Trees of the Month – Barnea olives – From the desert to Martinborough

Olivo’s Helen Meehan stands among fruit-laden Barnea olive trees ahead of harvest.

From the desert to Martinborough

By Martin Freeth

Barnea is an olive variety renowned for hardiness and reliable oil production. 

Helen and John Meehan have certainly proved it in Martinborough’s soils and climate over the past 20 years.

“They’ve got desert in their DNA, so tend to do well regardless of extremes of dry or cold,” says Helen as she casts an experienced eye along rows of Barnea on Olivo, the olive estate to which she and John have devoted their business skills and love of growing things since 2003.

It’s three weeks before harvest and the well-loaded trees are bathed in the gentle sunshine of a May afternoon.

The Barnea variety originates from an area of southern Israel and the Sinah Desert. Typically the trees grow vigorously and erect, and have thin fruiting branches and a loose, open crown. As countries across the world have adopted olive producing as an industry, Barnea has been favoured for its fruit yielding potential and resilience.

Olivo is one of New Zealand’s oldest commercial olive producers – and now has its own highly distinctive consumer brand, range of single varietal oils and herb-infused oils, and extraordinary record of success at the annual New Zealand Olive Awards. 

The Meehans have developed Olivo into a 5.99 hectare estate with some 1200 trees and a public

tasting room open to visitors many weekends of the year.

“New Zealand is really fortunate in being able to grow so many varieties from Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Israel, and do so with our own distinctive flavours … often they’re fruiter and grassier than oils from the countries of origin,” Helen says. 

Over the years she and John, with a core group of equally enthusiastic contractors, have planted blocks of many different varieties. Their Koroneiki oil (Greek variety) won “Reserve Best Boutique” in the annual awards last year and gold medals for four of the past five years.

But Barnea is definitely the beginning of the Olivo story. 

Helen says the estate’s original owners, Ian and Robin Lockie, planted them in 1991. The young trees came from olive industry pioneers Michael and Diane Ponder who had put New Zealand’s first Barnea into the ground outside Blenheim only three years earlier.

Helen believes firmly in pruning trees to maintain shape and stimulate fruiting. For many of Olivo’s Barnea, that meant an especially heavy cut back six years ago. Some were pruned back to stumps. The regrowth on every tree and fruit production on many in 2024 is extraordinary to see – further testimony to Barnea’s hardiness and productivity, and despite Martinborough’s long period of summer dry this year.

None of the trees on Olivo are irrigated though Helen says her Tuscan varieties are, in contrast to the Barnea, ending this season with a “sulk” because of the dry and a heavy crop last year.

Olivo’s 33-year-old Barnea line the driveway for all visitors to see when the tasting room is open, at 136 Hinekura Road. Check out the Meehan’s website first,  www.olivo-nz.myshopify.com