Olive Oil Tasting — The Liquid Gold That Built This Island
Before tourism, before the earthquake, before anything that makes Zakynthos what it is to visitors today — there were olives. The island has been producing olive oil since antiquity, and the inland hillsides are covered in groves where trees have been standing for three, four, five centuries. The Lianolia variety — Zakynthos’ indigenous cultivar, small and oval with a distinctive peppery finish — produces oil that bears almost no resemblance to the anonymous bottles on supermarket shelves.
Visiting a working farm and learning to taste properly is one of the most genuinely useful things you can do on this island.
What “Tasting” Actually Means
Professional olive oil evaluation uses the same sensory framework as wine tasting, with its own vocabulary. A tasting session on a Zakynthian farm will typically take you through:
Colour — ranging from deep green in fresh-pressed oils to golden yellow in oils that have rested. Neither is categorically better; the colour indicates the fruit’s ripeness at harvest time.
Nose — fresh oils from Zakynthos show grassy, herbaceous, sometimes fruity aromas. Lianolia tends toward green apple, artichoke, and fresh-cut grass. Off-notes (mustiness, rancidity, “wet cardboard”) indicate problems.
Taste — the defining characteristics are bitterness and pungency (the throat-catching peppery finish). These are produced by polyphenols — the compounds that make olive oil healthful. High polyphenols mean high quality. Most people initially find them intense; by the end of a proper tasting, they’re the thing you’re looking for.
Balance — the best oils have fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency in harmony. No single element dominates.
The Farms
Several Zakynthian families offer farm visits and tastings, ranging from informal kitchen table affairs to properly structured educational experiences.
The Kontos family near Lagopodo has been farming the same grove since the early 1700s. Theirs is an informal visit — Yiannis or his wife Katerina will walk you through the grove, show you trees that were old before your country was founded, explain the harvest cycle, and sit you at their kitchen table with fresh bread, local cheese, and four or five oils to compare. No booking system, call or knock.
The Livas Estate near Machairado is more structured — they’ve invested in a proper tasting room and offer scheduled sessions for groups, with an agricultural guide who speaks excellent English. Their own production is excellent, and they stock oils from several other local producers for comparison. Book in advance.
Harvest Season
If you visit in October or November, you may have the chance to join the olive picking — a communal labour that involves spreading nets under the trees and raking olives into them with long-toothed plastic combs. It’s methodical, satisfying, and provides context for why good olive oil costs what it costs.
Fresh-pressed oil — sometimes available directly from mill visits in this period — is a revelation. Cloudy with particulates, intensely aromatic, peppery enough to make you cough on the finish, and utterly unlike anything that has aged, settled, and been bottled for retail. It’s not better in an objective sense, but it’s more honest. You understand what you’re drinking.
Buying Oil to Take Home
Do it. The quality of local producers’ estate oil, available at farm visits and at the agricultural cooperative in Zakynthos Town, is dramatically higher than what’s sold in tourist shops. A one-litre tin of properly stored, properly labelled Lianolia oil from a named producer costs €8–14 and will improve everything you cook at home for months. Ask about airline carry-on limits before you buy — most EU routes allow liquids in checked luggage without restriction.
