Category: News

In October 2020, we opened our oil mill – which is actually much more than that. It is also our small factory, a place where olives are processed into olive oil, a place where oil is bottled, there is also our shop and it is a place where all our tastings are held. It is almost our home, and we invite you to come and visit us.

We have designed two tasting programs through which we want to educate you and retell you our story. Through which you can taste other Istrian products and see how our oil goes well with food and drinks. We want to introduce you to our family story, brand, oil production and educate you on how to taste and use olive oil.

Our story is much bigger than that bottle, we are not passionate just about olive oil, we also love the design and architecture, we want to change the way people look at olive oil production and we want to raise the quality. We believe that Istria is a special region, we love our life here and everything it offers us, we enjoy its beauties and the products it gives us, and through our guided tours, we want to share it with you.

Tours are held both outdoors with a view of the national park Brijuni islands and our olive groves and indoors where production is running- depending on the number of people and the season. 

Chiavalon unique tasting experiences:

TASTE ISTRIA

Get to know our story about how we began as olive growers and producers, and how olive oil has greatly influenced this region ever since the Roman Empire. The walk through our olive grove and mill will introduce you to all the production phases of extra virgin olive oil today. In our specialized tasting room in the middle of our olive mill, during the expert guided tasting you will learn how to recognize the properties and characteristics of premium extra virgin olive oils on the market. At the end we’ll serve you a traditional snack from local producers and authentic Istrian Malvasia wine.

The program includes:

• Walkthrough the olive grove
• An educational story about the history of olive cultivation and phases of olive oil production today
• Visit the olive mill
• Guided tasting of extra virgin olive oil in our unique tasting room
• Traditional snacks from local producers and authentic Istrian Malvasia wine
• Organic homemade drinks for kids

Duration: 60 min

GRAND TASTING

At your arrival we’ll serve you a local sparkling wine and after you’ll experience the full story of our family, our history, our philosophy. We will tell you how we began as olive growers and producers, and how olive oil has greatly influenced this region ever since the Roman Empire. The walk through our olive grove and mill will introduce you to all the production phases of extra virgin olive oil today. In our specialized tasting room in the middle of our olive mill, during the expert-guided tasting of four different extra virgin olive oils, you will learn how to recognize the properties and characteristics of premium extra virgin olive oils on the market and how to pair them with different food We’ll serve you a traditional snack from local producers and authentic Istrian Malvasia wine. At the end, we’ll delight you with seasonal dessert served with sweet local wine.

The program includes:

• Welcome drink
• Walkthrough the olive grove
• An educational story about the history of olive cultivation and phases of olive oil production today
• Guided tasting of our 4 different extra virgin olive oils in our unique tasting room
• Visit the olive mill
• Traditional snacks from local producers and authentic Istrian Malvasia wine
• Surprise dessert and local sweet wine
• Organic homemade drinks for kids

Duration: 120 min

In these days this year’s olive harvest and processing in our olive oil mill is over. For the past eight weeks we have been in the field almost around the clock, harvesting, processing, tasting and hanging out in our oil mill. Although this year was bad for olive growers, there was no lack of good cheer and plans for next year.

WEATHER (CONDITIONS)

Harvesting and processing are always a special moment for us. Everything we have done and invested during the year has borne fruit – and we are satisfied. As for the olive year, this one was harder and more challenging than the last few. The snow in April delayed the flowering of the olives for May, reducing the possibility of fruit development, and since June was hot, the flowers were burned and the olives were not fertilized. For this reason, the amount of oil this year is slightly lower than last year, although this depends on the location of the olive groves and varieties, so not all colleagues had the same problems.

PROCESSING AND OIL PRODUCTION

Throughout the year we have worked on improving technology and procedures to guarantee the quality of extra virgin olive oil production. This is the second successful season in our new olive oil mill and we are proud of how everything is working. When we started building the olive oil mill, our main motivator was to be involved in every step of processing olives into olive oil so that we could stand behind our product and fully guarantee the quality – and we have succeeded. Also, this year we had new machinery for the harvest itself, which made the whole process much easier. For this reason, and the fact that we pay great attention to the organic production, storage and bottling of oil, this season’s extra virgin olive oil is of really high quality, and you have to convince yourself of the taste and smell.

FRESH OIL

After the first week of harvest, we started selling Mlado – fresh extra virgin olive oil, which comes from olives harvested in the first three days of this year’s harvest. We will start bottling new varieties and putting them on the market in a few days. Due to the increase in excise taxes and high prices of raw materials worldwide, with new blends we are forced to increase the price of olive oil for the first time in 15 years to maintain the quality of our product. This is our top priority and there is no compromise.

Our blends are one of the most awarded in the world, but that is not the only reason why people come to us for tastings. Our way of working, family and vision are what we are proud of, we push ourselves forward and that is the story we want to tell you too.

1. WE ARE NOT ORDINARY OIL MANUFACTURERS.

We started our story in 1997 with about 50 olive trees. today we have almost 9000 of them. We studied, educated ourselves and put ourselves into that story. Our whole family is woven into every meter of our oil mill, into every drop of our oil and that is our passion – to learn, work, raise quality and tell the story of tradition and technology in harmony with the production of extra virgin olive oil. We never went for quantity but for quality. And we always know it can get better and we work on it all the time.

2. WE DO THINGS IN A DIFFERENT WAY. OUR WAY.

We’ve made a very conscious effort to turn the story on new way production practices in order to guarantee only the highest quality of extra virgin olive oil. We pick olives earlier than other producers, the machines we use for processing are the most modern in Europe and we make special blends of each variety so that we can maintain the quality of our oil throughout the year. Our oil mill is the heart of our brand – we are all there together, we process olives, we fill bottles with oil, there is our shop and there we hang out with you.

3. OUR OIL IS AMONG THE TOP 15 BEST IN THE WORLD.

We have been in numerous guides for years and receive an award for our oils. Most Michelin-starred restaurants in Croatia use our oils. We are proud of our success and all the effort, sacrifice and sacrifice behind it. However, our biggest reward is our satisfaction, the positive comments of the people we meet every day, the ideas we realize and the projects that don’t stop. 

4. OUR TASTINGS ARE EDUCATIONAL, WE DO THEM FOR YOU.

We do tasting tours in our oil mill every day. There are three tasting experiences we offer – depending on how much time you have available and what you want to taste and learn. Our idea is to teach you how oil is produced, how to recognize real extra virgin olive oil from fake oils, to advise you on how to use the oil and to experience first hand how oil combines with food and drink and how much it enriches every gastronomic story.

5. WE ARE AN ECO BRAND. IN EVERY STEP OF OUR STORY

Our entire production is under certified ecological supervision. We are extremely proud to say that our extra virgin olive oil bears the Organic Label, as well as the Protected Designation of Origin, which both guarantee and ensure that this is certified 100% organic extra virgin olive oil from Istria. In addition to oil, we are also engaged in agriculture. The organic tomato passata is our first final product coming directly from fields of the valley of the river Raša. The organically culitivated tomatoes are usually harvested early in the morning and transformed, only after a few hours, into a tasty tomato passata.

If you want to experience everything we told you first hand, feel free to contact us and book your tour, we are waiting for you.

More info:

Online booking cannot be made for same-day visits.

Last booking requests for next day visits are possible to make until 6pm

If you prefer a private, tailor-made program, please contact us at [email protected]

We are open

10 am to 4 pm – Monday to Friday

We are closed on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.