Torres may have to leave current vineyards due to climate crisis
The Spanish winemaker has vineyards in Spain, California and Chile
Familia Torres has been making wine in Catalonia since 1870, but says it may have to leave its current locations to move to higher altitudes in less than 30 years’ time because climate change could make traditional growing areas too dry and hot.
The Spanish winemaker has more than 1,000 hectares of vineyards in Catalonia, as well as sites in other parts of Spain, California and Chile.
The winemaker is already planting vines on land at higher altitudes as it tries to adapt to more extreme conditions.
President Miguel Torres told The Guardian, “Irrigation is the future. We do not rely on the weather. I don’t know how long we can stay here making good wines, maybe 20 or 30 years, I don’t know. Climate change is changing all the circumstances.”
“In 30 to 50 years’ time maybe we have to stop viniculture here. Tourists are very important for Catalonia and we are very close to Barcelona. This area could be for activity for tourists but viniculture, I don’t think is going to be here.”
The group, which invests 11% of its profits every year to combatting and adapting to the climate crisis, may have to move at least some of its vineyards “more to the west because it is cooler and we have to have water”.
Extreme heat and drought in recent years has affected wine production
It is now expanding to higher altitudes, producing grapes in the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees, at 950 metres, and acquiring plotsin the Aragonese Pyrenees, at 1,100 metres, where it is still too cold to grow vines. It is also using a variety of techniques to reduce or reuse water in its growing and processing practices.
Torres’s comments come after a difficult few years for European vineyards with production down as much as 50% in some of the winemaker’s regions in 2023 due to heat and drought.
Although this year so far has been better due to more rain and irrigation, the future is very uncertain.
“In the future if we want to have more continuity in the harvest we have to stop the warming,” he said. “The warming is killing the trade.”
