Our History
Although the winemaking tradition dates back to 1670, it was in 1825 when Ramón Suárez and his wife María Aguilar inherited some hard-working vineyards in the town of Cútar, located in the Axarquía region of Málaga, and devoted themselves to growing grapes, making wine and tilling raisins.
In 1870, Ramón Suárez made a will in favour of his brothers, leaving to his nephew, Francisco Suárez Pineda, his foreman at that time, the vineyards, the raisins and the wine press.
In 1878, when the "Filoxera" vine disease spread throughout La Axarquía, he moved with his family to the Valle de las Viñas in Miraflores del Palo, in Málaga city. This is where he also moved the wine and food business, being located in the Calle del Mar, in the property known as "La Huertecilla", founding in 1880 the famous Bodegas Quitapenas.
Generation after generation continued to preserve the good work of wine, acquiring, over time, fame among the many muleteers who stopped at this house located on the road from Velez - Malaga, a place that soon became known as the wineries "that take away our sorrows.
His son, José Suárez Villalba, years later, after having inherited the family business, moved the restaurant and wine cellar to 42 Málaga Street, currently known as Juan Sebastián Elcano Avenue, where he installed the grape press and the barrel room.
The first wines produced in that place were the "Moscatel Extra, or Quitapenas", the "Montes" and the "Málaga Lágrima" accompanying the delicious rabbit with rice, giving fame throughout the province to this centenary house in its early years.
In 1940 his sons Francisco, José and Maximino Suárez Tijeras took over the reins of the company, starting the wine bottling and the liquor and liquor factory; opening numerous taverns all over Malaga, driven by the tourist boom of the following years.
All this development forced the expansion of the production, storage and aging capacity of wines. And it was also at this time that Bodegas Quitapenas became a member of the Regulating Council of the Malaga Denomination of Origin.
Today, Bodegas Quitapenas have adapted to the new technologies and needs of current markets, facts that have triggered the expansion to new foreign markets and the transfer, at the end of 2004, to the new facilities located on the Guadalmar highway, 12 , within the capital of Malaga, and being the only winery currently within the municipality of Malaga; nostalgically leaving that place with character and history, but not without neglecting those exquisite Malaga wines.