Grossane Olives
L’olive noire et charnue de la Vallée des Baux — douce, fruitée et protégée.
The Grossane is a Provençal olive of the Vallée des Baux, in the Alpilles — a plump, round, black table olive that ripens fully and is cured soft, sweet and fruity. It is the dark partner to the valley’s cracked green Salonenque, and together they make the protected olives noires de la Vallée des Baux. The Grossane also presses into a smooth, mild oil.
- Origin
- Vallée des Baux, Provence · France
- Type
- Table & oil
- Colour
- Black
- Size
- Large, round
- Flavour
- Soft, sweet, fruity
- Protected as
- Olives noires de la Vallée des Baux
- Best for
- Black table olives, smooth oil
The dark side of the Baux
The Vallée des Baux is one of France’s great olive corners, and it speaks in two voices: the fresh, cracked green Salonenque, and the soft, ripe black Grossane. Left to ripen fully and cured gently, the Grossane is plump, mild and fruity, with none of the harshness of a hard green olive — the kind of black olive you eat slowly, whole, with bread and a glass of something Provençal.
A genuine ripe black Grossane is naturally dark and varied in shade, soft and sweet — the opposite of the uniform, rubbery, oxidised “black olives” in a cheap tin. Look for the protected Baux name and a natural cure.