On 25 hectares our olive grove on Domaine de Lauzières in Provence counts over 4500 olive trees. After the dramatic frost in 1956, the trees, many of them over a century in age, froze to death. To death? No – thanks to the nature of the olive tree and the extraordinary chalky soils of les Alpilles, they produced new shoots and lived on. This is why all trees from this region have not one fat trunk as is typical for old Italian or Spanish trees, but four to seven slim trunks.

It was also these “eternal” olive trees, which saved us from the terrible blaze that afflicted us in 1999 and destroyed over 2000 hectares of pinewoods and scrubland. Only vines and olive trees are able to resist these typical Provence blazes, when the Mistral wind blows at 80 and more km/h, which has always been a destiny of this region.

In order to obtain a superb aromatic complexity we assemble at the mill four olive sorts:

Salonenque: the typical local sort, which covers 2/3 of our territory. It is suave and round, you recognise it by its aromas of green olives and its freshness
Grossane: poor in oil, it develops flavours of citrus fruit
Picholine: this sort completes our assemblage with its aromas of red berries
Verdale: originally destined to the confection of “Tapenade”. Today, it contributes to our olive oil by its flavours of artichaut and rucola.

Our oil is produced according to the specifications of organic oleiculture and at radically low yield to ensure a high concentration and only lightly pressed. It takes about six kilograms of olives to produce one litre of cold pressed olive oil.

Conservation

Our olive oil should best be enjoyed within three years of bottling. It is totally unfiltered to keep all the biological richness of its pulp and leaves a light depot at the bottom. It should be stored at environmental temperature and in the dark. Preferably savoured with “fleur de sel” salt from the Salinas of Midi.