Age: 40 years
Catalonia, Spain
Born in 1974. Son of Miguel Agustín Torres and Waltraud Maczassek .He learned about wine and vineyards straight from his father. He studied Economy, Business Managing and Enology studies. He also studied International Marketing. In 2004 he accepted the position as marketing director in Miguel Torres S.A, helping the development of the company on many Protected Designation of Origin products. He is currently the Torres Group Managing Director.
Bodegas Torres is a centennial corporation, leader in making high quality wines, while encouraging wine culture expansion.
The corporation has transferred the love for its lands and the secrets to produce great wines among generations. The main Headquarters, located in Vilafranca del Penedès (Catalonia), is the result of a dream that has been growing every day. A project developed in Spain, Chile and California.
The Torres group currently owns more than 1.300 Ha of vineyards and reaches 140 countries.
The Torres family has been into harvesting and wine culture for generations, having among its priorities the respect for nature. The main Headquarters, located in Vilafranca del Penedès (Cataluña), was the seed for a dream to come bigger every day. A project developed in Spain, Chile and California.
The Torres group currently owns more than 1.300 Ha of vineyards and is present in 140 countries.
They practice an integrated form of viticulture, purifying all residual waters they produced and actively participating in conserving and replanting forests.
How would you describe the elaboration process behind a bottle of wine?
Wine comes from the vineyard. The quality of the raw material is essential, and that depends mainly of the variety, the soil and the microclimate. But you also need, like in large restaurants, a great human team in the cellar and high quality facilities to make great wines.
What tools/utensils are the most important in the process?
They are all important. Take, for example, on the history of our iconic wine “Mas La Plana”, with its 40 years being produced. In the sixties, “Mas La Plana” was vinificated according to its time methods: High performance, two weeks maceration, and about 18-24 months of aging in American oak barrels. In the eighties we reduced the performance of the strains, we established a longer maceration and changed to French oak. In the nineties we reduced production further with a strict selection process and we started to use monitoring technology to control the growing of the plant and the soil status of each parcel. Since the year 2000, we have improved the control over the toasting of the barrel, malolactic fermentation and wine filtration. We also started using cover crops, controlling maturity and selection tables, thus reducing the efforts needed.
These selection tables is where our team selects the best grapes, we’ve added this year a fascinating machine that selects each grape by taking pictures; if it doesn’t have the correct size, shape or color chosen as criterion, removes them. That’s why we try to mix tradition with innovation to accomplish Excellency on each step of the process and getting as consequence wines able to compete with the best in the world.
How important is the land/soil in the production of a good wine?
The biggest challenge is to find the best soil for the best grapes, while respecting the local aspects, this “typicality” of wine; and that’s what we always try to do with each one of the wines we elaborate in our cellars in Spain, Chile and California, according to our commitment to quality. We cover the main wine producing regions in Spain; we have vineyards in the Protected Designation of Origin of Penedès, Conca de Barberà, Priorat, Jumilla, Costerts del Segre, and cellars in Penedès, Priorat, Ribera del Duero and La Rioja. And inside these vineyards we have estates with ideal condition and microclimates to create superb wines, called “Estate Wines”, like Mas La Plana, Manso de Velasco (in Chile) and the wines in our Californian lands, Don Miguel and Doña Margarita.
Generational importance: On a personal level, why did you decide to devote yourself to viticulture?
When you grow up in a wine region, and within a family of winemakers, you realize wine is a part of your life; it’s in your blood. It’s a fascinating world related to nature, which I have always felt passion for. I have also worked for other sectors such as perfumes, but wine is my thing.
Personal opinion about Mediterranean traditions and customs.
I am in love with the Mediterranean culture and traditions, and we have to do whatever is possible to keep them and share them with the rest of the world. In Torres there are traditions that have passed through generations, like the “chickpea breakfast”, a meal we make once a moth with collaborators from different departments to tell them how are we doing and to listen their worries and suggestions.
Which Mediterranean tradition would you associate with wine? (Wine as a food item and part of the Mediterranean Diet)
Gastronomy, without doubts. Wine is the great partner for almost any meal; the great variety of wines and scents make the number of possible unions between food and wine unlimited, as we could prove in the two editions he have already held of the Wine & Culinary International Forum, a biannual congress sponsored by Torres Cellars, and this year also by Dieta Mediterránea, on which great representatives of global gastronomy and food industry analyze the interactions between this two worlds. Furthermore, daily consumption of wine, with moderation, has proved to be beneficial for health, as Dr. Estruch proved at the last edition of this forum. However, the number of people having wine on each meal, like our grandparents did, is decreasing, nevertheless, its consumption is getting more sophisticated. It’s necessary to create more wine culture: today’s consumer wants to experiment, participate and be passionate about it.
