Our Olive Varieties
ANCIENT, LOCAL, AND TYPICAL OF OUR AOP
Evocative names: Grossane, Aglandau, Salonenque, Verdale …
In the Baux-de-Provence Valley, our ancestors had the ingenious idea of planting several olive varieties. The olive tree is not a self-fertile tree. To enhance its productivity, the main variety must be paired with one or more pollinator varieties. We thus have a palette of four varieties, thanks to which we produce a rich and complex olive oil.
We harvest the olives at perfect ripeness after organoleptic analysis. To get an initial idea, we have even tasted our olives directly from the trees. At the mill, each variety rests in separate tanks. Like ingredients in the preparation of a grand dish, they are tasted and blended to create an olive oil with a taste typically Castelas.
L'Aglandau
The Aglandau variety (pronounced aglandaou in Provence) is also locally known as Béruguette. Cold-resistant, it is found mainly in our orchards in St Rémy de Provence, north of the Alpilles. It produces elongated fruits with a fairly firm pulp. At Castelas, we cherish the béruguette because it imparts to our olive oil its aromas of raw artichoke, greenness, its astonishing freshness, and its preservation qualities.
La Grossane
The Grossane has planted its majestic and imposing tree at the foot of the Château des Baux. According to legend, the Lords of Les Baux brought it back from the Crusades. Everything about this tree is vigorous: its water-green branches, its thick, very dark green leaves, and its abundant fruits, larger than others, to which the variety owes its name.
It takes approximately 10 kg of Grossane olives to make one liter of olive oil. But what an oil! All in finesse and roundness, it unfurls lively and fresh aromas of grapefruit and tomato.
Harvested when perfectly ripe, it also yields an excellent black table olive, also distinguished by an AOP.
The Salonenque
The Salonenque variety, or Salon plant, is very present in our orchards in Mouriès, at the place called Castelas. It is the backbone of our production. Resistant to cold and drought, it produces a pear-shaped fruit with a bumpy surface and a tender green color that will turn mauve when ripe.
It needs water in summer to develop a plump fruit. When this is the case, its fruits are selected and hand-picked in September to make the famous broken olives of the Baux-de-Provence Valley. Otherwise, we wait until the end of October to harvest it and process it into oil at Moulin Castelas. This oil boasts a golden-yellow color, a soft and harmonious fruitiness that brings balance to our Castelas olive oil.
La Verdale
The Verdale variety, or Verdale des Bouches-du-Rhône, is typical of the department. The tree is recognizable by its weeping willow-like habit. The fruit displays an elongated shape with white dots. Trees of this variety are scattered throughout our orchards and are used for fertilization.