At the foot of Sainte-Victoire, Julie Davico-Pahin brings thousand-year-old olive trees back to life

After co-founding Ombrea, sold to TotalEnergies, the Aix-en-Provence entrepreneur is working with her father to turn the family land in Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon into an upmarket olive estate.

The land has been in the family since 1930. At the foot of Mont Sainte-Victoire, in Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, the Davico estate survived the great fire of 1989 that ravaged the massif. Christian Davico and his daughter, Julie Davico-Pahin, have turned it into Héritage Victoire, an estate devoted to olive oil, described by Les Nouvelles Publications as the fruit of their joint work.

The estate has some 800 olive trees, including century-old and thousand-year-old trees replanted on its plots. The olives are harvested by hand and pressed at the estate's mill at a low temperature, 22°C at most. The “Les Grands Crus” range comes in three styles, from green fruity to ripe fruity, complemented by numbered micro-cuvées named La Centenaire and La Millénaire. The estate also offers, by reservation, tours of the plots and tastings led by an olive oil sommelier.

Héritage Victoire was set up in May 2024 in Aix-en-Provence. Since September, Julie Davico-Pahin's holding company has held the post of managing director, according to legal registers.

This is not the entrepreneur's first agricultural venture. She co-founded Ombrea, an Aix-based company making controlled shade structures that protect crops from the sun while generating electricity. The company raised €10m in September 2021, with Mirova, CMA CGM and Région Sud Investissement among its shareholders, before being acquired by TotalEnergies in September 2023 for an undisclosed sum. Julie Davico-Pahin stayed on as chief executive at the time.

A prominent figure in Provence's start-up ecosystem, she was elected chair of French Tech Aix-Marseille Région Sud in March 2022. With Héritage Victoire, she is returning to an older form of agriculture, olive growing, betting on the upmarket segment and an olive-oil version of wine tourism.