Oil of the Stars: A Trend Among Celebrities to Invest in Olive Oil

Summary

Celebrities like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sting, and Patrick Bruel have joined the trend of launch­ing their own olive oil brands, with prod­ucts like Il Palagio and l’Huile H receiv­ing awards and recog­ni­tion. Despite the high prices and lim­ited quan­ti­ties, celebri­ties are attracted to olive oil mak­ing not for the income, but for poten­tial fis­cal advan­tages like tax ben­e­fits and grants asso­ci­ated with trans­form­ing their prop­er­ties into agri­cul­tural units.

The launch of Brad Pitt’s and Angelina Jolie’s olive oil last spring may not have made just as much news as their impend­ing divorce, but the Hollywood stars are not the only celebri­ties to launch an olive oil brand. Olive grow­ing seems to be an increas­ing trend among the rich and famous who own prop­er­ties in Tuscany and Provence.

Long before Brangelina were an item, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler were already pro­duc­ing and sell­ing their own organic olive oil. In 1999 they bought a 300-year-old estate in Tuscany — a 350-hectare prop­erty that included olive groves. Named after the estate, their olive oil, Il Palagio, is an organic medium blend made of Frantoio, Moraiolo and Leccino olive vari­eties. It won a Gold Award at the 2017 New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC) in April.

Popular French singer and actor Patrick Bruel took home a gold at an olive oil com­pe­ti­tion in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur this year. The award was the most recent addi­tion to his eclec­tic col­lec­tion of acco­lades that also includes three dia­mond records, a National Order of Merit from the French gov­ern­ment, and a World Series of Poker bracelet (the most cov­eted prize in the poker world).

Despite the atten­tion his lat­est award has gen­er­ated in France, the singer keeps a low pro­file when it comes to mar­ket­ing his olive oil which is sold under the brand name l’Huile H. His name does not appear any­where on the label, but it’s no secret that this mono­va­ri­etal L’aglandau is pro­duced on his 20-hectare pri­vate organic olive farm in Provence.

In an arti­cle in Le Figaro, Joël Gayet, the brand’s mar­ket­ing spe­cial­ist, explained that the singer shies away from pub­lic­ity because he prefers to have his oil speak for itself.

The same arti­cle reported that French actor Jean Reno is another celebrity who spends time in his olive groves in Provence when he’s not under the bright lights. Reno has been mak­ing his own oil since 2015 at his farm in the val­ley of Baux-de-Provence. Marketed under the name Réserve Jean Reno and with a pro­duc­tion of 1,500 to 2,000 liters a year, it’s presently only for sale to American restau­rants by the importer d’Artagnan.

Connoisseurs know that pro­duc­ing a high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil is labor-inten­sive and expen­sive as a result, but celebrity oils are often sold with a celebrity pre­mium. Brangelina’s blend l’Huile d’Olive Miraval costs $31 per half-liter, while Sting and Styler’s Il Palagio is $31.77 on the Best Olive Oils Marketplace for the same quan­tity. Bruel’s olive oil is also sold for $31 (€28) on the L’Huile H web­site.

Despite the price tags, the lim­ited quan­ti­ties pro­duced on these pri­vate estates are not big enough to guar­an­tee a sig­nif­i­cant sup­ple­men­tary income, so what is it that attracts celebri­ties to olive oil mak­ing?

Alexis Muñoz, an expert olive oil pro­ducer who’s often con­sulted by stars and the super-rich who are look­ing to pro­duce their own oil con­firmed that the extra income is not a moti­va­tion, but there are other poten­tial advan­tages. ​“Many stars buy prop­er­ties in Provence where gen­er­ally there are a few olive trees and even a mill located close by,” he told Le Figaro.

“Naturally they want to pro­duce their own oil. Of course, they won’t make much money sell­ing it, but there are fis­cal advan­tages to trans­form­ing a sec­ondary res­i­dence into an agri­cul­tural unit: less tax and the pos­si­bil­ity to apply for grants.”

Other French celebri­ties who have pro­duced and mar­keted their own olive oil include leg­endary singers Charles Aznavour and Léo Ferré actress and model Carole Bouquet and fash­ion designer Norma Kamali. More recently, Inès De La Fressange, the for­mer face of Chanel, has lent her name to an olive oil by Oliviers & Co sold in a bot­tle spe­cially designed by her.