Olive oil producers Mercantour

Specializing in phytotherapy (essential oils, medicinal plants), the Domaine de la Chapelle Saint-Jérôme naturally thought of including olive oil in its product range. Biodynamically cultivated, the 800 olive trees planted in the mountainous heart of a cirque adjacent to the Mercantour Natural Park produce a Nice PDO oil that is entirely handcrafted and packaged in stoneware bottles to protect the nectar from air and light.

The estate, in the family since 1974, included olive trees that had been abandoned. Through hard work, some two hundred hundred year old trees have been put back into production, and today they give one of the best oils of the region. The plantation has been densified, which brings us today to about 800 trees of the quail variety, cultivated in organic agriculture, on 4 ha of a terraced land, at 600 m of altitude. Let us add to this production some 150 centenary olive trees taken in rent by the operators on the commune of Castillon. Two types of olive oil are produced at the Lucéram mill: the Amandine cru, PDO Nice, with ripe fruitiness and aromas of fresh almonds and hazelnuts, and the Annette cru, also PDO Nice, but with green to ripe fruitiness and aromas of artichoke and lemon zest. The oils are decanted and stored in stainless steel barrels, protected from light, and bottled as they are sold. The estate also produces PDO Nice olive paste, tapenade and olives in natural brine. Since 2004, Fréderic Soffiotti has given a new impulse to the company. He has developed the range of products, created a visual identity, built a jam laboratory, set up a sales store, organized visits and snacks... Nowadays, his oil is sold directly at the estate, but also in delicatessens, in the region and in Paris (Lafayette Gourmet), in a wine shop in Milan, and even in Japan!