BOHÓRQUEZ, orígenes de una saga.
The Bohórquez surname originated in a manor house in the province of Santander.
It was only after the Reconquest that the surname reached the south of Spain, precisely Villamartín (Cádiz), during the repopulations promoted by the successors of the Catholic Monarchs during the 16th century.
Ubrique, a Spanish municipality located in the south of Andalusia, in the mountains of Cadiz.
In the 18th century a branch of the family moved to Ubrique from Villamartín where they settled. In the 19th century Fermín Bohórquez Zarco - Javier Bohórquez's great-great-grandfather - bought the Cardela Estate (located in the municipality of Ubrique), famous for housing the Castle of Cardela or Fátima, which was reconquered by the Duke of Arcos from the Muslims, opening the first breach in the border line that had been impassable for more than five hundred years. This line was defined by the towns and cities of Vejer, Jerez, Arcos, Cortes and Jimena.
Fermín had three sons - Bartolomé, Fermín and Rafael - who also inherited a dehesa in Algar known as Los Navazos. Bartolomé Bohórquez Rubiales - Javier's great-grandfather - was born in Ubrique in 1862. On the death of his father, he was left with the ownership of Cardela, which later passed to Javier's grandfather and finally to his father. As soon as he married, Bartolomé went to live in Jerez de la Frontera where his heirs still live in his house in the Plaza de las Angustias. From 1899 to 1914 he was a Member of Parliament in Madrid. He was also a prominent farmer and stockbreeder.
Cardela is today a dehesa - it belongs to the Alcornocales Natural Park - dedicated to cork production and family livestock farming.
He had two sons José - Javier's grandfather - and Fermín Bohórquez Gómez. They inherited their father's vocation for farming and stockbreeding, expanding the number of farms and pastures: La Zorrilla (Espera), Tapatana and Navafría (Tarifa), La Cañada (Sanlúcar), La Peñuela (Jerez) and Fuente Rey (Jerez). José Bohórquez Mora-Figueroa - Javier's father - is the fourth generation of farmers in the family. He had a brother, Javier, who died young, and two sisters, Ana María and Victoria, who married Antonio León and José Manuel Domecq respectively.
"I am the third of six siblings, an agricultural engineer by training and the initiator - together with my wife María Erquicia Domecq - of the Bodegas Bohórquez project in which my whole family has accompanied me".