A family's decade in every drop
Kardella Estate Olives, handcrafted extra virgin olive oil from the hills of South Gippsland, Victoria
Kardella Estate Olives is a boutique family grove in the hills of South Gippsland, Victoria, with views stretching toward Wilson's Promontory and roots that go a decade deep.
We grow two varieties, Frantoio and Coratina, and we produce one oil. An early harvest, unfiltered and alive with the season. Robust, peppery, intensely fresh. Made in limited quantities from a single annual press.
Made with love. One harvest. One chance. Every year.
Pressed from olives harvested early in the season from our family grove in the hills of South Gippsland, this is Kardella at its most intense.
Robust, peppery, and vivid with fresh herbaceous character — grassy top notes, a full-bodied centre, and that unmistakable catch at the back of the throat. That's the polyphenols. And in an early harvest oil, there are a lot of them.
Our extra virgin olive oil
Pressed from olives harvested early in the season from our family grove in the hills of South Gippsland, this is Kardella at its most intense.
Robust, peppery, and vivid with fresh herbaceous character, grassy top notes, a full-bodied centre, and that unmistakable catch at the back of the throat. That's the polyphenols. And in an early harvest oil, there are a lot of them.
What is Early Harvest?
Most olive oil is made from fully ripened fruit. More ripeness means more oil per kilogram, better yields, lower cost, softer flavour.
Early harvest is the opposite choice.
We pick before full ripeness, when the olives are transitioning from green to just a hint of colour. At this stage the fruit holds the highest concentration of polyphenols, the powerful natural antioxidants that give premium extra virgin olive oil its bitterness, its pepperiness, and its nutritional punch. The trade-off is yield: early harvest olives produce significantly less oil per tree than fully ripened fruit.
It's a deliberate decision to prioritise quality over quantity.
Our blend — 80% Frantoio, 20% Coratina — is particularly well suited to early harvest production. Coratina is one of the most polyphenol-rich varieties in the world. Frantoio brings complexity, herbaceous lift, and a long finish. Together, pressed unfiltered and bottled straight from the press, they produce an oil that is genuinely alive with the season.
This is not a cooking oil. It's a finishing oil. Drizzle it over grilled fish, fresh burrata, warm sourdough, or a simple bowl of soup. Use it where the oil is the point.
One grove. One harvest. One press per year. When it's gone, it's gone until 2027.
John Leonard always dreamed of working the land. A visit to a relative's sun-drenched grove in Sicily confirmed what he already knew. In 2017 he found his 23 acres in the hills of South Gippsland and started planting.
Today, with friends who helped dig the holes and children who help bring in the harvest, Kardella Estate Olives is more than a grove. It's a life's work, finally taking root
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