Família Torres ends the harvest with the ancestral Pyrenean variety from the Tremp estate, in the Pre-Pyrenees

Família Torres has ended this Thursday, October 15, the harvest on their farms in Catalonia, with the ancestral Pyrenean variety in Sant Miquel de Tremp, located in the Pre-Pyrenees of Lleida at an altitude of 950 meters. This is one of the pre-phylloxera varieties that has recovered the family winery and is betting as a solution to climate change as it is late ripening and resistant to high temperatures and drought. The Pyrenees have adapted especially well to mountain viticulture, which is gaining prominence as temperatures rise due to the quality of the grapes and the freshness of the wines. The harvest ended a few days earlier than last year, although it had begun more than a week in advance, on August 19, as a result of the high summer temperatures and the advance of sprouting. This year’s has been a technically complex harvest, conditioned by the weather during the vegetative period of the plant: the warm winter caused an advanced sprouting that exposed the vine to the frosts of March, especially affecting the vineyards. of the Alt Penedès, while the heavy rains in the spring led to the development of mildew, which decreased production, which was aggravated by the drought of the summer months. Most of the grapes from the estates that Família Torres has in the denominations of the Penedès, Priorat, Conca de Barberà and Costers del Segre, have entered the winery before September 30, an advanced date that marks a historical record for the winery and that it would be a consequence of the effects of global warming. During the first fortnight of October, the coldest vineyards and later varieties have been harvested, such as the Mas de la Rosa estate in the Priorat, the ancestral forked variety in the Alt Penedès or the Pyrenees in Tremp, which has closed the campaign. For eight weeks, the Torres family’s viticulture and oenology teams have worked intensively on the selection of grapes, both in the field and in the winery, to ensure the best conditions for the fruit. Thanks to this, and to the previous work carried out to minimize the impact of mildew on organic vineyards, the harvest has been of good quality despite the low productivity, which in some areas has been 30% less in relation to the ‘last year. All this in a context marked by the pandemic, which has forced us to work with great planning of security measures to ensure the health of people and the continuity of the harvest. According to Miguel Torres Maczassek, General Manager of the Torres Family: “This has been an atypical year in many ways, but we are satisfied with the harvest and the quality of the first wines. Once again, an ancestral variety, in this case the Pyrenees, closes the campaign, which demonstrates the potential of these varieties to face the future, conditioned by climate change. ” About the Torres Family www.torres.es Rooted in the Penedès viticultural tradition since the 16th century, the Torres Family founded their winery in Vilafranca del Penedès in 1870, 150 years ago. Each generation has passed on from parents to children the passion for wine culture from the respect for the land and tradition and the commitment to innovation. Today, the fifth generation focuses on making wines from unique vineyards and historic estates and recovering ancestral varieties to adapt to climate change. The fight against the climate emergency has been one of its areas of action since 2008 through adaptation and mitigation actions to reduce CO2 emissions. Historically present in the Penedès, Conca de Barberà, Priorat and Costers del Segre, the Torres Family also has vineyards and wineries in the main Spanish wine areas -Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Rías Baixas-, as well as in Chile and California. She is a member of the Primum Familiae Vini, an association that integrates twelve of the most prestigious centenarian winemakers in Europe, and founder of International Wineries for Climate Action, which promotes the decarbonization of the sector.