In its heyday, 15 sardine canneries dotted the quay at the French port of St. Gilles Croix de Vie. Today, only one remains: La Perle des Dieux. At this weekend’s fine food show Salon Saveurs in Paris, SeafoodSource caught up with Claudie Vardelle, co-owner with Philippe Gendreau of La Perle des Dieux, a 100-year-old family-owned firm with 250 employees. Vardelle, a passionate crusader of sardines, has a mission to elevate the status of sardines to that of a “noble” fish.
Partos: How would you explain that La Perle des Dieux is the last sardine canner in St. Gilles Croix de Vie, once a booming sardine port?
Vardelle: In 1887, 15 canneries were present on the quay. But competition from abroad has impacted the industry. We have a lot of competition from Spain as well as other countries. In addition, as a result of Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), there are fewer boats — [encouraged with subsidies by the CFP to retire] — in the fleet to fish. We fish for fewer sardines, despite the fact there is no CFP quota for sardines.
At La Perle des Dieux we have a fleet of sixteen boats that fish in pairs. We only fish for sardines, a migratory fish, in season, from April to September.
What happens when the fish reaches port?
We pride ourselves on quality, and all our sardines are prepared a l'ancienne, using artisan methods. Russian Tsars used to eat and treat sardines like caviar. When the fresh fish arrives it is headed, gutted and strung up by hand. In pace with our strict qualitative criteria, no more than 10 hours passes from the sardine being fished to its ultimate destination, the can. We even cut up the canning ingredients by hand; the lemon, for example, is sliced by us. Our tight criteria also demands that the sardines are fresh (absolutely not frozen), not too fatty, delicate and small. The smaller size means that they are immediately preserved in the can.
Like champagne, you have “millesimes” for sardines?
Yes, since the mid-1990s we have dated — given a year — to the best sardines caught. They’re preserved in extra virgin olive oil for six months. The consumer can keep these “millesimes” sardines in their tins for three to four years. You need to turn the tin regularly to run the oil through the tin and the sardines. These are delicious, and they melt in the mouth.
And in the early 1990s we achieved Label Rouge certification. Label Rouge is a symbol of quality and traceability. The label requires a series of tight guidelines along the supply chain. The certification body defines the criteria for the sardines. For example, it demands selective fishing and the length of time the fish spends from sea to can. Fish are not frozen but preserved on board in refrigerated barrels of sea water. Each Label Rouge sardine tin bears the name of the boat that fished the sardines and the date they were fished.
How many sardines do you can annually?
We can about 1600 [metric] tons of sardines. In addition, we tin other fish, such as mackerel, out of sardine season.
