Sambrini, the Olive Mill Master.

"When I look at these trees...I think of an old man, here for, who knows, maybe 5.000 years. They have seen so many things, so many generations. You cut them, you try to kill them and they don't die. They always tell you a story. The old men always sit under an olive tree. It has just the right amount of light and air. If you fall asleep under a fig tree, you'll end up with a headache. Under an olive tree, you dream...The trunk is cracked, rough, grayish. And the olives are fresh jewels hanging from the branches, as crown-like gift that I always like to touch, feel."-  Juan Carlos Rubio

Although it is true that olive groves would not amount to anything without the aid of men, it is no less certain that the men of Castile-La Mancha would not amount to much without their olive groves. For thousand of years, man has been both a producer and a consumer of olive oil, and has worked the miracle of converting the amazing wild olive tree into a productive olive cultivar. Throughout the centuries, man's attitude -which has been almost mystic- in respect of this almost eternal tree and its fruit, has been a decisive factor, and will be even more so in the immediate future.

On the ten large olive tree producing areas of Spain, olive groves of Castile-La Mancha, in the large Central terrain, are the ones having the coldest and more continental climate; these groves lie, and at times are also born, adjacent to the vineyards, generally in flat areas of land of the Spanish southern plateau, at a height of about 500 meters. However, according to climatic classification, Castile-La Mancha is a Mediterranean area; if this were not so olive trees would be non-existent. Olive trees and olive oil have a deep economic and social significance in Castile-La Mancha: three hundred thousand hectares cultivated by more than sixty thousand families. A cultivation which has a typically domestic character.

I believe the time for a recognition of our elders has dully arrived, those men who were able to develop what we today too quickly denominate "tradition", a word that should make us think much more about quality products as a result of individual efforts and knowledgeable expertise gained through decades..  This is the reason that lies behind the "SAMBRINI, Only the finest" brand concept of olive oils, our homage to the crushing mill master Anastasio Sambrini, who worked for the Rubio Aragonés family in Toledo (Spain) in between 1940 and 1969, a crucial period in the development of our olive oil industries.