Klein Karoo olive estate wins big globally — again

Daily Maverick

30-04-2025

The modest ambitions of De Rustica Olive Estate in the Klein Karoo have been massively outweighed by the success of their ultra premium quality olive oil. And it's a big deal for the SA olive industry.
De Rustica Olive Estate near De Rust, Western Cape, is extracting every drop out of its success on the world stage. Now De Rustica has won a top-tier global olive oil award only two years after taking first place in the premier industry international competition, Evooleum.
Now the De Rustica Collection Coratina extra virgin olive oil, assessed in a blind tasting, has been awarded second place overall at Evooleum 2025 with a score of 96 points, and it was again the only olive oil outside of Spain and Italy to be placed in the Top 10.
The scale of this success should be seen in context of the Rustica entry having been one of about 1,000 entries from 26 countries.
Only four estates worldwide — De Rustica, two from Spain and one from Italy — have achieved multiple top 10 rankings in the last three years.
De Rustica was chosen as the 'Evooleum Absolute Best' olive oil in the 2023 Evooleum international competition. (Their Coratina was not entered in 2024.)
This latest success is further evidence that SAOlive, which represents the common interests of its members in the industry, punches well above its weight globally in terms of premium quality olive oil, and assists in lobbying for support to further develop the industry in South Africa.
South Africa produces 1.6 million kilogrammes of olive oil a year. The scale of global production is 3,000-million tons per annum, 'So South Africa is about half of 1,000th of a percent of global,' Rob Still says.
'Yet here we are winning TOP global awards.'
Still worked in the mining industry until he bought De Rustica in 2006, first selling olive oil in 2012. He explains the concept succinctly.
'We wanted to make good olive oil but were pioneers in the area and really had dreams not much more than making the farm work. What has happened is beyond our wildest dreams, but… as we gain self-confidence we are perhaps expanding our dreams.'
Some 'WTF!' in Spanish and Italian olive oil circles
Asked whether industry people elsewhere in the world now regard South Africa as an olive oil producer of note, Still replied: 'Not really, as we are simply too small. However, these past two awards to De Rustica have generated considerable curiosity and some 'WTF!' in Spanish and Italian circles.
'I suspect that this second award will increase this interest. In my recent travels around Italy I was amazed to be told by several Italians (on realising that I was South African) that a South African farm had just won top honours.'
And they were talking to the man himself.
'So there is some awareness of South Africa and De Rustica among industry participants and olive oil lovers but… we remain VERY small.'
What this second award does do is confirm De Rustica's place at the 'global top table', Still adds.
'Winning once was surreal but may have been an outlier or fluke. Winning twice in three years — second out of 1,000 entries scored and rated blind by top experts — shows that is no longer chance. It also, I think, really underscores the immense value of De Rustica's sustainable and regenerative practices to nurturing quality.'
Success, as is almost always the case, did not come overnight.
'The journey of developing De Rustica has taken 19 years and has been hard,' he says. 'This recognition that De Rustica now really is the real thing in global extra virgin oils is enormously validating and energising and it fills me with the determination and vigour to take the estate to new highs.'
And Rob Still's once modest sights have now been set much higher: 'We can now realistically aim to remain consistently in the top five globally,' says the man who once only wanted to 'make the farm work'. DM