El COVID-19 continues its dramatic passage through Spain claiming the lives of all kinds of people without distinguishing between health or hospitalized, unknown or famous. The disease is like that, it attacks anyone and this past Friday, March 20, it has taken one of the greats of our country. We talk about Carlos Falco, known as the Marquis of Griñón, father of Tamara Falco, Daughter of Elizabeth Preysler. The Sevillian businessman who had triumphed in the national wine and agri-food world has left us at the age of 83 years. After being admitted, he has not been able to overcome the consequences of the coronavirus on your body. We tell you a little more about his life here
The life of Carlos Falcó, between marriages
Carlos Falcó and Fernández de Córdoba He was born in 1937 in Sevilla capital, specifically in the famous Palace of the Dueñas, which was owned by the Dukes of Montellano. Thus, son of one of the branches that the family Falco he had in our country, his surname allowed him very soon to meet with the highest national greatness. He even established an important friendship with the emeritus king. Juan Carlos I, since they both spent the summer in Estoril, where they met. After training in the French Lyceum of Madrid and in a renowned Navarrese college, he moved to Belgium to study Agricultural engineering at the Catholic University of Louvain. Later he was also studying Agrarian economy in California, moment of his life in which he began his first marriage. It lasted about seven years.
Later, in 1980 it was when he met Isabel preysler during a movie projection. She was still with Julio Iglesias but love was able to both of them to start their romance. From this little lasting bond would be born Tamara Falco, five years before the Sevillian businessman changed partners again. These changes in her love life happened up to three more times. His last wife was Esther Dona, although a Carlos Falco it was much better in the labor section.
Introducer of Syrah and Petit Verdot grapes in Spain
Lover of wine and the oil español the Marquis of Griñón was a pioneer in introducing grape varieties Syrah and Petit Verdot in our lands. After finishing his studies -including oenology- he ventured into the wine world from 1964, when he exploited his estates of Toledo and Extremadura. He had inherited them from his maternal grandfather. In the mid-XNUMXs, he introduced the aforementioned grapes for the first time in Spain. This was not his only great contribution to viticulture, as he was also a pioneer in new technologies such as drip irrigation. As well as the Smart-Dyson trellis or the irrigation system partial root drying. Later, he created a leisure company Safari Reserve El Rincón in Aldea del Fresno (Madrid) to exhibit wild animals.
In 1982 he released his first white wine that he elaborated in the Valladolid town of Wheel. Later, he tried his luck with the Cabernet Sauvignon type strain to obtain a red that he awarded to Carlos Falco great international renown. Since 1988 its winery installed in the Toledo municipality of malpica It was one of the most important in Spain, but his journey through the good wine sector would not end there.
Successful winery tour, this is how the Marquis of Griñón lived
Already in 1994 it inaugurated its Bodegas Marques de Griñón in La Rioja, a year after premiering its red Durius in Ribera del Duero and Toro. An irrefutable proof that its passage through different Spanish wine regions was quite remarkable. Result of his successful winery tour, he was recognized by the International Academy of Gastronomy with an award in 2014. In addition, he was a founding partner of the XNUMXst Century Club and he even published two books: 'Understanding the wine' (1999) and 'Oleum' (2013). The latter is a treatise on olive oil.
His last most recent position had been as vice president of the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy. Now, the Marquis of Griñón, has left us the victim of an unknown disease that remains unstoppable until a vaccine is developed and the famous curve begins to decline rather than rise day after day. Rest in peace, Carlos Falco, a great in the gastronomic sector. The world of wine and oil also mourns his death in the midst of a health crisis.
