The first references to our family as winegrowers date back to 1559, but it wasn’t until 1870 that the brothers Jaime and Miguel Torres Vendrell founded the winery in Vilafranca del Penedès, with its focus on exportation.
Since then, each generation has successfully faced the challenges of the various historical and social contexts of their time. In the process, they contributed to developing a family wine business that unites innovation, a respect for tradition, and a steadfast desire to endure over time.
First generation: The beginning of a great adventure
After emigrating to Cuba in 1860, Jaime Torres Vendrell (1843–1904) made his fortune on the island thanks to maritime trade and other business initiatives, before returning to Catalonia to partner with Miguel (1832–1910), his winegrower brother. Together, they set up a winery in Vilafranca from where they could export wines, first to Cuba and then to the entire American continent. “Casa Torres y Compañía, cosechero y exportadora de vino” was born in 1879, and after a few years, they began to expand.
Second generation: The art of distillation
In 1928, Juan Torres Casals (1865–1932), Miguel’s son, began producing smooth, aromatic brandies aged in oak using a selection of the best white wines from Penedès, laying the foundations for a long tradition dedicated to the art of distillation.
Third generation: A wartime entrepreneur
Juan’s son and successor, Miguel Torres Carbó (1909–1991), had to face the most dramatic period in the history of this winemaking dynasty when, in 1939, just a few months before the end of the Spanish Civil War, the family winery was destroyed during the bombings that targeted the nearby Vilafranca del Penedès railway station. Torres Carbó not only managed to rebuild the facilities within a short time, but he also made the wise decision to start bottling wines, which in turn made it possible to consolidate the Torres brand and expand worldwide.
Fourth generation: Spirit of Innovation
His son, Miguel Agustín Torres Riera (1941), joined the family business in 1962 after studying viticulture and enology in France, with an innovative and daring approach that has made Familia Torres wines a model of quality, respect for the land and the vanguard of winemaking.
In the mid-1970s, Miguel A. Torres introduced French varieties that resulted in wines such as Mas La Plana (DO Penedès), the Cabernet Sauvignon whose first vintage triumphed at the Paris Wine Olympics in 1979, and Milmanda (DO Conca de Barberà), considered one of the best Spanish Chardonnays. He also contributed to reclaiming the Catalan winemaking heritage with the recovery of ancestral varieties beginning in the 1980s, a project whose prime example would become another of our most iconic wines: Grans Muralles (DO Conca de Barberà).
Under his management, we began to expand internationally with winemaking projects in Chile (1979) and California (1982), where the venture is led by his sister Marimar Torres, and we also extended our vineyards. In everything we do, our actions are grounded in the conviction that the more we care for the land, the better our wine. Aware of the effects that global warming was beginning to have on the vines, we intensified our commitment to the environment by launching the Torres & Earth programme in 2008 to reduce our carbon footprint and adapt to the new climate reality.
Fifth generation: Beyond sustainability
In the late 1990s, Miguel A. Torres’s children, Miguel and Mireia, representing the fifth generation of the family, headed up new winemaking projects in the Catalan regions of Priorat and Costers del Segre, as well in four other Spanish wine regions – Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Rueda, and Rías Baixas – in the 2000s.
The fifth generation took over management of Familia Torres in 2012: Miguel Torres Maczassek (1974) as general manager and Mireia Torres Maczassek (1969) as director of knowledge and innovation. Continuers of the family legacy, they focus on making unique wines from historical vineyards and estates and are firm proponents of the project to recover ancestral varieties and transform them into wines that can be brought to market. Some recent noteworthy projects include Mas de la Rosa (DOQ Priorat), Purgatori (DO Costers del Segre), and Forcada (DO Penedès), our first varietal wine made from an ancestral variety rescued from oblivion.
We promote innovation and research to address the constant challenge that the climate emergency poses for winegrowing. Our pioneering work in this area includes adopting regenerative viticulture to take the fight against climate change one step further. This winegrowing model makes it possible to maximize the potential of vineyards as carbon sinks by capturing more atmospheric CO2, restoring the natural fertility of the soil, reducing erosion, and promoting biodiversity. The goal of becoming a zero-emission winery by 2040 is as ambitious as it is necessary for Familia Torres to thrive in the long term, as well as for the preservation of vinicultural landscapes.
