Robertson Olive Tasting
With its Hands on Harvest and other wine festivals, The Robertson valley is predominantly known for its wine but what many people don't know is that the area is also home to some of South Africa's finest table olive and olive oil producers. I recently visited Marbrin Olive Farm and was surprised by how interesting the humble olive can be.
Rather naively I thought that olive farming seemed like an idyllic lifestyle best suited to wrinkled Italian Nonnas eating olives from ancient groves. It turns out there's more to it than meets the eye, for starters olives straight from the tree are eye wateringly revolting; they taste like nail varnish remover.
The South African olive oil industry is relatively young but it is making a big impact on the international scene. Consumers in South Africa have for too long been subjected to Europe's surplus, often substandard, oils so few people can tell what a top quality fresh oil tastes like. And tests have revealed that imported 'Extra Virgin Olive Oil' often turns out to be pretty much entirely not what it says on the tin. It seems that the Genco Pure Olive Oil company, a front for Vito Corleone in the movie The Godfather, is not such a far cry from the truth. The olive oil industry in Europe is particularly beset by scandal and double dealing. Stories abound about unscrupulous Italian oil 'producers' importing olives from North Africa only to press them in Italy and sell it as 'Italian' olive oil. A new book called Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller tells the scandalous story of fraud in the olive oil industry.
Marbrin was founded twenty years ago by Pieter Coetsee. His son in law, Clive, showed us around the boutique factory where magic happens to those bitter little fruits. All the olives at Marbrin are picked by hand both for better quality and to provide local employment. The table olives are then soaked in a pure brine solution for 6-8 months before they lose the bitter turpentine taste of the fresh olive and turn into something whole lot more interesting. The kalamata olives were my favourite, nutty and slightly sweet.
Olives for oil must be processed fresh from the groves - you wouldn't press vrot oranges for juice and it's the same with olives. The extra virgin olive oil they produce gets pressed just once and must be kept under 27°C to be called 'cold pressed' which maintains the quality of the oil. It's a bit like wine - there's a delicate, mild and intense blend made up from different kinds of olives grown on the farm; coratina, frantoia and mission. The latter is particularly aptly named since the harvest takes about six months as olives on a single tree ripen at different stages. Marbrin is better known for table olives and only started producing olive oil in 2011; Pieter with his farm manager and master blender, Matthew Gibbs, struck gold and won a medal to prove it. In 2012 they were one of two farms in South Africa to be awarded two gold medals (for the delicate and intense blends) and a silver (for the mild blend).
Clive, a serious foodie recently returned from the UK, has begun to make olive tapenades. They alone are worth going to the farm for a tasting. Try the lemon, garlic and nutmeg tapenade.
Marbrin regularly take part in the Olive & Wine festival at Riebeek Kasteel.
Written by Emily Blott
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