A generational history of more than 150 years.
The farm estate Barahonda Casa de Torregrosa, on which land the olives are grown and cultivated that would constitute the raw material for the olive oil extra virgin “Olivares de Barahonda”, and the imposing and modern oil press in which said olive oil is produced rises, has a great family tradition that for centuries has passed from father to son, and it is today managed by Carlos Torregrosa Ortuño, grandson of the founder, and his daughter Maria Jose Torregrosa Contreras.
The origin of the estate farm takes place in the later part of the nineteenth century, when Don José Pascual Ortuño, grandfather of the current owner of the estate, Carlos Torregrosa Ortuño, decided to buy from Don Eugenio Espinosa de los Monteros, Baron del Solar and icon of Jumilla, a hunting preserve, belonging to the Baron, of some 3,000 hectares, the hunting estate was in a place called Barahonda, located about 25 km from Yecla (Murcia) and about 30 km from Jumilla (Murcia).
Barahonda covered a valley from Mount Umbria to the mountain range known as Sierra de los Ladrones, and was totally covered with thousands of wild pines trees. Such a large extension of land was not really viable for the sole use of the hunting activity (which was the sole use given by the Baron Del Solar), and Don José Pascual Ortuño decided to turn the hunting preserve into farmland.
The initial works started at the end of XIX Century, around 1880, and given the lack of adequate machinery at the time, the pines trees were cut down by hand and the roots were removed from the fertile land with 50 pairs of mules and 50 horses.
Once all the land was prepared and re-conditioned Don José Pascual Ortuño began planting the land with crops in line with the terrain altitude (1,000 meters above sea level), and the very extreme temperatures of the plateau highlands (very low in winter and high in summer). Such crops were the vineyards of the variety Monastrell (autochthonous vineyard of the region), cereals <oats, barley and wheat> and olive trees.
Thus, Don José Pascual Ortuño managed to turn 3,000 hectares of unproductive land in a fertile and productive farming estate providing jobs for hundreds of workers and settlers, and achieved that in the early part of XX Century the Barahonda farming estate would became a large estate of renown and respect with manicured crops and harvests, particularly of the Monastrell grape, still today, they are highly valued for making great wines of the appellation of origin of Jumilla and Yecla.
In the early 90s, the farming estate Barahonda Casa de Torregrosa becomes the property of Carlos Torregrosa Ortuño, by testamentary disposition after the death of his mother, and when he assumes the management and administration of land, crops and future projects.
For more than 150 years, the crop par excellence has been the Monastrell grape variety. Having said that, the agriculture depends very largely on weather conditions and the possible crop damage that the meteorological events may cause to them, and it is because of this that the need to diversify the agricultural activity arose in respect to the crops variety.
This need, combined with the passion of Carlos Torregrosa for the extra virgin olive oil, led to the launching of the “Olivares de Barahonda project” which began with a plantation of 120,000 olive trees of different varieties (Arbequina, picual, cuquillo and cornicabra varieties), and culminated with the construction, in 2015, of a brand new olive mill, equipped with latest technology machinery and equipment, and a milling production capacity of 4/5 million kilos of olives per season. All while maintaining the traditional cultivation of the vines that his ancestors started.
