More than a family heirloom
The Estate
López-Barajas Family
We welcome you to our Olive grove estate, where generation after generation, we maintain an extensive ecological cultivation of centuries-old olive trees.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, at Cortijo Los Almendros, we have dedicated ourselves to the cultivation of olive groves, which we now complete with the launch of our own brand.
Geographic situation
Cortijo Los Almendros is located in the municipality of Deifontes in the province of Granada, on the slopes of the Sierra del Pozuelo and opposite the Sierra de Arana. The olive grove is located between 780m and 1010m in height and is oriented mainly towards south-southeast.
In this location, with a continental climate, many hours of sunshine, a rainfall of 400-500 liters per year and a soil that is very loose and fresh, dry-land olive grove cultivation is very well adapted, and this is how our ancestors did it.
Where it all began
The López-Barajas family began in lthe decade 1640-1650 with the marriage of Mr. Pedro López with Miss María Varajas Pantoja. Their first son, D. Mr. Miguel López Varajas Pantoja, baptized in Purchil in 1670, married in Saint Ildefonso Church in Granada in 1693 with Miss María Fernández de Moya. Their first son has “López Varajas” as his first surname, the first two of his father already united.
Direct descendant is D.Mr. Manuel López Varajas González Castellano baptized in S. Saint Ildefonso Church in 1748. He was Knight Twenty-Four of Granada and Cruz Carlos III. In the early years of the 19th century, D. Mr. Manuel L. V. acquired the ¨Cortijo Los Almendros¨.
Inherited from father to son, Cortijo Los Almendros reached its current owner, Antonio López-Barajas, at the beginning of 1987. At that time the farm had 255 hectares, , of which 215 were arable land and 40 of scrubland. Half of the estate was dedicated to olive groves, with about 4,000 olive trees, of which about 1,400 were centenary olive trees.
The value of tradition
During the last 35 years, the estate has undergone a process of transformation and continuous modernization. The starting point was the 4,000 olive trees, most of them planted with a traditional 20-meter frame to be able to grow different cereals between the rows of olive trees, following the traditional crop rotation. Little by little, the cultivation area dedicated to cereals was reduced, to gradually expand the olive grove area until it occupied the entire estate. Currently the estate has 210 hectares of olive groves with a total of 33,000 olive trees. Most of the olive trees are of the picual variety, but there are also other varieties such as hojiblanca, loaime, negrete from Iznalloz, lucio and lechin from Granada.
This entire transformation process has been directed and executed with great enthusiasm and dedication by Antonio López Barajas.
In 2012 he began to analyze the possibility of transforming the estate to organic farming. The main objective was to promote biodiversity by consolidating the native fauna, maintain a plant cover that would reduce erosion and help retain moisture and nutrients, and obtain healthier food.
Since 2017 the farm has been certified in organic production, becoming the largest organic olive grove in the province of Granada.
