La Tourangelle Olive Oil: What a Nut-Oil House Brings to Olives
La Tourangelle olive oil is an odd thing to search for, because La Tourangelle is not really an olive oil company. It is an artisan oil maker that has been roasting and pressing nuts since 1867, best known in kitchens for its walnut oil and its distinctive tins, and it sells olive oil as one line inside a much broader range. That is not a criticism — it is simply the thing you should know before you buy, because it changes which questions are worth asking. This review covers who the company actually is, what each of its six olive oils states about itself, where it is genuinely ahead of us, and the one thing neither of us currently publishes.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- La Tourangelle describes itself as a French-American, family-owned culinary oil maker started in 1867 in Bourgueil, in France's Loire Valley, and now pressing in both Saumur, France and Woodland, California.
- The company was founded to roast walnut oil, and nut and seed oils remain the heart of the range. Olive oil is one product type among several, alongside avocado, neutral and specialty oils and dressings.
- It currently lists six olive oils. Every one of them names an origin, and most name a cultivar — Spanish Picual, Spanish Arbequina, Greek Koroneiki, Californian Arbequina and Koroneiki. That is more disclosure than most range brands offer.
- One of those oils is estate-grown on the company's own organic orchard in Woodland, California, which is a genuine single-origin claim of the same kind we make for ours.
- What the product pages do not carry is a dated laboratory panel — polyphenol content, free fatty acidity, peroxide value — or a harvest date. Sidr & Stone does not publish one either, and we say so plainly below.
- Sidr & Stone's oil is a single-estate Moroccan extra virgin from one family-owned grove outside Marrakech — rain-fed, organically grown, and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, in 500ml dark glass.
Who La Tourangelle Is, and Where the Company Came From
The company's own account is specific enough to be checkable. It dates itself to 1867 in Bourgueil, in the Loire Valley, where small artisan mills roasted and pressed oil from nuts and seeds gathered by local farmers. In the early 1990s the Kohlmeyer family acquired one of those mills. In 2002 Matthieu Kohlmeyer moved to Northern California to rebuild the same operation there; the company says 2023 marked its twentieth year of pressing in California.
Today it runs mills in Saumur and in Woodland, California, describes itself as vertically integrated, and says it operates two oil laboratories for quality and authenticity testing. Its Californian site is a 28-acre property planted with 10,000 olive trees and powered by a solar array. It is, in other words, a real manufacturer rather than a brand that buys in finished oil and puts a label on it.
The Olive Oil Range, Bottle by Bottle
Six olive oils sit in the current range. Taken from the company's own product pages:
| Oil | Stated origin | Stated cultivar | Positioned as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic Bright & Peppery Extra Virgin | Puente de Génave, in the Sierra de Segura Natural Park, Andalucía, Spain — from a growers' co-operative | Picual | Bold, peppery finishing and daily cooking oil |
| Organic Smooth & Fruity Extra Virgin | Spain | Arbequina, with a little Picual | Mild, approachable everyday oil |
| California Extra Virgin | California's Central Valley, single origin | Arbequina and Koroneiki | Rich and robust; early harvest, pressed within hours |
| Regenerative Extra Virgin | Peloponnese, Greece; Certified Regenerative farms | Koroneiki, early harvest | Regenerative-agriculture flagship |
| Organic Estate-Grown Extra Virgin | The company's own 20-acre organic orchard in Woodland, California | Early harvest, single origin | Estate expression of place |
| Bag-in-box Extra Virgin (5 litre) | Not stated on the product page | Not stated | High-volume kitchen format |
Two things stand out. The first is that a range this size is unusually specific about where the olives came from — a named Andalucian co-operative in a named natural park is a level of detail most brands never reach. The second is that the range spans Spain, Greece and California, which means “La Tourangelle olive oil” is not one oil with one character. If someone recommends it to you, ask which one.
