Olive Auction built this page from public records so buyers can find the estate. Its own people can claim it at no cost — complete the story, list lots, answer buyers.
After a claim, we confirm by emailEverything here comes from public sources — award lists, certification registers, the territory inventories. The rest of the story — the family, the grove, the real age of the trees, this year's lab sheet — only the mill can tell, and it is the part buyers bid on.
Morgenster is a farm below the Helderberg range in the Western Cape, with a history the estate puts at some three hundred years. Its olive chapter starts in 1992, when Giulio Bertrand, an Italian who had spent his working life in textiles, retired, moved to South Africa and bought the property. He built it around two crops at once, which the estate notes was an unusual thing to attempt in the country then: Bordeaux-style reds, made with Pierre Lurton of Château Cheval Blanc and Château d'Yquem consulting, and olive oil.
The olive side runs to 42 hectares, planted with seventeen Italian cultivars brought in through a partnership with the Olive Oil Institute in Perugia, and the first extra virgin oils reached the market in 1998. A balsamic vinegar produced in Modena is bottled on the estate. Bertrand's daughter Federica and granddaughter Vittoria run Morgenster now.
At the 2025 SA Olive Awards, where a panel sitting in Stellenbosch judges oils certified under the association's Commitment to Compliance scheme, Morgenster took Gold in the medium class for its Don Carlo extra virgin and for its Morgenster Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and Silver in the delicate class for its Delicate extra virgin.
From the public record: morgensterestate.co.za · saolive.co.za
A producer account takes a minute — name, mill, region. We attach this profile the same day.
Lab numbers, tree references, harvest dates, a photo — the tap-through form asks only for what buyers pay for.
Auction with a confidential reserve, or a fixed-price allocation. We review it and it goes live.
The catalogue goes to this list before it goes on the site. When the sale closes you get every hammer price from it — including the ones that disappointed.
Two emails. Then quiet until Sale No. 2.
