretan exports.
- Soap: In the early 1900s, fifteen factories in the main towns made soap.
In 1904 Crete exported olives, oil and soap worth £134,788.
Which olive varieties grow on a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour meets Koroneiki. This variety bears early, flowers early and makes plenty of pollen. It gives high, steady crops from year to year. It copes with drought but is sensitive to cold.
Koroneiki resists olive leaf spot but is very prone to olive knot disease. In lowland Crete, small Koroneiki olives weigh 0.4 to 0.8 g, while large ones top 1.2 g. Smaller fruit ripen later, so those trees are best picked later.
Tsounati covers 15 to 20% of the olive land of Greece. It grows chiefly in western Crete and the southern Peloponnese. Chania has about 2,000,000 Tsounati trees. Around 400,000 of them are tall, long-lived trees.
On a Crete olive oil tour, ancient Tsounati trees thousands of years old still bear fruit. Tsounati resists cold and copes moderately with dry weather and salty soil. Its lopsided fruit has a pointed tip and turns dark violet.
Mastoidis olives grown at 100 m gave oil with more total phenols than those grown at 800 m. Throumbolia and Koroneiki are the two main varieties around Rethymno. Ripe Throumbolia fruit can be eaten straight after harvest. Its oil holds far more beta-sitosterol and linoleic acid than Koroneiki oil.
- Aegean link: Cretan Throubolia grouped with Turkish Samanli and Gemlik, a sign of stock crossing the Aegean.
- Wild olives: Crete’s wild olives showed the highest heterozygosity, 0.825, of the Greek wild groups.
- DNA: A study of 112 Cretan and Turkish trees found 81 gene variants with seven markers.
- Chondrolia: This is another name for Kalamon, a table olive that has recently spread into Crete.
Scientists proposed protecting wild olives in two places. One is Martsalo Gorge in the Asterousia Mountains, the other Mount Mandalo south of Rethymno.
How is olive oil pressed on a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour shows how oil is ground, pressed and separated from water. Early modern Cretan mills worked in those three stages. From Hellenistic times to the mid-19th century, a single upright millstone ground Crete’s olives.
At ancient Azoria, the press room held a press bench, press beds and sockets for wooden beams. It also held a press weight, a roller-crusher and oil-separation vessels.
Minoan stone presses from Phaistos and Kommos are elliptical or pear-shaped. Each has a groove around the edge and a spout. From the mid-19th century, mills with three or four smaller stones replaced the single heavy wheel.
In Greece, the donkey did the bulk of the work of turning the mill. A donkey of 200 to 300 kg gives about 350 watts. A single-stone mill then ground an estimated 80 kg of olives an hour.
Ottoman archives hold 122 requests for steam-powered oil factories from the 1880s to the 1910s. Only one came from Crete. Wars, unrest and uprooted trees left the island with almost no modern machines. Yet oil was its main export.
Each Messara mill makes about 500 tons of pomace per season, sold to pomace factories. Greek mills, chiefly small family firms, keep the three-phase system. Two-phase pomace, about 65% water, costs too much to handle.
- Thrapsano: The co-op mill presses all members’ olives together, a practice found nowhere else in Crete.
- Kriti PGI: Its rules still allow a press, as well as two-phase or three-phase decanters.
- Sitia: Its updated PDO rules dropped the pressing section, since local mills no longer use it.
- Katsigaros: This mill wastewater dissolves calcite and iron minerals from the rocks it soaks into.
Cretan evaporation ponds are as a rule 1.5 m deep and hold 500 to 700 cubic metres. They work best in dry eastern Crete.
Which protected oils come from a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour meets protected oil names that date back to 21 June 1996. On that day, Peza, Archanes, Viannos and Vorios Mylopotamos won PDO status. Chania Kritis became a PGI the same day. The island-wide Kriti PGI followed on 28 July 2021.
Kolymvari Chanion Kritis followed on 13 June 1997. Apokoronas and Sitia Lasithiou Kritis came on 21 January 1998. Thrapsano was added in 2000, Selino Kritis in 2005 and Messara in 2012.
