even though she was about to go on leave. We are very thankful to her indeed
Marbrin Olive Farm is in the Klaasvoogds area. It was on our list to visit and it happened to be the first place we found
on our way to check in to our overnight accommodation
It is down a rather bumpy farm road, but the main building is set in a lovely verdant garden
Inside, we met Briony Coetsee, who owns Marbrin with her partner, Clive Heymans. She told us that they worked in London previously, at some of the top restaurants, before returning to South Africa. He was a chef and Briony told us that she is a sommelier. She took us through a tasting of their olives, oils and other products, then had to leave to collect her child from school. We explained that we had both done olive oil courses with Linda Costa, had participated in many industry tastings on olive farms and had sold only SA Olive products in our shop, so we did not need her to explain the process of making the olives and the oil. The oils were good, lots of purity of flavour and you could taste the different characteristics and age. We realised that we already know the infused oils; we use the Fennel flavoured olive oil, which we bought at Woolworths. They are worth trying. The Dill would be great with fish, gravadlax, peas & broad beans, The Coriander seed oil with boerewors and Asian food. The Fennel is great on pork, tomatoes and fish. They have a flavoured Truffle oil. The Chilli oil has a slow burn. The bottled Mission olives are big, salty and juicy, with a bite of expected olive bitterness. The two pestos were good
Some of the range for tasting
The price list
Extra Virgin Olive oil for tasting. These are two different pressings, one early, one later in the season
They have won several awards
which are displayed on the wall behind the tasting desk
A grumpy Clive Heymans came to take over, but we found his attitude rather off-putting, especially when he discovered that we were doing a story about Marbrin. In fact, he was downright rude, so we tasted just two pestos and then left. He said that, usually when he spends his time with “Bloggers”, they only write one line about them! Believe us, we were tempted. Not the best way to get publicity for your products. We know, we used to sell things like this in our shop, where we also won awards, but we welcomed everyone
Beautiful views of the mountains in the distance looking over the olive groves
With just harvested cornfields in the middle distance
So, off to lunch and a tasting with Johann de Wet at De Wetshof (Click Here)
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ReplyDeleteHi John and Lynne,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that you did not experience a good time here at Marbrin. These past couple of years have been stressful for everyone - ourselves included - and our morning meditation usually helps lift our spirits, but it seems to have let us down this time. We promise to try to be more patient in the future. Wishing you all the best, Marbrin