Olive Oil from South Africa's Cape

Our first olive oil from beyond the Med—welcome to South Africa. Vineyards and citrus groves to one side, mountains to the other, a resident barn owl, nightly visiting antelope, birds, bees, and biodiversity. This is the Breede River Valley in the Western Cape, South Africa.

This is the first time we’ve gone to the southern hemisphere to source olive oil and we couldn’t be more excited to begin with Brenda and Nick. Their reputation precedes them; not only are their oils award-winning, but we’d heard only praise from our network of producers and industry contacts.

When I first tried their oil, I knew I had to have it.

Going south not only opens up new sourcing opportunities, it allows us to hit on fresh oil at different times of year.

In the Mediterranean, most growers will harvest between October and December, and their new season oils won’t usually be ready for us until January. In South Africa however, the harvest takes place between March and July and new oil is on the market from July and August.

Although good EVOO lasts for well up to 18-24 months, it’s great to be able to access a fresh harvest twice a year, when olive oil is in its boldest, most vibrant phase.

South Africa has no native varieties but there is a strong tradition of planting respected Italian cultivars here, although newer varieties more suited to high yielding, mono-cultivation are now on the rise.

From the off, Nick and Brenda knew they didn’t want to compete with these low-grade, high-volume farms: they wanted to make something premium.

And that’s just what they’ve done, nurturing the trees that were left by their Portuguese predecessor, and taking full advantage of the ideal climate in their pocket of the Klein Karoo.

Meet Brenda & Nick.

It was a doctor’s orders that inspired Nick to get into olive oil and now, he gets much more than his teaspoon a day. “There isn’t a meal I don’t have olive oil with” he says. From a morning shot, taken after celery juice, to pasta, steak and the viral ice cream trend, both he and Brenda extol the nutritional and flavour-enhancing virtues of EVOO.

Olives were a new direction for them, although they had decades of growing and land management experience behind them in central Africa. Brenda and Nick considered that making olive oil might be something of a hobby in their semi-retirement but after their oil gained a double gold award locally they were emboldened to pursue it with full force. Brenda became a founding member of Women in Olive Oil and Nick is now a qualified Master Miller.

Despite their early awards, it was hard graft to build the customer base. “I used to take my car with a little basket of samples, head to all the top restaurants in Cape Town and beg them to taste my olive oil,” Brenda remembers. “Three years later, we went in with a full van, no samples.”

Discovering the Cape.

Another doctor, this time the ‘Cape Doctor’—the name given to the region’s cool southeasterly sea wind—is partly to thank for the quality of their oil. Sweeping through their groves in the early evening it takes the temperatures down from the high thirties, blowing away bugs and disease as it goes.

Despite little rainfall, they’ve no issue with access to water. The river, which gives their estate its name (Rio Largo means wide river in Portuguese) is fed from Brandvlei storage dam during the hot, dry summer after harvesting and storing the bountiful winter rains. The water is delivered via a canal and Brenda says “we could have two years of drought and still have enough water to irrigate.”

This combination—dry but with ample access to water when needed—is ideal for olive growing.

How to try this olive oil.

As always, the best way to understand an oil is to get to know it. Put it in a little cup, swirl it around, and have a smell and a sip. (See more on how you should properly taste EVOOs.)

Let the aromas you smell guide you as to what to make with this oil. This is a small batch, members-only drop.

What the oil tastes like.

We’re getting aromatic herbs, fig leaf and almond—some really delicate notes despite the intensity of the oil.

Nick harvests his olives green, when they have real potency but works hard to keep the oil balanced, not overpowered by sky-high polyphenols.

He aims for “a clean mouthfeel and lingering flavour” which is exactly what you get here.

How to pair this EVOO.

Robust oils like this can be tamed with a little citrus: balance out your EVOO dressings with a squeeze of orange or lemon.

Roasted and toasted notes work really well too. Try it with our Carrots with Hazlenut Gremolata recipe or drizzle over pan fried brussel sprouts and roasted parsnips. A friend of Brenda’s son declared ‘those are the best roast potatoes I’ve ever eaten’ after his mum had tossed them in this South African EVOO.

A beautiful one for the season and one we're so proud to introduce exclusively to the Olive Oil Club in December 2024.