In 1890, my great-grandfather built a new winery due to the boom in Jumilla wine exports to France, caused by the phylloxera plague that devastated his vineyards. Thus, 1890 is the year my family credits as the founding of García-Carrión.

I learned about my family's long history through two great farmers: my grandfather and my father. From a very young age, I remember accompanying my grandfather to his vineyards. He would tell me how, through his hard work, he had managed to plant and cultivate each plot.

Later, my father and his brothers followed the same path despite going through difficult times, such as those following the Civil War, when it was very difficult to carry out any activity. Despite these problems, however, they continued to preserve and expand their vineyards.

From my family, I learned the entire process of grape and winemaking, and they, in turn, passed on to me their passion for cultivating the land and its vineyards.

Five years later, my wife joined the business, taking over the company's Marketing and Advertising department. Since then, her support and vision at key moments in the business have been a great help to me. In our case, if we've achieved anything, it hasn't been through luck, but through hard work over many years and, above all, through a deep faith and enthusiasm for our project, to the point of fighting for it against most opinions. In short, through having dared to do things that others consider crazy.

I learned about my family's long history through two great farmers: my grandfather and my father. From a very young age, I remember accompanying my grandfather to his vineyards. He would tell me how, through his hard work, he had managed to plant and cultivate each plot.

Later, my father and his brothers followed the same path despite going through difficult times, such as those following the Civil War, when it was very difficult to carry out any activity. Despite these problems, however, they continued to preserve and expand their vineyards.

From my family, I learned the entire process of grape and winemaking, and they, in turn, passed on to me their passion for cultivating the land and its vineyards.

Subsequently, we ran extensive TV advertising campaigns. Our idea was to convey to consumers that Don Simón was the best wine to enjoy every day, and a phrase became part of our lives and our homes: "I'm going to eat with Don Simón." This was repeated by various figures in a landmark advertising campaign that presented a wine that was truly revolutionary in itself. It boasted the most important thing: excellent quality. Don Simón wine became the leader in the Spanish market within two years of its launch (a position it maintains today), with the recyclable bottle practically disappearing.

By 1986, the company was selling more than 70 million liters of wine. García-Carrión had transformed from a regional to a national company. Changes had been made to the company's structure; we primarily scaled the sales network, but we were concerned about remaining solely in the wine sector in the future.

We analyzed the foreign market, seeing that juice consumption in Spain was very low, 4 liters per capita, and we sensed that this consumption had to increase in the coming years; today it stands at 30 liters per capita.
Juice was chosen to enter the non-alcoholic beverage sector. The first strategic approach we faced was what to call the juice. We knew that calling it Don Simón had its advantages and disadvantages. Once again, we ignored the opposing opinions that advised us to name the juice something else. Indeed, at that time, the Don Simón brand was closely linked to wine, but we were convinced that by doing things right and providing quality, we could not only call the juice Don Simón, but also a range of other beverages. Our business strategy was to create an umbrella brand with Don Simón and invest in it.

In 1987, in addition to 100% juices, we launched nectars, must, and sangria, all under the Don Simón brand. Diversification has been one of the pillars on which our company's growth has been based.

After analyzing several alternatives, such as glass or PET, I opted for carton technology. My father, a very conservative person, had reservations about launching DON SIMON wine, although the real resistance came from outside the company. Those were very difficult times, because we found ourselves alone, facing pressures of all kinds. For many, packaging wine in cartons represented a challenge to tradition. Despite all the difficulties, we believed in the project and were convinced that, by offering a higher quality than what was available at the time in young wines, consumers would accept it.

In the early 1990s, we sensed and analyzed future market trends. Our Marketing department, along with our R&D department, became dynamic in launching new products. Our commitment to healthy and natural products led us to undertake a major investment in a state-of-the-art raw material plant for producing freshly squeezed juice and gazpacho.

Don Simón is a leader in this segment.

By diversifying, García-Carrión has to compete on several fronts, some of them with multinationals. Our defense against competition has been and continues to be our strong faith in the quality of our products, which has led us to take a number of risks throughout our history.

In the 1990s, García-Carrión decided to build a fresh juice plant. Until then, the main sellers were nectars and juices from concentrate.

The beginning was very difficult, as large supermarkets didn't have cold-storage shelves, but little by little (as the quality difference was significant), sales began to grow due to the significant difference between freshly squeezed juice and concentrated juice. In 1998, Danone and Coca-Cola (owner of Minute Maid) decided to launch a joint venture, using Spain as a pilot project and, if successful, expanding it to the rest of Europe.

Their strategy was to import concentrated juice from Brazil and Florida, add water to it in Spain, and sell it on the refrigerated shelves, where Danone had a significant presence. García-Carrión also had concentrated juices on the ambient shelves, but at a more affordable price.