What a Nut-Oil House Does and Doesn't Bring to Olive Oil
The honest version of “they're really a nut-oil company” is more interesting than the dismissive version. A great deal of nut-oil craft transfers directly to olive oil. Some of it does not.
| What a nut-oil mill is good at | Does it transfer to olive oil? |
|---|---|
| Mechanical pressing with tight temperature control | Yes — it is the same discipline that keeps flavour and polyphenols intact in olive oil |
| Minimal filtration and minimal refining | Yes — heavy processing is the main way an olive oil loses its character |
| Light-proof tin packaging | Yes — light is one of the three things that ages an oil, alongside heat and air |
| In-house laboratory testing for authenticity | Partly — useful infrastructure, but only if the olive-specific results are published |
| Sourcing relationships with growers | Partly — the buying skill transfers; the agronomy does not |
| Deciding exactly when to pick | No — harvest timing is the single largest lever on olive oil quality, and it belongs to whoever farms the grove |
| Official sensory panel grading | No — that is an olive-oil-specific discipline with its own accredited panels |
The last two rows are where a broad range genuinely costs something. For four of the six oils, La Tourangelle is buying fruit or oil from growers elsewhere, which means someone else decides the picking date. For the estate-grown Californian oil, it owns that decision outright — and that is the bottle where the company's craft claim is strongest.
Where La Tourangelle Is Genuinely Ahead of Us
Four things, stated plainly, because pretending otherwise would be useless to you.
Formal organic certification. Several of its olive oils carry organic certification. Sidr & Stone's olives are organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides — but we do not hold a formal certificate, and a certificate is a third party's word rather than ours.
Regenerative certification. Its Greek Koroneiki oil is made from Certified Regenerative farms, and the company is, by its own account, the first regenerative-organic-certified oil maker in California. We have no equivalent.
Choice. Six olive oils across three countries and several flavour profiles is genuinely useful. We make one oil, from one grove, once a year. If you want a mild Arbequina one week and a robust Picual the next, we cannot help you.
Availability now. Their oil is on shelves today. Ours is a first harvest and currently a pre-order.
None of that is grudging. If a certified organic Spanish Picual from a named natural park is what you want, it is a sound choice and there is no reason to talk you out of it. For the wider Californian category, our guide to California olive oil covers what the region does well.
What Neither of Us Publishes — and Why It Matters
Here is the uncomfortable part, and it cuts both ways. The most useful numbers on an olive oil are a harvest date and a dated laboratory panel: total polyphenols in mg/kg, free fatty acidity, peroxide value, and the K232 and K270 ultraviolet indices. Together they tell you how fresh the oil is, how carefully it was made, and whether it still meets the extra virgin standard now rather than at bottling.
| What a buyer wants to see | La Tourangelle product pages | Sidr & Stone |
|---|---|---|
| Named country and region of origin | Yes, on five of six oils | Yes — one named grove outside Marrakech |
| Named cultivar | Yes, on most oils | Stated on the product page |
| Formal organic certification | Yes, on several oils | No — organically grown, not certified |
| Harvest date on the product page | Not shown | Not shown |
| Polyphenol figure in mg/kg | Not published | Not published |
| Free fatty acidity and peroxide value | Not published | Not published |
We are not going to score ourselves a win on a row where we lose. La Tourangelle publishes an authenticity report for its avocado oil; there is no equivalent published panel for the olive oils, and we do not yet have one either. Getting a first laboratory panel done is on our list, and when it exists we will publish it in full rather than quote the flattering line from it. Until then, the honest thing is to tell you the figure does not exist rather than gesture at “rich in polyphenols”. If you want to understand what those compounds actually are before you go shopping, our guide to olive oil polyphenols lays them out, and our guide to choosing a quality olive oil covers the rest of the label.
Three Objections Worth Taking Seriously
“A nut-oil company can't make good olive oil.” Not supported. Pressing craft, temperature control and light-proof packaging all transfer. What does not transfer is olive agronomy, and that only matters for the oils where someone else farms the fruit.
“A wide range is a red flag.” Partly fair. Breadth means the olive oil competes internally for attention, and range brands rarely publish per-lot chemistry because they are managing dozens of products. But breadth is not a quality verdict either way. It changes the question from “is this brand good” to “is this specific bottle good”, which is the better question anyway.
