Dimitra Estate
Our Story
Three generations of craft, one ancient devotion
Three generations of craft, one ancient devotion
"She taught mankind to yoke the ox, to turn the soil, and to gather the first sacred olive." — Homeric Hymn to Demeter
In ancient Greek, Dimitra — Demeter — was not merely a goddess. She was the first farmer. It was she who gave the olive tree to the people of the Mediterranean, and with it the foundations of civilisation: light, nourishment, anointing oil for the sacred dead. When our grandfather named this land after her, he was not being poetic. He was being precise. The olive is not a crop here. It is a covenant.
Petros Katsaros was not born to olive oil. He was born to a shepherd family in the hills above Amaliada, and it was through marriage, stubbornness, and one fortunate purchase of red clay land that he came to the grove. In the spring of 1962, he planted four hundred Koroneiki trees. Not to sell. To feed his family, to fill the church lamp at Agios Nikolaos, to give to neighbours when their own trees bore poorly. He named the land after the goddess who first gave mankind the olive. He called it Dimitra's grove.
His son Nikos grew up between those trees. He knew each one by the shape of its trunk — which ones bore early, which ones held back until December. He left briefly for agronomy study in Patras and returned as though he had never gone. In 1984 he built the mill, two hundred metres from the oldest trees, close enough that the olives would never have to wait long. That first pressing yielded four hundred litres. He kept one bottle. It sits on a shelf in the farmhouse now, empty and unlabelled, and nobody has moved it.
Petros Katsaros plants four hundred Koroneiki trees on red clay land above Amaliada. He names the grove after the goddess Dimitra. There is no commercial intention.
Nikos builds the mill two hundred metres from the oldest trees. First cold-press harvest: 400 litres. For the first time, the family presses their own oil rather than selling olives to the cooperative.
Eleni Katsaros returns from Athens and London to take over from her father. She asks a simple question: why are they selling exceptional oil for the price of ordinary? The long work of refining quality begins.
Dimitra Estate launches under its own name. For the first time, Katsaros oil leaves Amaliada in a bottle that says who made it and where it came from.
The mill sits two hundred metres from the oldest trees on the estate — close enough to walk in minutes, far enough that the journey must be deliberate. When harvest begins each November, the olives travel that short distance and are pressed within hours of picking. This is not ceremony. Oxidation begins the moment an olive leaves its branch. Every hour between grove and press is a theft of flavour and polyphenols. We do not tolerate it.
We press exclusively by cold extraction, holding temperatures below 27°C throughout. No heat to increase yield. No solvents. No second press. The oil that comes off the first pressing is the only oil we sell. It is peppery. It is grassy. It tastes of November in Western Greece, of clay soil and sea air and sixty years of the same family doing the same thing with the same patience.
Each November, picked by hand at first ripeness — green-black, dense with polyphenols. We cannot afford the bruising a machine brings.
From tree to mill in under four hours. No storage in sacks, no overnight waiting. The olives go in the same afternoon they are picked.
Pressed below 27°C using a continuous centrifuge. Low temperature preserves everything: colour, aroma, polyphenols, and that characteristic pepper at the back of the throat.
Settled naturally in sealed stainless steel tanks — no filtration that would strip character. Bottled in dark glass to protect it from light. Sealed with intent.
Interested in bringing Dimitra Estate oil to your table or your market?
Get In Touch