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Mas El Regalo
Terraced almond and old olive groves held by dry-stone walls on the hillside at Mas El Regalo near Ibi, Alicante, with umbrella pines on the ridge and the hazy valley and mountains beyond in late afternoon light.

The Land

Pine, almond, olive

Some 112,000 m² of hillside, terraced and wooded, above the town of Ibi.

Terrain

Three landscapes on one slope

The estate reads as three distinct characters. Higher up, pine woodland with aromatic undergrowth and shade. Below it, almond terraces held by dry-stone walls. On the gentler ground nearest the house, olive groves that have been in production for generations.

Altitude and aspect do the rest: the hillside holds cooler air at night and gathers sun through the day, which is what makes both the almonds and the olives possible.

Dense Aleppo pine woodland on the upper hillside at Mas El Regalo near Ibi, Alicante: tall trunks, dappled light on an earth path and aromatic Mediterranean undergrowth.

Pine woodland

Shade, resin and birdsong. The woodland is the estate’s climate control and its quietest place.

Old almond terraces at Mas El Regalo near Ibi held by pale dry-stone walls, bare almond trees in the quiet season, pines on the ridge and the hazy valley below.

Almond terraces

Earthquake-built stone walls holding shallow soil, flowering briefly in late winter and quiet for the rest of the year.

An old olive grove at Mas El Regalo near Ibi: ancient twisted olive trees with silver-green leaves on reddish earth, wild fennel between them and a dry-stone wall beside the pale stone house.

Olive groves

Older trees on gentler ground, neglected but alive: the basis of the Verdi harvest to come.

Bringing the land back

First pruning, then patience

Reviving neglected groves is slow work: clear, prune hard, restore the terrace walls, repair the water channels, and then wait. Olive trees answer good treatment within a few seasons, not weeks.

The woodland is largely left alone, managed only for fire risk and access.

Through the year

The estate has four very different moods

Late winter

Almond blossom, white against grey stone, and the first bees.

Spring

Green hillside, wild herbs, and the year’s heaviest work in the groves.

Summer

Heat, glare and deep shade. Everything happens early or late.

Autumn

The olive harvest, long light, and the first proper rain on dry ground.

Almond trees in full white blossom on the stone terraces of Mas El Regalo near Ibi, Alicante, in late winter, with dry-stone walls and a hazy mountain ridge behind.The hillside at Mas El Regalo near Ibi in early spring: fresh green grass and wild herbs between old olive trees and stone terrace walls, pines behind and the valley below.High summer at Mas El Regalo near Ibi: deep cool shade under Aleppo pines beside a pale dry-stone wall, bleached golden grass and heat haze over the valley beyond.The autumn olive harvest at Mas El Regalo near Ibi: olive nets spread on reddish earth beneath old silver-green trees, wicker baskets of olives and long golden afternoon light.
Late winter

Next

What the land is going to become

A small retreat with the landscape at the centre of the experience, not as scenery but as the method.

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