HAND PICKING
Between the vineyards and scrub land, the olive orchards at the Chateau d'Estoublon spread out over more then 48 hectares classed as an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée Vallée des Baux de Provence. It's one of the rare estates in the Alpilles that chose to replant its olive trees after the great frost of 1956. An estate whose history is completely linked to that of the olive oil culture in Provence.
Grossane, Salonenque, Béruguette, Picholine, the four varieties of olive that make up the blend and provide the particularity of the olive oils made at the Chateau d'Estoublon. Four varieties that they gather exclusively by hand, from the first days of November to the last days of December, according to their ripeness, which varies greatly from one type of olive to another.


GOING BEYOND THE A.O.C.
At Estoublon, they only carry out manual picking. The olive pickers gather the olives with the help of a rake that they comb through the boughs to make the olives fall on to a net spread around the tree. This net protects the olive from any contact with the ground, preventing it from getting damaged. Sorted, cleaned of their leaves and twigs, the olives are transported to the mill in openwork crates.
The A.O.C. Vallée des Baux de Provence requires that the millers press the olives within the three days following their gathering in order to avoid the start of fermentation. But the owners of the Chateau d'Estoublon have chosen to go beyond the requirements of the AOC and to shorten this prescribed time to 24 hours. The healthiness of the olives is, in fact, the best gaurantee of the quality of an olive oil.

CAPPED VATS
But the mention 1st cold pressing doesn't really mean anything today in the field of quality insofar as all the mills are equipped with presses sufficiently powerful to extract, with the first pressing, all of the oil contained in the flesh. No, the criteria of quality for an Extra Virgin olive oil is much more subtle.
That's the reason why the Chateau d'Estoublon has chosen to put in place extremely strict specifications that permit the olive oil maker to control the quality of his product, from the work in the orchards up to bottling. Still turbid, the fresh oil is immediately transported to the Château d'Estoublon's cellars where it will stay for several months, protected from air, in the capped vats.


BOTTLED AT THE CHATEAU
Olive oil is a fragile product, sensitive to heat and light. Stored in bad conditions, it can very quickly lose its freshness and flavour.

It's for all these reasons that the owners of Estoublon have chosen to see personnally to the operations of racking (decanting) which allows the olive oil to clarify naturally and to become perfectly limpid. The bottling is also carried out at the Château as each of the orders come in.