Bonjour,

We drove from Cannes to Antibes along the coast and then veered inland and up into the “pre-Alps” or foothills. We stopped at a small village names Opio. There, we visited Moulin d’Opio, a small family olive mill. Olives have been milled here since 1426 and the same family has owned this mill since 1848. We toured the mill and saw parts of both the much older processes and some of the new modern processes.

Then we stopped into their tasting room. We tasted six or seven oils, some tapenade on crackers, many different olives, and some Vin Rose. Olive oil tasting is very similar to wine tasting and the olive oil labeling practices are very similar to wine labeling practices, naming varietals and growing regions.

1. This is the mill that we visited. You can see the old water mill wheel in the upper right which is the actual mill area.

2. This was our tour guide and you can see some of the equipment. I always wondered why olive mills used the big heavy rocks to crush the olives. She said it was because they also must crush the olive pits since much of the flavor and nutrients in olive oil comes from the pits.

3. You can see that most of their milling equipment and processes have been updated and modernized.

4. I’m getting my next tasting of olive oil. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to distinguish the different tastes.

5. They had lots of information boards and I particularly liked this one that gave the whole process, from blossom to olive.

Voila,

Bill