PONS invests in new olive varieties in l’Albagés

2021 will be the culmination year of an olive varietal research project that the Pons family has carried out for almost 20 years.

Once the investigation in the Varietal Garden of l’Albagés estate was completed, two new olive varieties have been chosen to be planted during 2021 and 2022:

  • The first variety chosen is Koroneiki, which has very good organoleptic properties since it is characterized by its intensity and freshness.
  • The second is an experimental variety called R1, with fruity and sweet parameters and very high in polyphenols, which gives to olive oil stability and life.

This last week began with the super intensive olive plantation of the Koroneiki variety on the estate of l’Albagés, it is a Greek variety that adapts very well to our territory and is very vigorous.

Varietal Garden:

In 2001, l’Albagés farm was seriously affected by the frost of that year and 100 hectares of olive trees died.

Due to this traumatic situation, it was decided, on the one hand, to recover the vineyard in the territory and, on the other, a project of adaptation to the territory of different olive varieties from all over the world was started, thus creating the Varietal Garden.

This research, supported by IRTA and the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona, was carried out collecting more than 200 varieties from all over the world. The purpose was to know the organoleptic properties, stability and adaptation to the territory of each of the varieties. The study began in 2003 and ended 2019 with clear results on which new olive varieties would be the best scored in all the aspects analyzed.

Sustainable project:

Once the olive trees are planted, a plant cover will be generated to minimize soil erosion, increasing the organic matter content of the soil and promoting biodiversity to better control pests in a totally ecological way.