Danone and Coca-Cola began running strong advertising campaigns for Minute Maid, implying that their juice was freshly squeezed, thereby stealing market share from Don Simón 100% freshly squeezed and refrigerated juice.

Fala Corujo, advertising director, after several consultations with leading law firms, decided in 1998 to launch the first comparative advertising campaign in Spain, achieving significant impact in newspapers, consumer associations, and the general public.

The impact was so great that Danone saw its brand in jeopardy and decided to end the joint venture with Coca-Cola, so Minute Maid was taken off the shelves and never returned. This allowed García-Carrión to realize what his Huelva plant is today, a comprehensive production facility surrounded by millions of orange trees.

Before the announcement, our market share in grocery stores' refrigerators was 10%. Minute Maid had reached 70%. A year later, we had achieved leadership in the refrigerated shelves.

Today, with our freshly squeezed juice, we maintain our national leadership and export to many European and non-European countries.

The beginning was very difficult, as large supermarkets didn't have cold-storage shelves, but little by little (as the quality difference was significant), sales began to grow due to the significant difference between freshly squeezed juice and concentrated juice. In 1998, Danone and Coca-Cola (owner of Minute Maid) decided to launch a joint venture, using Spain as a pilot project and, if successful, expanding it to the rest of Europe.

Their strategy was to import concentrated juice from Brazil and Florida, add water to it in Spain, and sell it on the refrigerated shelves, where Danone had a significant presence. García-Carrión also had concentrated juices on the ambient shelves, but at a more affordable price.

Danone and Coca-Cola began running strong advertising campaigns for Minute Maid, implying that their juice was freshly squeezed, thereby stealing market share from Don Simón 100% freshly squeezed and refrigerated juice.

The acquisition of Jaume Serra also included the acquisition of the Commercial Delegation in Sacramento, California, USA, which had been marketing Jaume Serra cava under the Cristalino brand in that country since 1989. Starting in 2000, García-Carrión relaunched this brand in the Americas, ensuring that Jaume Serra Cristalino achieved significant sales in the US.

In 2006, the French company Louis Roederer, owner of Cristal Champagne, decided to file a lawsuit against García-Carrión in the Minnesota District Court for unfair competition, even though its Champagne was sold for $300 compared to $20 for Cristalino. Its argument was that Cristalino was a diminutive of Cristal, an argument that was untrue, and which García-Carrión would later prove to be the case.

The reality is that Roederer intended to use the Cristalino brand for a sparkling wine he was producing at his California wineries, taking advantage of the popularity of our cava in that market. After more than five years of legal battle, in August 2010, the District Court of Minnesota ruled in favor of García-Carrión, requiring him to include a disclaimer: "JAUME SERRA CRISTALINO is not affiliated with, sponsored, approved, endorsed, or in any way connected with Louis Roederer's CRISTAL champagne or with Louis Roederer."

This ruling did not sit well with Louis Roederer at all, and even less so with the disclaimer that García-Carrión placed on the front of the label and not on the back, as Louis Roederer apparently expected, but he could do nothing in the face of a final ruling.

The plant has a triple environmental objective:

Zero waste: When we squeeze an orange, half is juice and the other half is peel. At DON SIMÓN, we squeeze 300,000 tons of oranges a year, transforming the peel into animal feed (improving their nutrition) and essential oils, which we use to create a magnificent fragrance with orange and orange blossom essence.

Zero net water consumption: 100% of the water consumed on our land is purified and used to irrigate the orange grove, generating no environmental discharge.

Zero polluting emissions: In these processes, we use biomass to generate methane gas (green fuel), which reduces the plant's natural gas (fossil fuel) consumption by 40%. While nature takes its course, we reuse the energy that others consider waste.

In addition, within our estate we have a 250-hectare nature reserve to protect the natural habitat of the great bustard, a steppe bird listed as endangered.

This is our Huelva plant. Quality and technological development define not only this plant, but the entire Don Simón brand: an international benchmark for how a family business has managed to sell millions of liters of Spanish juice around the world.

Today, this cave is known as the Cave of Art, a name that dates back to 1977. Crowds of experts and curious visitors came to visit. There, they discovered how, in the silence and darkness of the cave, wines unique to the area were forged, and upon leaving, they exclaimed, "There's so much art here!"

In 1997, the decision was made to take it to its fullest potential, naming Sara Montiel as the godmother of this cave. Illustrious figures of the time, such as the poets Juan Alcaide Sanchez and Emilio Ruiz Parra, as well as the painter Gregorio Prieto Muñoz, have streets named after them here.

In its time, it was visited by numerous celebrities such as the bullfighter Antonio Ordoñez, the Count of the Andes, and the American writer Ernest Hemingway, a declared lover of the wines from this Qualified Designation of Origin.

Founded in 1896, the winery boasts spectacular dimensions: 40,000 square meters built on a plot of approximately 80,000 square meters.