PDO olive-growing area
Nîmes
Between the Rhône and the garrigue, in the heart of the Nîmes region, discover two PDO varieties born of a terroir full of character. The Picholine, native to the village of Collias, very close to Nîmes, is the queen of the Gard: hardy and bountiful, it is equally suited to confectionery and oil production.
The whole Nîmes olive, a vivid green in colour and hand-picked, offers an unrivalled crunch, juicy flesh and aromas of butter and hazelnut.
Nîmes olive oil, green with yellow highlights, reveals aromas of fresh grass, cut hay and raw artichoke, with a well-balanced heat.
Grown on hillsides bathed in 2,700 hours of sunshine a year and swept by the mistral, these two PDO products are the result of expertise passed down through generations.
© France Olive
Between the Rhône and the hills of the Hérault, olive trees have shaped the landscape of the Gard for centuries. The PDO ‘Olive de Nîmes’ production area covers the olive-growing region of the Gard and the eastern part of that of the Hérault, excluding the Causses, the Cévennes mountains and the Camargue.
Its boundaries are defined by nature: the Rhône to the east, the Camargue to the south, the northern limit of olive cultivation (following the Gard garrigue to the north-east beyond 300 metres) and, to the west, a line of wooded ridges linking Ganges, Pic Saint-Loup and the Lez.
In this landscape of hills and slopes, rarely rising above 350 metres, olive trees grow on molasse, limestone and alluvial terraces, in a Mediterranean climate swept by the mistral.
Production, processing and packaging all take place here, across 223 municipalities united by a shared terroir and a shared expertise.
