Combining his love for agriculture with modern cultivation methods, the founder of Astarti - Tzortzopoulos Estate is now a producer of superior-quality, award-winning Greek olive oil.
Once upon a time there was a boy who learned to love land by way of water. Islander Charis Tzortzopoulos diligently worked his way around sea-enveloped landscapes, from Crete to the Netherlands and then back to his ancestral Cythera, within the space of a few years, falling deeply in love with soil in a country that has had to fight for it the most: Holland. After his much-anticipated return to his homeland, he started buying up one parcel of land after the other, until he built his own horizon, all in the name of olive oil.
Cythera is a draughty place. Holland is constantly under siege of floods. Greece is vertiginous with mountains. Holland is flat as far as the eye can see. Yet, he somehow managed to implement sustainable horticultural methods from the Netherlands in his native Cythera to world-wide acclaim. Astarti Exclusive, his very own organic olive oil brand, triumphed in Paris the first year it hit the market and Charis hasn’t looked back since.
Words
Despina Pavlaki
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