Domaine Salvator
Domaine Salvator is a family olive estate at Les Mées, in the Durance valley of Haute-Provence. The Pinatel family has farmed it since 1902, and today, five generations on, it grows its olives organically, presses them in its own mill on the day they are picked, and bottles a range of extra virgin olive oils under the Provence and Haute-Provence protected designations of origin.
The house
Les Mées lies along the Durance in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and the estate's oils are built on Aglandau, the local variety prized for its intensity and character, alongside Bouteillan, Picholine and Tanche. Some of the trees the family tends are more than four hundred years old.
The domaine has a rule that shapes everything: the oil comes only from its own orchards, and the olives are pressed on the day of harvest. Having the mill, the Moulin Salvator, on the property is what makes that possible, and it is the main reason the green cuvées keep such fresh aromas of cut grass, green apple and raw artichoke. The estate farms organically and is currently led by Frédéric Pinatel. Its oils have been recognized in competition, including a gold medal at the Concours Général Agricole in Paris in 2024.
Two styles come out of the mill. The "fruité vert" oils are made from olives picked green and early, giving lively, peppery, polyphenol-rich oils. The "matured olive" oils come from fruit left longer on the tree, then handled to produce a soft, round oil with notes of ripe olive, prune, vanilla and cocoa, and almost no bitterness. A third family, the infused oils, adds fresh basil, whole lemons crushed with the olives, mandarin, thyme, garlic, Espelette pepper or a gentle cold smoke.
What they make
Clipperton carries the estate cuvées and the aromatic range.
- Green and fruity — Durance, a pure Aglandau under the Haute-Provence PDO, and Paradis, a Bouteillan-led blend under the Provence PDO.
- Matured olives — the very smooth Légende, from Picholine and Tanche, and Vieux Oliviers, from matured Aglandau.
- Infused oils — the co-crushed Fresh Lemon, plus Fresh Basil, Fresh Garlic, Mandarin, Thyme, Lemon Ginger, Espelette Pepper and Smoked.
All of them are in the Domaine Salvator collection.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer, and we like working with families. Domaine Salvator ticks every box we care about: one estate, its own trees, its own mill, organic farming, and a name that has been on the gate for more than a century. Their oils also show how much range a single Provençal property can have, from a Durance that bites at the back of the throat to a Légende that a child would happily dip bread in. That contrast is the best introduction to French olive oil we know, and it is why these bottles sit at the center of our Provence selection for Canada and the United States.
