Commitment Charter

We have been a family of lavender producers for several generations and it is part of our desire to respect the environment around us as it is our main treasure. Conscious of the exceptional environment we live in, one the entire world envies us, we act every day to preserve nature around us. No chemical weed killers. No treatments that are harmful for nature. This guarantees pure and natural essential oil without any trace of chemicals. We use sheep in the lavender fields, they do not like the taste of it and therefore rid us of the weeds they love and also naturally fertilise, helping the plants to thrive.

Our fields are all located in the Provence area, with a Mediterranean climate that lavender thrives on, in the historical lavender production area, with land conducive to the plant and where it can develop and be at its best as it has done naturally since antiquity. It can perfectly withstand drought on condition that it gets enough water during the flowering season in the spring.

The quality of the land and the climate have always been acknowledged as being particularly suitable for the plant. And the presence of these fundamentals makes our terroir the cradle of the plant even if you can also find it in other parts of the world. From distant times, lavender, a solid plant with few requirements, has been thriving wildly on poor, dry, stony sloping soils with carbonates (rendzina, or brown limy soils). Our fields are all located on suitable i.e. stony, dry and limestone soil. They are far away from the humid, clay areas and from the valley floors.

Our fields are all located above 600 m in altitude, which yet again ensures that lavender is growing in its natural environment, as it only grows wildly above this altitude. This also guarantees the purity of the production, far from factories and polluted air in a wild and preserved environment.

Our fields all belong to the Montaud family and are cultivated by members of the family (Christophe, Benoit and soon Lydian from the next generation).

We plant according to traditional methods (planting lavender cuttings) at suitable times during the year. We plant cuttings that were planted in the tree nursery the previous year. We do not accelerate procedures by planting in September or October, for example. This way, we respect the ancestral life cycle of the plant and follow its natural rhythm.

We harvest at the opportune moment when the flowers are ripe and full of essential oil. We do not harvest early. We never harvest before the month of July. Just like our ancestors before us, we patiently await for the plant to be ready before harvesting.

We harvest using traditional methods. First, we cut the lavender’s stem. In the past we used to use a sickle.

Nowadays, we use machines for that. But essentially that doesn’t change anything in the process. Then the stems with the flowers dry for several days before being distilled. No crushing. No green stem distilling. Here again we respect traditional methods, distilling the dried stem to avoid too high water content in the essential oil.

We distil the lavender in traditional stills as did our ancestors. As in the past, we use traditional steam stills which allow us to extract pure essential oil containing no water or traces of chemicals. Unique in the world.