🍷 Familia Torres

Familia Torres (Bodegas Torres) is a family wine company in Vilafranca del Penedès, Catalonia. According to the house, the first references to the family as winegrowers date back to 1559, but it was in 1870 that the brothers Jaime and Miguel Torres Vendrell founded the winery, with a focus on exports; Wikidata gives the same founding year. The house says five generations have devoted themselves to wine.

According to the house, its main wines include Mas La Plana and Reserva Real from DO Penedès, Grans Muralles and Milmanda from DO Conca de Barberà and Gonfaus from DO Costers del Segre. The family also runs Pago del Cielo in Ribera del Duero and Rueda, La Carbonera in Rioja and Torre Penelas in Rías Baixas, and makes brandies under Juan Torres Master Distillers.

According to the house, its wines come from a “mosaic of properties”, largely historical, and some of these lands were already cultivated hundreds or even thousands of years ago. The house says winegrowing roots in Penedès reach back to the sixteenth century and that two generations of the family currently run the winery.

The house lists its historic presence in Penedès, Conca de Barberà, Priorat and Costers del Segre, other Spanish estates in Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Rías Baixas, and an international presence in Chile and California with partner wineries including Miguel Torres Chile, Marimar Estate and Jean Leon. It describes La Carbonera as an estate in Labastida in Rioja Alavesa, Torre Penelas as a Galician pazo in Portas, in the Salnés valley, with a large walled vineyard and granite tanks, and Vardon Kennett as sparkling wines from high-altitude vineyards in the Penedès. The family says it has worked on climate action since 2008 and presents itself as a B Corp.

Penedès is a protected designation of origin (PDO) in Catalonia, west of Barcelona; Conca de Barberà and Costers del Segre, where the family also makes wine, are separate PDOs. The DO named on the label shows where the grapes come from.

Why it matters to you. The DO on a Torres label tells you which region the wine comes from, while names such as “Mas La Plana” are the house's own. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.