The history of our winery and the inheriting women

Many already know that the history of our winery begins in the year 1841, when a commander of the Spanish Navy destined on the island of Luzon, in Philippines, returns after his retirement to his native Jumilla and decides, in honor to the place that gave him so much, to put to his lands the name of the island where he was destined, thus creating “La Finca de Luzón”, the germ of what is nowadays Bodegas Luzón.

The surprising part of this story, and that you will surely not know, is that “La Finca de Luzón” until 1980 was always inherited by women who decided, in the nineteenth century, to manage this wine project that was born then with dedication, determination, work, sacrifice and effort. The history of the women of the Molina family to whom we pay tribute throughout their history.

It was not very common in the nineteenth century that it were the daughters and not the firstborn who inherited a property. The reason for this curious fact for the time is found in the testament of Francisco José Marcelino de Molina y Ximénez, the commander returned from Philippines, who decides to inherit “La Finca y la Casa de Luzón” to his daughter, Mrs. Ana Josefa Molina, linking this inheritance to the firstborn of the family, having Mrs. Ana Josefa to give up in inheritance, her firstborn and so on, the lands being forever linked to the feminine branch of the family.

Mrs. Ana Josefa, like the rest of the women who went through the history of “La Finca de Luzón” and Bodegas Luzón, had a great culture for her epoch, being passionate about reading, getting to accumulate an important library and getting involved directly in the creation of Bodegas Luzón and starting commercial work together with her husband.

After the death of Mrs. Ana Josefa in 1881, it is her firstborn Carmen Gil Molina who is in charge of the management of “La Labor y Finca de Luzón”, giving a strong boost to the commercialization of Bodegas Luzón, beyond even from our borders, being transported in wine pipes to the port of Alicante and from there to countries such as England or France, arriving to export more than one million liters according to the report made by the Andalusian Railways company in 1892.

Mrs. Carmen Gil Molina was a person, as was her mother, a lawyer and passionate about poetry, keeping many of the poems she wrote to her husband. She was also prominent Jumillana, becoming involved in the social life of her hometown, being a waitress of the image of the Christ of Health of Jumilla, a position that also left her daughter Amparo Molina Guillén.

In Mrs. Amparo Molina Guillén we find the last link in the chain of women who were heirs of “La Finca de Luzón”. A literate woman, lover of science and who maintained a close friendship with the scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, among other great intellectual personalities of his time and who, like his mother, collaborated in the social life of his native Jumilla, to which He dedicated the foundation of the Santa Ana school, still existing in the town.

Mrs. Amparo lived for 100 years until her death in 1988 at her native Molina, selling only eight years before the land to a new owner and a new family.

An exciting story and three women to whom we pay tribute.

Photographies: Family book of Mr. Francisco Molina.

Front photography: Jumilla Antigua.