Kriti PGI oil comes from anywhere on Crete, with at least 90% Koroneiki or Tsounati. Up to 10% can be other varieties, mainly Throumba. Its olives must reach the mill within 48 hours.
Kriti PGI rules ban fallen olives and plastic sacks for carrying fruit to the mill. The oil is stored in stainless steel tanks never above 23 °C. Vorios Mylopotamos oil uses at least 90% Koroneiki, with Chondrolia making up the rest.
On a Crete olive oil tour in the south-west, Selino oil must hold at least 60% Tsounati. Koroneiki grows there up to 500 m, while cold-hardy Tsounati climbs higher.
Messara PDO oil comes only from Koroneiki and must not exceed 0.6% acidity. It needs at least 100 mg of polyphenols per kg. Summers there can pass 40 °C, lifting the oil’s campesterol above 3.8% of its sterols.
- Kritsa: This PGI dates from 6 July 2017 and uses only Koroneiki, at no more than 0.5% acidity.
- 1835: M.A. Fabreguettes called Kritsa rich in oil, almonds, carobs and cheese.
- Sitia: Updated rules cut the time from harvest to milling to 48 hours, from 3 days.
- Messara zone: It covers all of Phaistos municipality and parts of Gortyna and Archanes-Asterousia.
How do tasters judge oil on a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour can follow the rules of official tasting panels. Tasters avoid smoking and coffee for at least 30 minutes before a test. They fast for at least an hour and wear no scent.
The IOC recommends sessions between 10.00 and 12.00, before hunger distracts tasters. A taster judges no more than four samples per session, in up to three sessions a day. At least 15 minutes separate sessions.
The IOC tasting glass holds 130 ml, stands 60 mm tall and measures 70 mm at its widest. Its mouth is 50 mm across.
On a Crete olive oil tour, defects decide the grade. An oil with a defect median above 3.5 but not over 6.0 is ordinary virgin. Above 6.0 it is lampante. The grubby defect marks oil from olives attacked by olive fly grubs.
A mild oil has bitter and pungent medians of 2.0 or less. A well balanced oil keeps them no more than 2.0 points above its fruitiness. The esparto defect comes from olives pressed in new esparto grass mats.
In November 2005, the IOC adopted a separate tasting method for oils seeking a designation of origin. Each origin body picks up to 10 descriptors, such as camomile, eucalyptus, pine kernel or vanilla.
- Messara: Its PDO oil scores fruity 4.0 to 5.0, pungent 3.5 to 4.0, bitter 3.0 to 3.5.
- Kriti PGI: It needs fruity of 2.5 or more, and bitter and pungent of 1.0 or more.
- Kritsa: Its PGI oil won gold for medium fruity at the IOC’s Mario Solinas competition in 2008.
- Glasses: They are washed with unperfumed soap and smelled before use to check for stray odours.
An IOC test room fits ten booths, each about 0.75 m wide.
Which olive museums and ancient trees lie on a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour can stop at the Kavousi olive near ancient Azoria. It stands 1 km south of Kavousi village. Tree-ring estimates place its planting between 1350 and 1100 BC. Its trunk measures 14.20 m around and 4.9 m across.
The Kavousi tree is a Mastoidis olive, locally called mouratolia, grafted onto a wild olive rootstock. In 2004, the first woman to win the Olympic marathon in Athens was crowned with its branches.
Digs at nearby Azoria found the earliest known lever-and-weights olive press in the Aegean after the Bronze Age. The Samonas olive in Apokoronas, near the Late Minoan site of Kylindra, is over three thousand years old.
At 0.9 m above the ground, the Samonas trunk is 12.9 m around. At its base it measures 20.05 m. Near ancient Gortyna, an old olive has grown around a large Roman-era column, now locked inside its trunk.
On a Crete olive oil tour, an olive hollow at Palea Roumata fits 4 to 5 people. Under Ottoman rule, it hid weapons in a buried jar. The Genna olive looks like four trees, but it is one tree with four arms.
