La Tourangelle: From Walnut Oil to Olive Oil
Matthieu Kohlmeyer
Matthieu Kohlmeyer, La Tourangelle’s founder and CEO, grew up in Paris with a French mom and a German dad—with “international flair,” as he calls it. His mom is from the Loire Valley in Central France, famous for its tarte tatin and Sancerre. The region boasts a lesser known but highly delicious culinary tradition that inspired Kohlmeyer: walnut oil. The limestone content in the local soil is especially hospitable to walnut trees, and they grow abundantly throughout the region’s countryside and along the banks of the Loire River. Kohlmeyer’s family business began with walnut oil in 1867, but has expanded to include other oils including extra virgin olive oil.
Background
After graduating from business school, Kohlmeyer took a trip around the US. There, he had a lightbulb moment. Whole Foods was expanding; Americans were more interested than ever in eating healthfully and understanding where their food came from. Quality walnut oil would be perfect for the US market.
In the last few decades, seed oils have gotten a bad reputation. They’ve been branded as neutral cooking oils with dubious or even negative health impacts (due to their high levels of omega-6 fats, or being—unlike La Tourangelle’s products—highly processed). Kohlmeyer knew that the walnut oil he grew up with was “good for you, good for the planet, and good for the table.” He set about rewriting the story.
La Tourangelle in America
La Tourangelle's olives
In 2001, La Tourangelle was born in the U.S. and walnut oil was just the beginning of La Tourangelle’s extensive portfolio. Kohlmeyer has grown his business slowly but steadily, and today works closely with small producers around the world. The company now has 110 employees and manufactures on three continents, including its own operation in Woodland, California. There, “we’ve just planted 10,000 olive trees,” according to Kohlmeyer. After years of offering extra virgin olive oil, in 2021 they planted their first olive grove in California and in 2023 launched La Tourangelle Organic Smooth & Fruity Extra Virgin Olive Oil: a blend of arbequina and picual oils with a mild, fruity flavor.
Although headquartered in California, the company is a truly global business. They source avocados from South Africa and Mexico, and sesame from Japan. They’ve recently opened a mill in Lima, Peru to upcycle ugly and small avocados rejected from the export markets. “Being in France you are in a bubble,” says Kohlmeyer. By working with farmers and mills around the world, “we break the bubble,” according to Kohlmeyer. Kohlmeyer’s partners are often small family operations with deep roots in a place and a profound respect for the environment. They speak a common language of loving great food. The oils are all-natural and minimally processed to preserve nutrients and full flavors.
Although La Tourangelle’s oils are diverse, they have a common thread: “expressing the natural power of the ingredient itself,” says Kohlmeyer. This is especially true when it comes to their olive oils.
Venturing into Extra Virgin Olive Oil
“It took us a while to get into olive oil because we needed to be convinced that we could bring something new to the US,” Kohlmeyer explains.
“We’re optimizing the quality of the product,” says Kohlmeyer, who says the company teams up with co-ops and villages focued on the very best quality. For example, he partnered with a small farm in the Peloponnese region of Greece to produce a Regenerative Organic Certified Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which is made from koroneiki olives. It was chosen not just for its bright, peppery, and balanced flavor but for the olive grower’s deep commitment to environmental stewardship, animal welfare and social responsibility. The oil is part of a line of regenerative oils including sunflower and flax oils.
Their olive oil offerings are expanding to keep up with demand from increasingly educated consumers, who want to enjoy different olive oils for different paletes, or in different culinary contexts.
The brand sources mainly arbequina, arbosana and picual cultivars. Kohlmeyer explains, “We like picual for the high natural antioxidant levels that ensure superior nutrition and better shelf life. Arbequina is blended in to make it more fruity and less peppery.” La Tourangelle also uses arbosana when sourcing from California. “High density orchards found locally mostly are arbequina or arbosana,” says Kohlmeyer.
La Tourangelle Extra Virgin Olive Oil
For a smooth, fruity oil ideal for cooking or drizzling over veggies, they offer an Andalusian organic olive oil made with a mellow blend of arbequina and picual olives. For a more zingy, robust flavor, they offer a peppery oil from Puente de Genave, a region within the Natural Park of the Sierra de Segura in Spain. Because the picual trees grow in craggy mountains, a somewhat stressed environment, they develop higher levels of antioxidants than most olive oils. The trees in this grove are grown traditionally—not high density planting—and many of them are more than a century old. This oil is packed with polyphenols and can stand up to butter greens or a juicy grilled steak.
An Investment in Quality, and the Future
La Tourangelle olive groves
As his company has grown, Kohlmeyer has become increasingly aware of the precarity of agriculture and committed to practices that center on sustainability and the well-being of our planet. The newest olive oil in the La Tourangelle portfolio is a regenerative-certified extra virgin olive oil, sourced from a farming cooperative in Greece's Peloponnese region. The oil is bold and brawny, made from koroneiki olives. It has a lingering piquancy and notes of green apples.
What exactly does regenerative mean—and why does it come with a (relatively) hefty price tag? In Kohlmeyer’s words, “The land management and soil management is certified to promote carbon fixation, healthy soil development, and sustainable farming practices.” Regenerative practices entail returning olive groves to a state that existed before agricultural industrialization and mass scaling.
“If the cost of certification is still much higher than regular organic EVOO, we believe that pricing for regenerative certified EVOO will lower over time,” says Kohlmeyer. “For now, our retail partners are helping educate consumers on the benefits of giving a premium to farmers to better care for soil and fight climate change. We see strong support from natural retailers, Amazon, and Costco.” The premium cost is an investment in farmers who prioritize traditional and sustainable practices—plus their land, communities, and traditions.
Packaging Is a Priority
La Tourangelle extra virgin olive oil in bag-in-box packaging
“Beautiful packaging communicates our French tradition,” Kohlmeyer says. “You eat with your eyes first.”
But La Tourangelle’s signature tins are more than just lovely to look at. Glass, even dark and colored, exposes oils to sunlight. Kohlmeyer explains, their “tin can is critical in protecting the oil from light and oxidation,” which can quickly degrade an oil. The tin has other benefits, too—the bottles are relatively light, efficient to ship, and recyclable. They’re also uniquely pretty.
La Tourangelle also packages larger volumes of oil in bag-in-box. This type of packaging requires less energy to produce than glass, is less expensive to transport and the outer box and bag are recyclable.
They have a big job: to communicate the care and quality inside. “It’s all a work of passion,” says Kohlmeyer.