The protected designation of origin of Haute Provence has been created in 1999. This is a guaranty for the customer that the producer is respecting a charter of quality to produce an olive oil from traditional and hand crafted knowledge.
It is said that the olive tree exists on in Provence since antiquity. Justin, a historian of the 3rd century, said in one of his book that “under the influence of the Phocaeans, Gallics became soft and stopped their savagery. They learnt how to live a kinder life, to farm and to protect their city with fortifications. They got accustomed to live with law instead of war, to grow grapevine and olive trees, and mans’ progress was so magnificent that it didn’t look like Greece immigrate in Gallic but that Gallic became part of Greece.”
In reality, it is much more probable that the first Provencal olive groves appeared in the same time than the first priory between the and the century.
This PDO is the evidence of the desire to protect an entire knowledge as well as a tradition established on our soil for century. The PDO charter includes the following term:
- Olive trees must belong to the Aglandau specie.
- Olive trees must belong to a specific geographic area spread over 93 municipality of which 83 are in the Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence department.
- Olive fruits must be harvested at the beginning of the harvesting period to give the olive a green fruity taste. The dates of the period are, each years, decided by a prefectural decree.
Thus, we obtain an olive oil with an extraordinary fruity taste, its color is of a deep green and its flavor is smooth. The olive oil is said to be of a great personality, which means it leaves a deep print on the palate of harmonic and persistent flavor.
