Olive oil producers Drôme

This estate has been in the same family for six generations. A century ago, wheat was the main crop. Then crops diversified. Today, olive groves, vineyards, orchards and market gardens occupy the land. Domaine des Arches offers a wide range of fruit and vegetables, not forgetting Nyons oil, table olives, fruit juices, jams and Côtes-du-Rhône wines, all available direct from the small roadside store next to the farm.

Henry, Marcel, Joseph, Patrick, Louis and Emma... Today, the fifth generation is at the helm of Huilerie Richard. The Richard family has been processing olives since 1885. Originally, Henry Richard pressed his olives in Mollans-sur-Ouvèze before delivering the oil to his customers by mule-drawn cart. The first mill in Nyons was inaugurated in 1922. Then came the move to Aouste-sur-Sye in 1958, and finally the inauguration of the new Montoison mill, dedicated to walnuts and rapeseed, in 2006, with its direct sales boutique. A boutique on the outskirts of a production mill is a popular option. As for the know-how and rigorous extraction methods used to produce the oils, these have remained unchanged for 140 years. The Richard company now has 19 truck stores, 10 stores and 4 mills. The store next to the mill in Nyons has a loyal following, and the new little boutique in Aouste-sur-Sye, in its pretty stone house, has quickly found its clientele. Alongside olive oil, the ancestral star, and olive by-products, the company has expanded its range to include walnut, hazelnut, rapeseed, sesame and pumpkin seed oils, as well as an ever-growing organic range, all available in its stores and online. Added to this are cosmetics and gourmet products. Richard's boutiques offer comforting stopovers. For something a little more unusual, take a seat at the oil bar and dare a tasting!

The Brès farm, with its 1,900 olive trees of the tanche variety, is at the heart of the Nyons protected designation of origin zone. For six generations, the tanche has been worked to make PDO Nyons table olives and black olive paste called "affinade" as well as PDO olive oil, olivade, a green tanche olive paste with garlic and basil, and a tapenade made from Nyons olives flavoured with organic dried tomato. You will find these products for sale directly from the farm all year round and at local markets.

René Bayle took over the family business in 1995. With his 500 olive trees, cultivated using integrated farming methods, he produces three oils: a Nyons PDO, 1 single variety of tanche and 1 single variety of fruité vert verdale. Between 500 and 600 suppliers come to his mill on a continuous basis. From 200 kg, they can take away their own oil. The mill's added bonus: it's entirely heated with olive stone residues.

The last factory of scourtins (circular filters used for oil extraction) in France is in Nyons, where Ferdinand Fert founded it in 1882. Although the freeze of 1956 nearly bankrupted this craft, today Frédérique and Arnaud Fert, his great-grandchildren, continue to make them as decorative objects. In their workshop, still using coconut fiber, they make scourtins that will become interior mats, bath mats, trivets or place mats. And don't miss the beautiful store.

The Espace Vignolis houses the store dedicated to the sale of its production with its tasting counter (oil, spreads and wines) as well as other local products, a museum of the olive tree (free visit) and an exhibition gallery. You will discover around the stone millstone and various presses, the instruments formerly used for the extraction of the oil and its conservation. A greedy and fascinating stopover. Many offers on the Internet.

In the middle of the old presses and millstones, the old mill now houses the shop. A state of the art mill allows us to crush the olives within three days of harvesting and to produce a range of extra virgin Nyons PDO oils, from the sweetest to the fruitiest. A video recounting the four seasons of the olive, a shop where you can stock up on home-made olive oil and a multitude of other local products awaits you.

The estate covers almost 150 hectares, 15 of which are devoted to arboriculture. The olives harvested have the Nyons PDO label, and are used in confectionery for the smaller fruits, and in the olive oil press. Its light green fruity taste is ideal for eating raw. You can also taste the Aumage's other products on site: apricot nectar, jam and spread, cherry nectar and lavender honey. Gîte and restaurant available on reservation.

Florian Charrasse took over the family business 7 years ago. In addition to apricot, cherry and vine trees, he looks after the thousand trees planted by his grandfather after the frost of 1956. Half of these trees have a single trunk (a detour to his olive grove is well worthwhile). His olives are pressed at the Moulin Chauvet, an old-fashioned mill, to produce Nyons PDO oil. The rest is reserved for PDO Nyons table olives and tapenade. These products are available directly from the farm.

Violaine and Pierre Trollat have been farming the olive trees on the family land for eleven generations since 1978. That is 4 hectares and nearly a thousand trees. The Trollats have also expanded their plantation by adding nearly 950 young olive trees. With the fruits, harvested in December and January, are made table olives AOP Nyons (put in brine with Guerande salt), oil also AOP Nyons and tapenade. Don't hesitate to come and visit us!

The syndicat de l'olive de Nyons promotes olive oil and black olives from Nyons and the surrounding area, which has been stamped with an AOC (tanche variety) since 1994. It supports the producers of the sector who are grouped in about fifty communes of the Drôme and the Vaucluse. The union organizes key events, notably the Olivades in July. Conferences are also given, notably on the diseases that can affect olive trees.