The Makers
There are still people who make things slowly, with their hands.
Themes we follow:
- traditional crafts and methods
- from natural winemaking to wild fermentation
- the apprenticeship that keeps each craft alive
Heroes in this pillar
Meet the Makers
The Makers
Eduardo Fernández
Beekeeper, Montgó
A beekeeper who can taste which wildflowers came back this spring, and which ones did not. Eduardo Fernández keeps his hives on the slopes of Montgó mountain, to protect its biodiversity.
The Soil
Miguel Ángel García González
Regenerative olive grower, Benifallim
On a dry mountain, he is rebuilding living soil: one stone terrace at a time. And he makes the best olive oil, too.
The Makers
Carolina Pateman Ivars
Keeper of a living Roman winery, Xaló
At Maserof, wine is still made by foot and candlelight. There has never been electricity here, yet the food prepared on fire is an amazing experience.
The Makers
Pepe Mendoza
Winemaker, Llíber
He left one of Alicante’s best-known wineries to grow wine his way on dry ancient terraces above Llíber.
Related stories
Reportage from the field.
12 April 2026The most botanically crowded mountain in Europe
Around 650 plant species grow on Montgó. Eduardo Fernández's bees visit almost all of them. Bees fly up to three kilometres from the hive, so his colonies cover almost the whole natural park. Whatever flowers, they visit.
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3 May 2026The season nobody films
August is the month when the least is happening in the fields here. The vines are waiting. The olives are small and green and months away. The citrus is invisible. The rice is standing in water doing nothing anyone can see. It is hot enough that sensible work stops at noon.
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30 July 2026A grape with a memory
Pepe Mendoza gets the same question at every tasting and answers it with enormous patience. No, Giró is not Garnacha. He will explain why for as long as anybody wants to listen, and he has been explaining it for years.
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25 September 2026Nine days instead of a month
First the water has to boil. A fire of thin vine prunings burns under an iron cauldron. Into the water go sosa, a caustic soda, with a branch of olive and a few herbs. Then a wide basket of Moscatel grapes goes in, for only a few seconds.
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25 September 2026The house with no electricity
High above Xaló, Carolina Pateman Ivars cooks for a full dining room over two fires and a wood oven. Her father bought the ruin in the early seventies and spent fifteen years rebuilding it by hand.
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25 September 2026Farming without water
Benifallim has been losing people since 1857. Miguel Ángel García González came back to it, and reads the health of his olive groves by counting wild orchids.
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