FAMILIA TORRES: CELEBRATING 150 YEARS

Founded in 1870, today Familia Torres is Spanish wine royalty with a global reach that includes wineries in Chile and the US. Sarah Jane Evans MW looks at what the company has achieved, including its current projects to restore ancient grape varieties and combat climate change

- Sarah Jane Evans MW

In May this year the wine world was expecting to break the industrious silence of Pacs del Penedès with a noisy party, celebrating 150 years since the founding of Familia Torres. Yet when I think of Torres, the idea of noise is unusual. I’ve been driven by Miguel Torres Maczasseck (46) in an eerily silent electric car. I’ve encountered Miguel A Torres (79), on a practically noiseless push-bike. (This was at a conference in Italy; while I was still on my first cup of breakfast coffee, with typical energy he’d been taking a cycling tour of the city.) Stand in a vineyard in Penedès and you may be able to hear the grass grow, now that the Family is trialling electric tractors.

It’s not just their commitment to environmentally friendly machinery that makes Familia Torres seem quiet. The very distinctive thing about this business, which in many ways is Spanish wine, is that it has risen to the top and stayed there, without shouting. There are measured press releases and interviews. Since lockdown there have been webinars and Miguel Jr has joined Instagram, revealing just a little of his personal life. The wines win all the right awards and trophies, but they lay off the trumpets.

At this point I should explain how I’ll distinguish between the two Miguels. It’s customary for English speakers at least to refer to Miguel Sr, the company’s president, respectfully as Mr Torres. For his son, Miguel Jr, the current CEO, I’ll use the Catalan version, Miquel, the name he answers to on Instagram.

Through generations