De Rustica is pleased to announce that it has once AGAIN been awarded top honours by the premier industry international competition, EVOOLEUM 2025.
Out of approximately 1000 entries from 26 countries, De Rustica Estate Collection CORATINA was awarded second place overall 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.
What makes this award extraordinary is that De Rustica won the “EVOOLEUM Absolute Best” olive oil in the 2023 EVOOLEUM international competition. With two outstanding awards since 2023, De Rustica has demonstrated a remarkable consistency of excellence rarely achieved in the industry. [*De Rustica did not enter its Estate Coratina in 2024.]
In fact, only four estates worldwide—De Rustica, two Spanish, and one Italian—have achieved multiple top 10 rankings in the last three years, placing De Rustica in an elite group.
For over a decade, De Rustica has been internationally recognised for its high premium extra virgin olive oils, winning no less than 29 gold awards at the annual SA Olive competition (including 10 golds from 10 entries over the last 2 years) as well as multiple international awards. But this repeated recognition at the highest global level places South Africa’s De Rustica squarely into the world’s premier extra virgin olive oil league.
Rob Still of De Rustica says that –
“This award is especially gratifying in the context of demonstrating consistency at the highest level, and it is a tribute to the dedication of our entire team. We also believe that our sustainable regenerative farming methods are creating the healthy soils that underpin our consistent top quality.”
ABOUT THE EVOOLEUM
EVOOLEUM is the leading international competition for evaluating the quality of extra virgin olive oils that annually chooses the 100 best EVOOs in the world. This is a unique contest and the most rigorous in terms of quality and promotion of olive oil.
EVOOLEUM is organised by the Mercacei group, which is the leading publisher of specialised olive oil industry media. EVOOLEUM is funded by The Spanish Association of Olive Producing Municipalities (AEMO – Spanish acronym), which congregates more than 120 municipalities and olive farming provinces from around Spain, who consider the olive to be their hallmark. Ever since its foundation in 1996, the Association has been focused on the work of enhancing the value of the fruit of the olive tree – olive oil and table olives – and on the diffusion of the culture of olives and its flagship, extra virgin olive oil.
The technical team at AEMO is broadly experienced in the organisation and coordination of prizes for quality in EVOOs, as well as the management of tasting panels, where it is an active member of national and international juries.
An exclusive and prestigious group of expert tasters worldwide is responsible for assessing the organoleptic quality of the samples presented, from which comes the exclusive TOP100 of the best extra virgin oils globally in each harvest year, as well as the best in different categories such as cultivars and countries.
In the 2024/2025 harvest edition, a highly qualified jury composed of 25 tasters from 11 countries was in charge of evaluating, during three intense days of tasting held in Spain, the nearly 1,000 samples from 26 countries to select the 100 best EVOOs in the world, in a ranking that includes representatives from 10 different countries: Italy, Spain, Turkey, Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Morocco, South Africa, Brazil and China.
De Rustica Estate Collection Coratina, top achiever two years ago, has achieved 96 points out of 100 possible this time, which has allowed it to obtain the award for the second best EVOO in the entire world.
From L-R: Gaylen Stuurman (Olive Press manager), Kallie Frey (Head of Olives) and Ignacio Sigura (Spanish EVOO processing guru).
ABOUT DE RUSTICA
Established in 2006 in the Klein Karoo near the town of De Rust in the Oudemuragie Valley,
De Rustica has set itself out to become a “Beacon of Hope” in an impoverished local community. De Rustica is building their beacon, focusing on three pillars: quality, sustainability, and community. We pride ourselves on being the biggest local provider of jobs, using manual labour to harvest our olives. Our success is shining through our world-renowned extra virgin olive oils, our hormone-free lamb, De Rustica-produced honey and, most importantly, our De Rustica FC United soccer team. De Rustica prides itself on having full control over the production and marketing of all its products, presented to the public via our on-farm tasting room, online at WWW.DERUSTICA.CO.ZA, and through major retail outlets.
Estate Collection – Coratina (500ml)
- Aromas of dry herbs and grass, tomatoes, and freshly boiled green vegetables.
- A clean mouthfeel with very good pungency that persists. Bitterness more gentle than typically associated with Coratina.
- Serve with boiled young potatoes and parsley or roast vegetables.
