A gourmet staple of the region, the walnut oil of the Périgord, officially obtained its Registered Designation of Origin, following an order published in the Official Journal at the end of 2018.
“This is wonderful news and the culmination of several years of work,” according to Carmen Vilhena de Castro, from the professional Association for the Walnuts of the Périgord.
With 1,200 hectares of orchards and the large walnuts mills located mainly in the north of the department, the Lot is the second largest producer of walnuts and walnut oil in the Southwest.
The first bottles of oil with a Registered Designation of Origin (AOC) label will be sold in the autumn and will be the product of the 2019 harvest. The designation establishes a strict geographic area spreading over the Dordogne, Corrèze, Lot-et-Garonne, Aveyron, Charente and Lot regions. All the stages of production and processing of the walnut oil from the Périgord must take place in those departments in order to fit the specifications.
The association is already looking into the future, having filed an application for Protected Designation of Origin with the European authorities.
