How to taste olives like a local

The Riebeek Valley is known as much for olives as for wine. Het Vlock Casteel on Kerk Street offers one of the most generous tastings around, often ten to twelve olives and a line-up of single-cultivar oils. Directly opposite, the Olive Boutique sells bottled olives from a small producer, oils from light to intense, and olive-based skincare.

Taste oil the way the producers do. Pour a little into a cup, warm it in your hand, smell it, then sip and draw air over it. A good fresh oil smells green, like cut grass or tomato leaf, and leaves a peppery catch at the back of the throat. That bite is a sign of freshness, not a fault.

Kloovenburg also presses well-regarded olive oil and offers olive tastings alongside its wines, and the Goedgedacht farm off the R46 sells oil that supports its youth programme.

Buy a bottle for the kitchen at Huis Agt. Bread, oil and salt is a perfectly good dinner here.