“You sell olive oil, so why trust your review?” You shouldn't take it on trust. Every factual claim above comes from La Tourangelle's own website and can be checked in a couple of minutes. Where the company beats us — certification, range, availability — we have said so, and we have put our own missing laboratory panel in the same table as theirs.
Why Sidr & Stone
We are the opposite shape of business: one product, one grove, one pressing a year. That has obvious costs and one real benefit, which is that nothing about the oil is decided by somebody else.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco, with no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives them.
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
- Single harvest — one small pressing per season, picked only when the fruit is genuinely ready, sometimes weeks later than neighbouring farms.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — the shortest practical gap between picking and pressing.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, and it may show a little natural sediment.
- 100% natural — one ingredient, olive oil, and nothing else.
- 500ml dark glass with a gold label — packaged to keep light off the oil.
- Halal certified.
- 10% of profits to charity, across every Sidr & Stone product.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that would be the very claim this article warns against. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown, and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, and that the evidence of that care is in the taste, the colour, and the size of the season's small batch. If traceability to one named grove is what you are after, our piece on single-estate olive oil explains why it matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is La Tourangelle olive oil?
It is the olive oil range of La Tourangelle, a family-owned artisan oil maker that dates itself to 1867 in Bourgueil, France and now presses in Saumur and in Woodland, California. The company was founded to make walnut oil; its olive oils are one product type within a much broader range of nut, seed, avocado and neutral oils.
Where does La Tourangelle olive oil come from?
It depends which bottle. The company's product pages name Andalucía in Spain for its Picual and Arbequina oils, the Peloponnese in Greece for its regenerative Koroneiki oil, and California for both its Central Valley oil and its estate-grown oil from its own Woodland orchard.
Is La Tourangelle a French or an American company?
Both, by its own description — it calls itself a French-American family-owned oil maker. The origin and one mill are French; the larger operation, and the head office, are in Woodland, California.
Is La Tourangelle olive oil really extra virgin?
The oils are labelled extra virgin and described as cold pressed, and the company says it runs two laboratories to test quality and authenticity. It does not publish the analytical results for its olive oils, so the label is the claim you are relying on — which is also true of most brands on the shelf, including ours.
Does La Tourangelle publish polyphenol figures for its olive oil?
Not on its product pages at the time of writing. Several oils are described as high in polyphenols or antioxidant-rich, but no measured mg/kg figure, method or test date is given. Sidr & Stone does not publish one either.
Is La Tourangelle olive oil organic?
Several of its olive oils are certified organic, and one is made from Certified Regenerative Greek farms. Not every oil in the range carries organic certification, so check the individual bottle rather than assuming it applies across the line.
Where can I buy a single-estate olive oil?
Directly from a producer who names the grove and the harvest. Sidr & Stone's own oil is a single-estate Moroccan extra virgin from one family-owned grove outside Marrakech, sold in 500ml dark glass, with fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
The framing that La Tourangelle is a nut-oil specialist with olive oil bolted on is half right, and the half that is wrong is the more interesting half. Yes, the company's identity is walnut oil and tins, and yes, olive oil competes for attention inside a large range. But it names origins and cultivars on almost every bottle, it farms its own Californian orchard, and it has put certifications behind several of its oils. That is a stronger position than most brands of comparable size occupy.
What it has not done — and what almost nobody in this category has done — is publish the numbers. A harvest date and a dated laboratory panel would tell you more than every adjective on the label combined. We are in the same position, which is precisely why we are not going to score points on it. The right conclusion is not “buy ours instead”; it is that you should ask both of us for the panel, and keep asking until the category answers.
If what you want is a small oil with one named grove behind it, our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown, pressed within hours of picking — is available to pre-order in 500ml dark glass. First harvest, estimated shipping from November 2026. Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited First Harvest →
Disclaimer: This article describes La Tourangelle's published brand practices, product range and sourcing statements as they appeared on the company's own website at the time of writing; specifications and brand practices may change, and readers should check current sources. Comparisons are made in good faith and in fair terms. Sidr & Stone is not affiliated with or endorsed by La Tourangelle. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.