Johannesburg - Last year I was lucky enough to visit the Morgenster olive farm in Somerset West and see first-hand olives being pressed to make their special extra virgin olive oil.
I heard recently that the very oil I saw being pressed has won a prestigious international award.
Morgenster Extra Virgin Olive Oil achieved a score of 98 percent in the Flos Olei 2014 awards, an annual international competition that judges the world’s best extra virgin olive oils.
This year Morgenster was one of 11 producers out of more than 450 entries to achieve a score of 98/100, the highest ever awarded. The other winning oils came from Spain, Italy and Chile.
Farm owner Giulio Bertrand went to Rome to accept his trophy and said he was proud to bring this award home to South Africa.
When Bertrand moved from Italy to South Africa in 1992 and bought Morgenster, he found no good extra virgin olive oil being produced locally. When he learnt that the farm’s conditions could produce olive oil and wine, he imported 2 000 olive trees of different cultivars from Italy and established a nursery. Today there are more than 50 hectaresof olive groves (30 000 trees) on the farm.
Bertrand believes that the combination of Italian trees, an exceptional terroir and a rigid approach to quality at every stage of production has enabled Morgenster to achieve this level of excellence.
Morgenster extra virgin olive oil is available at most supermarkets and sells for about R95 for 500ml.
* Morgenster is a sponsor of the Angela Day Kitchen in Randpark Ridge. - The Star