Precision in Every Step: Inside an Award-Winning Producer’s Methodical Approach

Summary

Hellenic Fields, founded in 2012 by Nikolas Philippidis and Yiorgos Moforis, pro­duces high-qual­ity olive oil using a one-by-one phi­los­o­phy, lead­ing to inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion and awards. The com­pa­ny’s Ena Ena brand, crafted from Koroneiki olives in the west­ern Peloponnese, has won mul­ti­ple Gold Awards at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition for its supe­rior qual­ity and organic pro­duc­tion meth­ods.

The deep desire of two friends, Nikolas Philippidis and Yiorgos Moforis, to bring authen­tic Greek fla­vors to people’s tables led to the cre­ation of Hellenic Fields in 2012.

“Our com­pany was born out of our love, appre­ci­a­tion and respect for the excep­tional trea­sures of the Greek land,” the two founders and own­ers told Olive Oil Times.

The phi­los­o­phy of Hellenic Fields in olive oil pro­duc­tion is reflected in its brand, Ena Ena, which trans­lates to ​“one by one,” high­light­ing the thor­ough­ness with which all pro­duc­tion oper­a­tions are com­pleted.

“We are farm­ers and pro­duc­ers of our extra vir­gin olive oil, organic herbs and honey,” Philippidis and Moforis said.

“We are per­son­ally engaged in every pro­duc­tion stage, from cul­ti­va­tion to pack­ag­ing, as active work­ers and watch­ful over­seers,” they added. ​“This allows us to ensure the supe­rior qual­ity of our prod­ucts and the preser­va­tion of the pris­tine land we own and cul­ti­vate.”

Hellenic Fields has been in busi­ness for just over a decade. Nevertheless, the metic­u­lous pro­duc­tion of top-tier extra vir­gin olive oil has brought the com­pany to the world stage, win­ning a Gold Award at the 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition and in every sub­se­quent edi­tion of the NYIOOC.

“The NYIOOC awards we have won over the years val­i­date the high qual­ity of our olive oil and fur­ther solid­ify our cor­po­rate iden­tity,” Philippidis and Moforis said, hail­ing six straight years of suc­cess in New York.

Hellenic Fields has relied on its topline olive oil, the Ena Ena Superior Organic Olympia, to claim the cov­eted awards.

Ena Ena, which also car­ries a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to denote its place of ori­gin, is crafted from early-har­vested Koroneiki olives grown in the vil­lage of Ancient Skyllountia, close to Olympia in the west­ern Peloponnese.

The com­pany describes Ena Ena olive oil as hav­ing a vivid green color, with unique fruity and freshly cut grass aro­mas, and a pleas­antly bit­ter taste with a long-last­ing after­taste.

“It also holds a high rank­ing in polyphe­nols, those mirac­u­lous nat­ural antiox­i­dants found in high-qual­ity olive oils,” Philippidis and Moforis noted.

Friends since child­hood, Philippidis and Moforis decided to pro­fes­sion­ally involve them­selves in the pro­duc­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil, tap­ping into the poten­tial of their native lands.

“We found that the unique ter­roir of our home­lands, Ancient Olympia in west­ern Peloponnese and Mani in the south­ern Laconia region, can fos­ter the pro­duc­tion of high-qual­ity olive oil,” they said.

The two farm­ers also stayed loyal to their one-by-one phi­los­o­phy from the out­set, ver­ti­cally inte­grat­ing all pro­duc­tion stages. 

From har­vest­ing olives in their olive groves to pro­cess­ing them at their pri­vately owned mill and bot­tling the fresh olive oil at their bot­tling facil­ity, they care­fully assem­ble all the pieces of the pro­duc­tion process, putting their stamp on each one.

The olive oils of Hellenic Fields are pro­duced from Koroneiki olive trees, which are aged between five and 200 years, grown on the Peloponnese Peninsula. The company’s groves are kept organic and tra­di­tional, also pre­serv­ing the local ecosys­tem.

“We know and nur­ture our plants ena-ena (one by one), mon­i­tor their flow­er­ing and wit­ness their fruition through­out the year,” the own­ers said.

“Our groves thrive in har­mony with the local ecosys­tem,” they added. ​“Oregano, thyme and other native herbs grow nat­u­rally among our olive trees, enrich­ing the land and enhanc­ing the aro­matic com­plex­ity of our olive oils.”

