Process
Most olive oil is made from ripe olives. Left on the tree into December and January, the fruit turns from green to purple to black, and with that, they swell and fill with oil. It is the common way to do it. More fruit, more oil, more yield.
Early-harvest oil is made the other way. The olives are picked green, weeks or even months before they ripen, when each one holds far less oil. You get less from the same tree, sometimes close to half. However, what you lose in quantity, you gain in nearly everything else.
ELARIA is picked in early November, at the start of the season, while the fruit is still green and hard. This is why the oil tastes the way it does: grassy and green on the nose, with a distinctive bitterness and a peppery catch at the back of the throat. This is the sign of a good oil, and it’s what green olives give when picked early and taken to the mill quickly.
Less oil, more character
There is a simple trade at the heart of early harvest. A ripe olive is heavy with mild, golden oil, and there is a lot of it. A green olive is smaller, and the oil is fierce, fresh and full of flavour. One is made for volume. The other is made for your table.
We pick early on purpose, and accept the smaller yield, because the character matters more to us than the quantity. A green olive picked in November has far more to say than a black one picked in January.
Why speed matters
Picking early is only half of it. What happens next matters just as much. The moment an olive leaves the tree it begins to spoil and degrade, so the fruit has to reach the mill quickly and be worked cold before the freshness is lost.
Ours goes from grove to mill the same day, and is cold extracted within hours of picking. That short window is what keeps the acidity low and the character of the oil intact. It is the difference between an oil that tastes alive and one that tastes tired. Unfortunately, the large majority of oils fall into the latter category.
What it comes down to
Early harvest is the harder, less efficient choice. Fewer bottles from the same trees, picked in a narrow window and worked against the clock. However, it is the only way to get an oil this green, fresh, and alive. For us, it’s a non-negotiable.
One grove, picked early, pressed the same day. This year, 1,176 bottles.
