Cape Town - The annual Riebeek Valley Annual Olive Festival takes place on May 3 and 4. Bianca Coleman checks out some of the best olive farms in the Western Cape.
Willow Creek
Situated in Robertson, it is one of the biggest producers in the country and besides its own brand, supplies Woolworths. It produces three different extra virgin olive oils, one in each of the three styles, namely: delicate Nuy Valley with the green label; medium Estate Blend in the innovative squeeze bottle; and the flagship Director’s Reserve, which is the intense style. Willow Creek has also developed a range of flavoured olive oils.
l Call 023 342 5793 or see www.willowcreek.co.za
Rio Largo
This producer is in Scherpenheuwel on the southern banks of the Breede River between Robertson and Worcester. This is Karoo country with low rainfall and high sunshine hours and heat. Low humidity and heat is ideal for growing olives with minimal disease and a low incidence of pests. All olives are handpicked, providing employment opportunities.
Rio Largo has won awards in South Africa since 2010 and is one of Absa’s Top 5 Olive Oils this year.
l Call 082 340 6726 or see www.riolargo.co.za
Morgenster
This Somerset West producer is owned by Italian Giulio Bertrand. When he bought Morgenster and moved to South Africa to retire, Bertrand became passionate about olive oil as he could not find any locally made, good quality olive oil. He imported 2 000 trees of the 14 best olive cultivars from Italy and established them in his nursery at Morgenster. The farm now has more than 50 hectares of olive groves covering 17 different Italian varieties. It was the first South African extra virgin olive oil to win the L’Orciolo d’Oro award in 1999. The highest achievement for Morgenster’s extra virgin olive oil was in December 2013 when it was one of only 11 oil producers in the world to achieve 98/100, the highest score bestowed on an oil by Flos Olei 2014, a competition which assesses the world’s best olive oils.
l Call 021 852 1738 or see www.morgenster.co.za
Slaley
Situated in Stellenbosch, it produces table olives which are processed and bottled on the farm, while its oil is pressed and bottled at Tokara. Olives are picked half-ripe, cold-pressed and the debris filtered off. The pulp is left on skins for about half an hour, after which the oil extracted with a centrifuge goes directly into stainless steel tanks and is left for two or three months to settle. The oil is not subjected to any filtering, heat or additives. Once clear, the oil is graded, blended where required, bottled and labelled.
l Call 021 865 2123 or see www.slaley.co.za
Olyfberg
After much exploration to find an area suitable for olive growing, the Naudé family chanced upon the Breede River valley. The Naudés bought the largely undeveloped farm near Robertson in 1995. The name “Olyfberg” is a reference to the Biblical “Mount Olive”. They planted 100 hectares to mission, leccino, frantaoia, manzanilla, coratina and kalamata. The first three varieties are used in the creations of Olyfberg’s award-winning “liquid gold”, including best blend in 2008 by L’Extravergine 2008 – A Guide to the Best Certified Quality Olive Oil in the World, and an SA Olive Gold Award for the 2007 and 2008 vintages.
l Call 023 342 5096 or see www.olyfberg.co.za
Olive Pride
Made from a blend of frantaoia, leccino, coratina and mission olives, Olive Pride Extra Virgin Olive Oil is 100 percent sourced and bottled in South Africa. The frantoio olive is a typical Tuscan varietal, with strong green overtones; leccino produces an oil with soft, subtle herbaceous flavours; the coratina produces a rather bitter oil; and the mission olive is more suited to table olive production.
l Call 021 958 2180 or see olivepride.co.za
Kloovenburg
This Riebeek Kasteel producer has been bottling olives since 1994, and produced its first olive oil in 2000. “We opened the tasting room on the estate in 2000 and visitors just loved the fact that we produce olives, and that spurred me on to develop new products and to keep the business interesting for myself,” said Annelene du Toit. Consumers are blinded by cheap prices and the words “olive oil” on a label, she added. “No policing is done on any imported oil labelled as olive oil, so make very sure that the content is what the label says.” Kloovenburg Wine & Olive Estate also has a comprehensive range of olive oil-based luxury body products which are renowned for their nourishing, moisturising and cleansing properties.
l Call 022 448 1635 or see www.kloovenburg.com - Sunday Argus