They also apply sus­tain­able and strictly organic farm­ing meth­ods, entirely free of chem­i­cals and pes­ti­cides. Part of their organic cul­ti­va­tion involves reusing branches and leaves that remain from the har­vest and from prun­ing the trees.

“We make com­post of the olive leaves, used as an organic fer­til­izer to give our trees the nec­es­sary nutri­ents,” Philippidis and Moforis said. ​“As such, we safe­guard the vital­ity of our groves, main­tain­ing and pro­tect­ing the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the micro­cli­mate and agri­cul­tural land­scape with­out using chem­i­cal pes­ti­cides or fer­til­iz­ers.”

Pruning is another essen­tial part of the care given to the trees of Hellenic Fields.

“Pruning pro­longs the pro­duc­tive period of the olive trees, facil­i­tates har­vest­ing and saves soil water,” Philippidis and Moforis said. ​“By improv­ing the air cir­cu­la­tion among the branches and expos­ing them to more sun­light, we enhance growth health­ily and pro­duc­tively and, at the same time, con­trol infes­ta­tions from pests in a nat­ural way and pro­tect our olive trees from dis­eases.”

All the care the own­ers of Hellenic Fields offer to their olive trees through­out the year cul­mi­nates when the har­vest begins in late October each year.

Depending on the olive grove and the fruit­ing of the trees, a quan­tity of 1.5 to three tons of olives can be har­vested each day from the company’s groves.

In the 2024/25 crop year, how­ever, the pro­longed drought that south­ern Greece expe­ri­enced in the autumn required the two pro­duc­ers to draw on all their exper­tise and knowl­edge in olive cul­ti­va­tion.

“This year, we saw the impact of cli­mate change on our non-irri­gated olive trees,” Philippidis and Moforis said. ​“The ther­mal stress the trees suf­fered reached a point where they were even absorb­ing the mois­ture from the olive fruits to sur­vive.” 

“In addi­tion, har­vest­ing at high tem­per­a­tures pre­sented chal­lenges in bring­ing out the com­plex and dis­tinct aro­mas that our unique ter­roir gives to the Koroneiki vari­ety,” they added.

High tem­per­a­tures dur­ing har­vest can have a detri­men­tal impact on the qual­ity of olives and the result­ing olive oil.

At Hellenic Fields, if atmos­pheric tem­per­a­ture rises exces­sively on a har­vest day, the olives are cooled, mak­ing them more suit­able for the milling process that takes place later on the same day.

Immediately stor­ing the freshly pro­duced olive oil after milling is a key final stage of the pro­duc­tion process at Hellenic Fields.

“To pre­serve its char­ac­ter, our olive oil is stored in tem­per­a­ture-con­trolled stain­less steel tanks with added nitro­gen, pro­tect­ing it from oxida­tive dam­age and lock­ing in its nat­ural fresh­ness and aroma until bot­tling,” the own­ers said.

The stored olive oil is then fil­tered and bot­tled to order in num­bered bot­tles, ensur­ing easy trace­abil­ity.

Hellenic Fields exports its extra vir­gin olive oil, with a focus on Asian coun­tries, Australia, Scandinavia and the United States. 

In Greece, the com­pany spe­cial­izes in sup­ply­ing its oil to high-end gas­tro­nomic estab­lish­ments, such as select restau­rants and hotels, as well as to retail­ers of pre­mium agri­cul­tural prod­ucts.

Hellenic Fields is deeply rooted in Greece’s rich agri­cul­tural her­itage. The NYIOOC awards the com­pany has won over the years attest to their exper­tise in craft­ing high-end olive oil and sig­nal the product’s qual­ity to con­sumers.

“At the heart of our vision at Hellenic Fields lies Ena Ena,” Philippidis and Moforis said. ​“Each bot­tle is a story of place, peo­ple and pur­pose, metic­u­lously har­vested and crafted to pre­serve its nutri­tional and organolep­tic rich­ness.”

“The New York acco­lades are a clear indi­ca­tion of the qual­ity of our olive oil and the labor we put into olive cul­ti­va­tion,” the Hellenic Fields own­ers con­cluded.