Moulin de Haute Provence
Moulin de Haute Provence is a family olive mill in the Baronnies, the hilly corner of the Drôme provençale around Nyons where the Tanche olive grows and where France's first olive oil appellation was born. The mill presses AOP Nyons extra virgin olive oil from that single variety, cures the black olives of Nyons and makes tapenades and Provençal honeys. Clipperton imports its Nyons olive oil to Canada and the United States.
The mill
The mill was founded in 1977 at Buis-les-Baronnies and now works from La Penne-sur-l'Ouvèze, a few kilometers away, still inside the AOP Nyons area. It has been in the hands of the Fayant family for two generations: Michel Fayant ran it and his son Olivier took over in 2019, while Olivier's brother Guillaume is the family's olive confectioner, curing the black Nyons olives. Besides its own production, the mill presses olives for local growers who bring in their harvest each winter, which makes it a working hub of the appellation rather than a boutique.
Everything rests on the Tanche, an olive found only around Nyons, selected over two thousand years of cultivation and picked at full ripeness in winter, from November to January. The olives are crushed in a metal disc grinder, the paste is slowly kneaded, and the oil is separated by centrifuge in two stages, all without heat. The result belongs to the style the appellation calls fruité mûr, ripe fruit: sweet, buttery and fruity in the mouth, with the aromas of green apple, almond and hazelnut that make Nyons oil so easy to recognize.
What they make
Clipperton carries one product from the mill, its Nyons Olive Oil: an AOP Nyons extra virgin oil, first cold pressed from 100% Tanche olives and presented in a 500 ml tin. Smooth and buttery rather than peppery, it is an oil for finishing rather than frying: on warm goat cheese, roasted vegetables, white fish, a bowl of chickpeas or simply good bread. It is the only bottle in the Moulin de Haute Provence collection, and the one we would choose to introduce anyone to Provençal olive oil.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer, and we like to work with families. The Fayants press their own appellation oil in the same valley where the olives grow, they press their neighbors' too, and the oil tastes of one variety and one place. Nyons oil is also the gentle end of the olive oil spectrum, and we wanted a mild, buttery Provençal oil next to the greener, more assertive oils in our range. This is the one.
