Aglandau Olives
The backbone of Provence: the green olive of the AOC oils, fresh and grassy, with a taste of artichoke.
The Aglandau is the great everyday olive of Provence — planted across the Vaucluse and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the heart of several of the region’s protected (AOC) oils. Picked green, it presses into a fresh, lively oil with notes of artichoke, fresh almond and cut grass. It is also cured as a table olive, and it is famously hardy, which is why so much of Provence is planted with it.
- Origin
- Vaucluse / Provence · France
- Also called
- Béruguette, Verdale de Carpentras
- Type
- Oil & table
- Colour (picked)
- Green
- Flavour (oil)
- Artichoke, almond, grassy
- Traits
- Hardy, frost-tolerant
- Best for
- Provence AOC oils, table
The taste of Provence
If you have had a green, grassy, slightly peppery oil labelled from Provence — Aix-en-Provence, Haute-Provence, the Vaucluse — there is a good chance the Aglandau was doing most of the work. Its oil is fresh and aromatic rather than fierce, with the artichoke-and-almond character that defines the Provençal style. The tree shrugs off cold better than most, which matters in the windy, frost-prone hills inland from the coast.
Aglandau goes by several names — Béruguette, Verdale de Carpentras, Blanquette — so a single-variety oil may not say “Aglandau” on the front at all. Look for an AOC Provence oil with a green-fruity (fruité vert) style and a recent harvest date, and you are very likely drinking it.