📜 Kalamata olive oil

"Kalamata" is an EU protected designation of origin for extra virgin olive oil from Messinia, the south-western corner of the Peloponnese in Greece. The name was registered in 1997. At first it covered only the area around the town of Kalamata, but tests carried out from 2000 to 2010 showed that oil from all of Messinia is the same, so the zone was extended to the whole region.

This land lies between Mount Taygetus and the Ionian Sea. The mountain range, 115 kilometres long with peaks of up to 2,400 metres, shelters the olive groves, and the sun shines here for more than 3,000 hours a year. Rain falls mostly in winter and hardly at all in July. The groves cover about 100,000 hectares, mostly on hillsides where the trees are well aired. Farmers prune the crown into a cup of three or four main branches so that light reaches the inside.

The oil is made almost entirely from the local Koroneiki variety; Mastoidis may make up no more than 5 %. The rules are strict. Olives are picked from the end of October, when the fruit turns from green to yellowish-green, and only onto nets: fruit that has fallen to the ground may not be used. No more than a day may pass between picking and finished oil, the paste is stirred for 20–30 minutes below 27 °C, and the oil is kept in stainless steel tanks. Acidity may not exceed 0.5 %, stricter than the general limit for extra virgin. Every label carries a code with the letters KA, a number and the year of production.

Kalamata oil tastes moderately fruity, with an aroma of green fruit, light bitterness and light to medium pungency, and its colour ranges from green to yellowish-green. Olives have been grown here for a very long time: at the Palace of Nestor about 1,200 clay tablets from the 14th–13th centuries BC were found that also tell of the olive, and olive stones from Karpofora are dated to 1900 BC. The oil should not be confused with Kalamata table olives, a separate designation made from another variety.