The 2025 Harvest at Château du Bois: Six Days, One Exceptional Oil
Six days in July
Château du Bois sits at altitude, on the slopes below Mont Ventoux, where lavande fine grows as it has for generations — slowly, in thin soil, shaped by the seasons rather than managed against them. Cutting began on 14 July, distillation followed on the 16th, and the harvest was over by the 20th.
The morning of the 21st, the last stems of lavande fine entered the last still.
May had been generous. Abundant rains gave the plants vigour, and the season looked promising well into June. Then, on the 19th of that month, the heat arrived. It didn't leave. Flowering accelerated sharply — too sharply. Flower spikes came in fewer numbers and the blooms were fragile. What the rain had given, the heat condensed into something else entirely.
What extreme seasons produce
A short harvest under stress is not the same as a failed one. What came out of the stills at Château du Bois this year has a character that reflects exactly what the plants went through.
The olfactory profile of the 2025 essential oil opens on a mineral note — clean, precise, almost austere. Beneath it, a soft and velvety floral quality. The contrast is striking. It is also, in its way, a direct record of the season: the altitude, the heat, the compressed flowering. Lavande fine does not conceal the conditions it grew in.
This is what makes a vintage. Not predictability, but expression.
Bio certification and AOP analysis underway
The lavande fine grown at Château du Bois is certified organic under Ecocert. The 2025 oil is currently undergoing the analyses required to confirm AOP Lavande fine de Provence compliance. Five generations of the same family have farmed this land with the same intent: preserve the plant, respect the territory, distil honestly.
Results pending. The oil is already remarkable.
Come and find it in the Luberon
The Musée de la Lavande in Cabrières d'Avignon, near Gordes, is where the story of lavande fine de Provence — from cultivation through distillation to the bottle — becomes something you can experience rather than simply read about. The 2025 vintage from Château du Bois will be available at the museum.
Open year-round. Book through the online ticketing or by phone.
