Moulin de Maneyrol
Moulin de Maneyrol is an artisanal oil mill in Pazayac, a village in the Périgord Noir in the Dordogne, near Terrasson. It presses two things, walnut oil and hazelnut oil, in a small, non-industrial workshop where every step is done by hand and nothing is added along the way. Locals call the walnut oil the liquid gold of the region, and it has been medaled again and again at the Concours Général Agricole in Paris. Clipperton imports both oils to Canada and the United States.
The mill
Pazayac sits on the walnut road of the Périgord, a region where the nut has been a staple for centuries and where Périgord walnuts have carried their own protected designation since the early 2000s. The mill's reputation was built by Charlie Le Gallo, a history student from the 18th arrondissement of Paris who left the capital around 2013 to take over an existing walnut-oil workshop and taught himself the craft. Under him the mill grew to more than twelve thousand liters a year and collected a string of medals in Paris: gold in 2017, 2018 and 2024, silver in 2015, 2016 and 2023. In early 2025 he handed the mill on to a new owner, training him in the method before stepping back.
The walnuts are Franquette, an old variety prized for its delicate aroma, grown on the mill's own forty hectares of orchards at Saint-Félix-de-Villadeix and topped up with nuts from other Périgord growers. The process has five steps. The kernels are sorted by hand, keeping only mature halves with white flesh and a fine golden skin. They are ground into a paste, then heated gently, just enough to wake the aromas without roasting them. The paste is pressed, and the oil is filtered and left to settle before bottling. The control of that heating stage is what gives the oil its amber color and long, mellow walnut flavor. Visitors can watch the press at work in summer and tour the mill the rest of the year.
What they make
Two oils. The Walnut Oil is a first cold-pressed virgin oil from Périgord walnuts, rich in omega-3, balanced and delicate, with a taste that lingers. It belongs in a vinaigrette with a good French vinegar and a pinch of fleur de sel, on grilled fish or steak, and, less expectedly, drizzled over desserts. The Hazelnut Oil is made the same way from hazelnuts and brings a toasted, buttery note to salads, green beans and cakes. Both are in the Moulin de Maneyrol collection.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer, and the Moulin de Maneyrol is the kind of producer we exist for: one mill, one village, a method you can watch from start to finish, and an oil that tastes unmistakably of where it comes from. We have worked with the mill directly for years and told its story in our Journal, in Moulin de Maneyrol: Artisanal Virgin Walnut Oil from Périgord. One taste explains why the Périgord calls it liquid gold.
