Latest dispatches

E101 - Familia Torres · Penèdes, Catalonia, Spain

Why does a 155-year-old empire keep reinventing itself — when coasting was always an option? Mireia Torres Maczassek, Director of Knowledge and Innovation at Familia Torres, joins Pierre Ferland for a conversation recorded live in Montreal at a Primum Familiae Vini gathering — and it is exactly as good as that setting sounds. Fifth generation of one of the most recognised wine dynasties on the planet, chemical engineer turned oenologist, director of both Torres Priorat and Bodegas Jean Leon, and the scientist quietly running one of the most ambitious research programmes in the history of wine. We go deep into the 40-year project to recover pre-phylloxera Catalan grape varieties — found in forests, climbing trees, surviving near creek beds — and what it means to give a lost vine a name. We talk about the Torres & Earth climate programme, regenerative viticulture at scale across more than 1,100 organic hectares, and the very honest question of whether doing enough and feeling like you ar