With now more than 130 awards, Kyklopas remains the most award-winning extra virgin olive oil in Greece.
From the oldest olive grove in Europe, the new olive oil “Ages” satisfies even the most demanding professional taste testers.
The Extra Virgin Olive Oil produced by Kyklopas Mill, in Makri, Northern Greece, which produces the most award-winning extra virgin olive oil in Greece and always promotes its high quality products abroad, won many awards and this year also another gold medal in international award at the International Olive Oil Competition 2020 in London.
The business started small in 1982, and over the years have grown steadily, having now at its reins the new generation of the Kelidis family but always with the same dedication to quality in the oil they produce.
The pioneer of this venture was Mr Argyris Kelidis, who had been in contact with the world of olive oil since he was a child, side-by-side with his father and mother. With solid foundations and vast knowledge, he and his wife Niki decided to start their own mill in 1982 in Makri, in one of the oldest olive groves in the Mediterranean.
Today the Kelidis family, with the next generation continuing with passion and love for what they do, cultivates 12,000 olive trees and 2,000 organically grown trees of the local variety, while in addition to olive oil, they have begun to move into other areas of olive products, such as olive paste, handmade soaps, and soon edible olives also.
At the same time, the production of the extra virgin olive oil “Ages”, the eternal miracle as they call it, as the oil comes from trees of the oldest olive grove in Europe, began.
A family olive oil affair
Ms Valia Kelidou, together with her sister Alexia, who have their own families now, are the second generation of the family, which continues their parents’ hard work.
Ms Kelidou grew up among the olive trees and in the mill, for which her parents worked hard to build up and develop. Having studied agronomics, she found herself continuing with the same passion as her sister, transmitting this passion to their husbands, who are now also involved in the mill. “We go to seminars all the time, we don’t stop learning, learning about new techniques, getting to know new olive-growing techniques,” she said.
Besides, she firmly believes that olive cultivation is not simple, but something that requires special skills and knowledge, and being methodical. In their olive groves, they implement what is known as intelligent agriculture in order to better control the quality of production, while always taking care to make targeted interventions where necessary.
At the same time, the work done in the mill and the way in which they utilise the machinery has resulted in the production of exceptional oil for many years, which can be seen in their awards.
