The best extra virgin olive oil in the world, recognized by the Evooleum 2025 guide, comes from a variety of Italian origin, the Coratina, and from a farm in Ciudad Real that looks “more like a natural park” than an agricultural farm.
The Dehesa el Molinillo Coratina EVOO from the 2024/2025 campaign, which won over more than a thousand samples from 26 countries in that renowned contestis produced in the shelter of the Toledo mountains in a place with a historical background.
The estate once belonged to the Dukes of Veragua and in the mid-20th century it passed into the hands of the textile businessman José Biosca, who was founder of the Spanish Association against Cancer.
As the director of Dehesa el Molinillo, Pedro Belmar, says, Biosca transferred the industrial idea of building houses for employees to the countryside and some families continue to live there.
The current owners maintain the farm as it was in its origins, without major transformations and taking “a lot of” care of the ecosystem and its rich biodiversity, according to the director.
“This is a natural park more than an agricultural farm,” composed of a centuries-old olive grove, vineyard, cereals and livestock of sheep, goats and cows that coexist integrated with game species, explains Belmar.
A rare variety in Spain
Regarding the oil, less than a decade ago it was decided to opt for cortina due to its high levels of polyphenols and its aromatic content, and it is currently grown in about 22 hectares of irrigated olive groves, along with the cornicabra and empeltre varieties.
Belmar assures that In 2019 they built the oil mill with the intention of producing the highest quality olive oils and they entered a market of “brutal competition” because “every day there are better oils” not only in Spain, but also throughout the world.
The EVOO awarded by Evooleum began to be marketed recently and this year, upon obtaining a certain production (less than 4,000 liters), they presented it to different competitions.
The award given “has changed our lives“, as it has aroused a “tremendous interest in learning about this oil” and the demand for orders has skyrocketed, says the company director.
Half of the production is aimed at the Spanish market and the other half has found a place in South Korea, where they have a distributor.
An increasingly valued product
Although At the national level, it is expected that the current campaign will be better than the previous twowhich were very short due to the drought, the one in Dehesa el Molinillo ended a month ago with fewer kilos collected than in 2023, when there was a harvest record.
Belmar relates it to vecería, a phenomenon that causes the olive tree to produce a lot of fruit in one year and little the next, and recognizes that “there is a lack of oil”, since there is more demand than what they are capable of producing.
In addition to promoting online sales, have opened their doors to welcome people interested in getting to know the oil mill and its production method, although at the moment they are not considering developing a rural tourism project as such.
After the “injection of motivation” that has resulted from the double recognition as the best EVOO in the world and as the healthiest, Belmar sees “many possibilities” for a product that is increasingly valued more.
“We have always opted for the highest quality both in the production and in the processing of the oil”assures the director, for whom the search for excellence implies “a very big leap” and putting “a lot of zeal in all phases.”
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