Cretan olive experts estimate age from trunk radius. A radius of 120 cm, growing 0.8 mm a year, means about 1,500 years.
- Grambela: This olive at Anisaraki, near Kandanos, sheltered Christians hiding from Ottoman troops.
- Mathena: At Lastros, near Sitia, villagers cut a branch from it each year for Palm Sunday.
- Vouves: A 2021 genome study grouped the Vouves rootstock with wild olives.
- Kapsaliana: Arkadi Monastery built an olive mill there in 1763, 4 km north-west of the monastery.
In the late 19th century, the monastery owned 1,247 olive trees around Kapsaliana. The mill stopped in 1956, and its restored building was set to house a Greek Olive Museum.
Which months suit a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour follows an olive year with clear stages. Olive flower buds grow slowly for 4 to 6 weeks before they open. EU law sets the olive oil marketing year from 1 July to 30 June.
A Crete flowering study tracked Koroneiki groves at four sites, from 45 to 624 m above sea level. Higher groves gathered more winter chill and flowered later than lower ones.
Winter chill in Cretan groves is projected to drop 12.0 to 28.3% in 2021-2060, against 1979-2019. Koroneiki flowering is projected to come 6 to 10 days earlier over those years.
A ten-year Heraklion study found the olive family the top source of allergy-causing pollen. A trap at Chania General Hospital found airborne allergens peaked from April to June.
In a southern Crete orchard in 2006, olive fly catches rose from February to July. They fell in August. Activity stayed very low from September to November. Olive flies die in large numbers above 31 °C.
That orchard’s June to September highs averaged above 34 °C. Fruit damage there peaked at just 3.6% in October, against usual levels of around 30%. Female flies lay eggs in summer, once the fruit is at least 7 to 8 mm wide.
- Eggs: Fly eggs hatch in 2 to 3 days in summer, but in about 10 days in autumn.
- Pupae: Larvae drop to the ground in late autumn, and pupae can rest up to 4 months.
- Old trade: Cretan growers once sold much of their oil early in the year, at low prices.
- Ladospita: In 16th-century Ierapetra, farmers lived in grove houses called ladospita during harvest.
The 2006 orchard shows that hot summers can keep the olive fly in check.
What do visitors ask about a Crete olive oil tour?
A Crete olive oil tour raises questions about storage, health claims, throat sting, heat, cloudiness and labels. Olive oil polyphenols carry an approved EU health claim. Oleocanthal causes the sting felt in the throat. Smoke point says little about safe cooking.
How is oil from a Crete olive oil tour best stored?
In a storage trial, stainless-steel cans left the lowest levels of oxidised by-products in extra virgin oil. Even with nitrogen filling the empty space in the bottle, the bitter compounds still oxidised noticeably.
What health claim can oil from a Crete olive oil tour carry?
EU rule 432/2012 allows the claim that olive oil polyphenols help protect blood lipids from oxidative stress. The label must say the benefit comes from 20 g of olive oil a day. The claim rests on a 2011 opinion from EFSA, the EU food safety agency.
Why does oil from a Crete olive oil tour sting the throat?
Oleocanthal stings by switching on TRPA1, a single pain-sensing receptor. In the mouth, TRPA1 sits mainly in the throat, so the sting is felt almost only there. Capsaicin, cinnamaldehyde and alcohol sting the whole mouth instead.
Can oil from a Crete olive oil tour be used for frying?
Extra virgin olive oil smokes at around 180 to 215 °C. In a heat test at 110 °C, it lasted over a day, while canola oil lasted 7.5 hours. Smoke point does not match resistance to oxidation.
Why does oil from a Crete olive oil tour look cloudy?
Unfiltered olive oil holds tiny water droplets, about 0.1 to 0.3% of the oil. That water speeds the breakdown of its phenols and raises free acidity over time. Cold storage can also cloud oil as its fats congeal, but it clears at room temperature.
What does the label on oil from a Crete olive oil tour show?
Under EU rule 29/2012, a harvest year on the label meant all the oil came from that harvest. A harvest month had to be the month of extraction. If olives were milled abroad, the label had to name the harvest country.