Aceite Dominus, Valle Mágina y Huerta los Caños

Monva

MONVA is a family business dedicated to olive cultivation and the production of extra virgin olive oil in Mancha Real, Jaén, in the heart of the Sierra Mágina region. Its name originates from the union of the Montabes and Vañó surnames, two families with a long olive-growing tradition in different towns in the province of Jaén.

Although the family's agricultural history dates back much further, the birth of MONVA as a company took place in 1971, when Francisco Montabes Calle and Araceli Vañó Martínez acquired the Cortijo Virgen de los Milagros. The estate then included olive groves, cereal fields, and livestock, and would over time become the center of the family's agricultural and olive oil operations.

The tradition, however, now spans five generations. One of its documented antecedents dates back to 1908, when Lorenzo Martínez García, a family ancestor, acquired the Finca Los Caños in Baeza, with its extensive orchard and the ancient olive grove that surrounded it. Decades later, the creation of MONVA allowed this family legacy to continue and expand under its own project.

A key moment for the Virgen de los Milagros estate arrived in 1984, when around 35,000 olive trees were planted on land previously dedicated to cereal crops. Subsequently, in 1997, MONVA installed its own bottling plant and began exporting its oils to markets such as Japan and Korea.

Currently, different generations of the family remain linked to the company, overseeing the process from the care of the trees to the production and bottling of the oil. From this work, brands such as Dominus, Huerta Los Caños, Valle Mágina, and Montabes were born, through which MONVA seeks to showcase different expressions of the Jaén olive grove and Sierra Mágina.

Picual and wild olive: different expressions of the same territory

Picual is the great protagonist of MONVA's production. This variety, deeply linked to Jaén and especially adapted to the conditions of Sierra Mágina, forms the basis of a large part of its oils. The house's particularity is that it works with the same variety at different stages of ripening, achieving different sensory profiles depending on when the harvest takes place.

One of its most renowned oils is Dominus Cosecha Temprana, obtained from specially selected Picual olives harvested approximately in mid-October. By working with fruits that are still green and at an early stage of ripening, a particularly fresh, intense, and complex oil is obtained, in which the vegetal aromas characteristic of freshly harvested olives predominate.

At the beginning of November, when the fruit reaches a pre-veraison stage, MONVA harvests the olives destined for Dominus Reserva Familiar. Later, during November, the fruits used for Valle Mágina are obtained, and finally, in December, olives that have more fully completed their ripening cycle are harvested to produce Montabes. In this way, the family manages to show how the same variety can offer different oils depending on the exact moment it is harvested.

Organic production is also present through Huerta Los Caños, made with organic Picual from an old family olive grove located between Baeza and La Yedra. Its olives are also harvested during the month of October, seeking an early point of ripeness that provides aromatic intensity and freshness.

But one of MONVA's most unique creations moves completely away from the cultivated olive tree. Dominus Acebuche is obtained from the small olives produced by the wild olive trees that grow spontaneously on the hills of Virgen de los Milagros. Due to the characteristics of these trees and the terrain, the fruits must be harvested manually using the system known as "milking" and immediately subjected to cold extraction. The small amount of fruit available makes only a very limited production possible, resulting in one of the house's most distinctive oils.

650 hectares of olive groves and protected woodland in Sierra Mágina

The heart of MONVA is the Cortijo Virgen de los Milagros, located in Mancha Real, in the foothills of the Sierra Mágina Natural Park. The property encompasses around 650 hectares of olive groves and protected forest area, creating a landscape where agricultural activity coexists directly with areas of Mediterranean scrubland.

The olive groves in this region have very particular characteristics. Sierra Mágina is a mountainous territory where a large part of the trees grow on sloping terrain, very different from the large, completely flat expanses of other producing regions. MONVA is part of the Sierra Mágina Designation of Origin, a region where traditional olive groves are one of the great protagonists of the landscape.

Especially interesting are the uncultivated areas of Virgen de los Milagros. On the slopes of its hills, at approximately 600 meters of altitude, numerous wild olive trees grow spontaneously, surrounded by a protected forest mass. These trees develop naturally among rocky terrain and Mediterranean vegetation, sharing space with aromatic plants such as thyme, sage, savory, and rosemary.

The wild olive trees also exhibit very slow growth and extraordinary longevity. Some appear directly among the rocks, taking advantage of small fissures to develop their roots, and can adopt the form of both a tree and a shrub. It is precisely from these wild specimens that the wild olives used to produce Dominus Acebuche are sourced.

Added to this heritage is the Finca Los Caños, located between Baeza and La Yedra and belonging to the family since the beginning of the 20th century. Here, an extraordinary centenary olive grove is preserved, with a significant portion of the trees planted in the 17th century around the old house and its orchard. Currently, these olive trees are cultivated under organic criteria and provide the olives used to produce Huerta Los Caños.

MONVA thus possesses two olive-growing landscapes with very different personalities: Virgen de los Milagros, with its olive groves, protected hills, and wild olive trees in Sierra Mágina, and Los Caños, with its ancient organic olive trees between Baeza and La Yedra. Two estates that allow one to understand a philosophy in which the oil begins with the care and conservation of the land long before the olives reach the mill.