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Vordonia really has a special magic, a perfect terroir born of centuries of care and development. The right varietal, soil, and climate create a perfect circumstance, a magic kind of “right.” The Athenolia olive trees are over 4000 years old, and the mild winters allow our olives to ripen and mature naturally on the tree. Our olives develop the perfect combination of olive fruit and olive pit and are recognized throughout all of Greece as “The King of the Olives” for their tremendous yields, one kilo of oil from only three kilos of olives, their delicious pure full-bodied fresh olive flavor, crisp clean aroma, and unbelievable .002 acidity level (over eight years shelve life). Our Vordonia Athenolia Extra Virgin Olive Oil is as close as you will get to “The Naked Taste of Olives”.
I have realized from an early childhood that Vordonia is the natural habitat for the Athenolia tree. The soil (Aspropoulo) is very rocky and has just the right amount of water retention, runoff, and minerals. The climate is very hot and dry in the summer, and wet and mild in the winter. In our spot 800 meters above sea-level nestled in the foothills of Mount Taygetos, we have the perfect buffer, a little zone that protects us. Our village hardly ever drops below 40 degrees because the zone protects it from snow on the mountain above us, and only miles away, frost in the valley below us. This Vordonia micro-climate has allowed our Athenolia trees to flourish for centuries while other varietals struggle in the same fields. And then, of course, we add the hand of man, with a family steeped in tradition and respect for our history and understanding of the commitment to our elders who proceeded us and made what we have today possible.
A majority of our olive fields were planted by my father to receive an afternoon sun in the winter. If the weather dropped drastically overnight or if we received a dusting of snow, the sunrays will break through the clouds at some period of the day, immediately causing freezer burn and ruining the olive crop. By receiving an afternoon sun, our fields stay protected from direct sunlight allowing the frost and snow to melt before the sun reaches our Athenolia olive trees. This simple, important concept was passed down from one generation to the next; and we thank our father (Theodore) for understanding its great importance and adapting to the unpredictability of Mother Nature. Frost or snow is every olive producer’s worst nightmare. All the preceding months of hard work and expense could be lost instantly with one bad turn in the weather.
Alice Waters, famous for her cooking in her restaurant, Chez Panisse celebrates terroir – the respect for the land and adapting to the land as it is part of community, as it produces life in the crop. One of Waters’ colleagues, Todd Koons puts it, “….nature abhors precision” Waters and her colleagues understands exactly what my father understood his whole life and what our familys understand now.
Contrary to all other Artisinal olive oil producers, the finest tasting extra virgin olive oil CAN be harvested from a SINGLE varietal. The Sideris family has been producing Vordonia Athenolia Extra Virgin Olive Oil for centuries. Artisinal Producers claims that you need a variety of olives to produce extra virgin olive oil are untrue. This only exemplifies how difficult it is to have all the right elements (Terrior). In simple terms they don’t have a perfect terroir and must plant an assortment of olive tree varietals, wait to see which will survive and prosper, and then blend and mix their olives and oils, constantly changing flavors and aromas from one year to the next.. There are over 900 different olive tree varieties. Imagine if you could how difficult it would be deciding on the right combination of land, soil type, weather, flavor, aroma, and olive tree variety. Every grower, every producer, is bound to his region. The varietal, climate, soil, all determine the flavor, aroma, acidity, and quality of the oil. The grower can only choose how to live with these conditions, how to harvest the best possible olives that the region will allow.
We maintain this balance with the mission that, as we strive for the exceptional, you share it with us.
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