Sucesores de Hermanos López

The López Family

Today the López family counts over 167 years of continuous dedication to their olive groves. From their start in 1845 on barely 2 acres of land, the family worked the land and slowly expanded their holdings. They took their first major step forward in 1918 when Antonio López Ortiz de la Torre built the family mill. With its hydraulic presses and truncated conical wheels, the mill's equipment represented the best technology of the day. Antonio worked together with his brother, Vicente López Jiménez, to create a base for the family-run business. The business established by the two brothers reached maturity 60 years later when their successors established Sucesores de Hermanos López SA. By the time of its founding in 1979, the company had over 1500 acres of olive trees under its care. As they began to bottle their own brand, a big push for quality soon followed. Around this time the Protected Designation of Origin of Baena was also established. The family saw this European effort as an important opportunity to unite with other local growers, to promote the heritage of their product, and to demonstrate the excellence of their olive oils.

The López Family

Having to meet the strict standards of the PDO led to another step forward in the family business. As better equipment became available they implemented more technological improvements, including major updates to the old oil mill. They also committed to improve their marketing, with efforts focused on their premium oils branded under the names Morellana and La Laguna. The current generations continue to take on the challenge of modernizing the company, with Andrea López managing administrative duties and agronomist Antonio López overseeing the trees and their fruit. Quality of the olive oils rests in the capable hands of Alberto del Moral López, the Head Miller of Sucesores de Hermanos López, who maintains meticulous control over all variables involved in the production. Together they help to build upon the long family tradition of producing the highest quality olive oils on the market today.

The Land & Trees

The groves of Sucesores de Hermanos López benefit from the chalky alkaline soil of the region. The producers attribute the high polyphenols found in their olive oils to this well-draining soil and the area's low annual rainfall. While the rugged slopes of the Sierras Subbética help make the oils distinct, these conditions do make collection more difficult and costly. While the company plans to increase organic production in the coming years, with many of the groves having already transitioned, the favorable conditions of the region's microclimate help produce beautiful olives with minimal pest issues. Individual farms receive much pampering, with company agronomists relying not only on the family's knowledge, but also that of local growers and the PDO to obtain the best from the olive trees. The farmers also devote themselves to the region's natural parklands, with their organic methods promoting biodiversity while also protecting the habitats of native species.

The Land & Trees

Many of the trees harvested here pre-date the company's founders, with some specimens over 200 years old. Like most olive oil producers in Andalusia, Sucesores de Hermanos López primarily grows the typical Picual and Hojiblanca varieties most common to Jaén and Córdoba. However, a third variety makes up 30% of their production, the Picudo olive, which is native to the Baena PDO and produces one of the most exquisite oils in the world. In recent years they have increased their planting density, replacing grain fields for olive groves mostly of the Picual variety. While many local producers have opted to replace the Picudo variety with more productive olive trees, Sucesores de Hermanos López maintain the native Picudo for its heritage and historical value, in addition to its exceptional tasting profile.

Commitment to Sustainability for a Better Tomorrow

For Sucesores Hermanos López sustainable farming is much more than just bearing an organic seal. They promote native species in the ground covers to increase biodiversity and sequester carbon. The diverse flora also helps to retain moisture in the soil and adds essential nutrients for the centuries-old trees.

Within these centuries-old groves is the Picudo tree, an olive species native to the Subbetica Mountains. Very few Picuda trees are grown throughout the world, and SHL upholds their groves as a genetic fountain of wealth, preserving both the past and the future of these rare trees.  

Because the olive trees grow on the mountainsides within the Subbética Natural Park, cultivating and harvesting the olives, while rewarding, also proves challenging. Gathering olives on a hillside is hard work that requires dedication and skill. Many of the harvesters are local women who have followed in their mothers’ footsteps in working with the family, which provides sustainable employment in the small rural towns.

Commitment to Sustainability for a Better Tomorrow

The grove manager, Francisco Molina Cañete, who was just 18 when he began at SHL, not only understands that working with nature is crucial, but also that what is removed from nature must be replaced. For this reason the organic matter that is removed during milling is returned to the land from which it was harvested.

However, it is Cristóbal Olmedo de las Morenas, the master miller, who also began milling at age 18 in SHL, who perfects the oil. He is the artist behind the award-winning oils, milling with passion, pride and love for each extra virgin oil.  

The passion of the producers, high mountain altitudes, the intrinsic characteristics of the native olive varieties, combined with conscientious harvesting and milling practices, all contribute to producing oils that are rich in phenolic content and full of flavor.

The Harvest

Although the exact date varies from year to year, harvest typically begins mid-October when the olives still remain mostly green. The juice from these early-harvest green olives will become both Morellana and Laguna Select olive oils. The producers claim that none of their olive varieties pose a challenge to pick, only that the timing of the harvest can increase the difficulty in collection, therefore they only use knowledgeable workers: local Luqueños or those that have been trained over the years. The picking methods vary according to the landscape, the variety of the olive, and the fruits' ripeness. Workers perform hand-harvesting in areas tractors cannot reach, with tractor-mounted shakers and hand-held combs used in easier terrain. The producers note that harvesting methods can affect the prices of their products, in particular hand-picking, due to the lengthy time and number of pickers needed to reach the fruit. However, seeing customers' faces light up when they finally try the olive oil is the reward in the end that makes it all worthwhile for Sucesores de Hermanos López.

The Facilities

To maintain pristine conditions while elevating the pungency of the olives, Sucesores de Hermanos López use hammer mills to extract the fruit juice. For separation of the oil, they recently upgraded to an advanced dual phase centrifuge. The region had many issues in the past with producers using the triple phase centrifuge, as many farmers dumped the wastewater into waterways. The dual phase centrifuge eliminates waste water, and instead concentrates the bi-products so they can be more easily treated in pomace processing facilities. This practice helps illustrate how Sucesores de Hermanos López strives to use all parts of the olive. After separation, the olive pits get turned into a biomass fuel used to heat the mill’s offices and rural apartments, while the processed pomace can create a low-grade cooking oil.

A sample from each lot of olive oil produced will immediately undergo chemical analysis to determine its fat content and acidity. The lots then get placed in individual tanks labeled with cards detailing the results of the analysis, grove location, and any other relevant information pertaining to the batch. In recent years the mill began using nitrogen gas in the storage tanks to further preserve the quality of the oils. With the olive fruit having a very short time at the optimal stage of ripeness for producing high quality oils, Sucesores de Hermanos López produce very limited amounts of their premium line of olive oils branded under the name Morellana. They acknowledge that they could obtain more oil from these olives, but doing so would sacrifice both the quality of the oils and the unique identity of the Morellana brand. Yet this obsession with quality, spearheaded by Alberto del Moral López, has led to much international recognition in an incredibly competitive sector.

"TRY IT... Be adventurous; try it on different dishes to see how they change. Just a small change of EVOO on your morning toast will open your mind to new possibilities."