Images by Jordi Elias, courtesy of Familia Torres.

Renowned Spanish winery Familia Torres has concluded the harvest of its Catalan vineyards with Pirene, an ancestral variety which grows in the Sant Miquel de Tremp vineyard at an elevation of 950 metres in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the province of Lleida.

Pirene is one of the pre-phylloxera varieties recovered by the family-owned winery. This late-ripening variety is both heat tolerant and drought resistant, making it a promising solution for a changing climate.

The variety has proven particularly well-suited to high-altitude viticulture, which is gaining ground as temperatures rise because of the quality of the fruit and freshness of the wines produced.

The harvest concluded a few days earlier than last year, even though it started more than a week earlier than usual, due to high summer temperatures and early budbreak.

This year’s harvest was technically complex and influenced by weather conditions during the grapevines’ growth cycle: the warm winter caused the vines to bud early and exposed them to frost in March, especially the vineyards in Alt Penedès.

Abundant rainfall in spring led to downy mildew, which caused a decrease in crop production that was further aggravated by the summer drought.

Most of the grapes from the Familia Torres vineyards in the Penedès, Priorat, Conca de Barberà, and Costers del Segre appellations of origin arrived at the winery before September 30.

This early date, brought on by the effects of global warming, sets a historical record for the winery.

During the first half of October, the winery finished harvesting its late-ripening varieties and vineyards in cooler areas.

This included the Mas de la Rosa vineyard in Priorat, the ancestral variety Forcada in Alt Penedès, and Pirene in Tremp, which brought the harvest to a close.

For eight weeks, the viticulture and winemaking teams at Familia Torres have worked diligently to select the very best fruit, both in the vineyard and at the winery.

Together with earlier efforts at minimizing the impact of downy mildew in the organic vineyards, this has resulted in a good-quality harvest despite the low yields, which in some areas are down 30% compared to last year.

In addition, the harvest took place during the pandemic, which meant implementing rigorous safety measures to protect people’s health and ensure an uninterrupted harvest.

“This has been an unusual year in so many ways,” stated Miguel Torres Maczassek, general manager of Familia Torres, “But we are satisfied with the harvest and the quality of the initial wines”.

“Once again, an ancestral variety – in this case, Pirene – brought the harvest to a close, which shows the potential of these varieties when it comes to facing a future shaped by climate change.”

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