Inside the Familia Torres Wine Course: “you make friends for life”

Earlier this year saw the 34th edition of the Familia Torres Wine Course — a tradition whereby the winemaking family hosts sommeliers from around the world, to learn about the Familia Torres wines and celebrate Catalonia as a region.

Partner story with Familia Torres.

“The idea at the beginning, 34 years ago, was to give support to the sommelier community,” says Torres Brand Ambassador Brenda Nadia Sànchez. “It’s part of the belief of the family, to give support to the sommelier industry.

“For us it’s important because we work with them in the trade, but it’s also about giving them the opportunity to learn more about the Penedès wine region, about sustainability, about ancestral varieties, and all the different innovative projects that we are working in the winery.”

The Familia Torres Wine Course was started by Miguel A. Torres in 1991, the same year that he became President of the company. Mr Torres is the fourth generation to take charge of his family business.

“At the beginning, it was only about two days,” explains Sànchez of the course. “They would come to the winery, they’d do a harvest, and then they’d do tasting, visit the winery. But through the years they continue and continue, and we found that, every year, the sommeliers come and then they become ambassadors for us because really, the deepness of the connection that we can build is amazing. You make friends for life.”

While the first courses tended to welcome between six and eight sommeliers, that number has more recently risen to 10-12, with 2024 seeing a record 16 international sommeliers descending on the family’s fourteenth century Mas Rabell estate in Penedès. And what started as a couple of days’ worth of activities now stretches across a full week.

The sommelier students receive detailed insights into the winemaking worlds not just of Familia Torres — they visit the family’s wineries in Penedès, Conca de Barberà, Costers del Segre and Priorat — but of Catalonia more broadly.

“We try to give them a full immersion into what is Catalonia,” says Sanchèz. “So with the lunches and dinners, there are wine pairings and we try to immerse them in Spanish gastronomy, Catalan gastronomy, the different styles of food, because it’s a part of everything.”

An immersive experience

The Torres students began this year’s week-long course in Mas Rabell’s Solera Brandy Ageing Room with a blending masterclass and cocktails, before touring the ancestral varieties garden to learn about Torres’ work in reviving indigenous grape varieties; dinner was hosted by Mr Torres himself in the estate’s restaurant.

Over the week, the sommeliers received private tours of all the Torres wineries and vineyards across Catalonia, tasting with the winemakers and family members, who make it a priority to spend extended quality time with their guests. Insights can thus range from big brand topics such as sustainability, to the viticultural nitty gritty of acidity and pH levels — each year, the students have unparalleled opportunities to ask questions.

Highlights of the 2024 course included a profile tasting led by Innovation Director Mireia Torres Maczassek, fifth generation of the family and responsible for the ancestral grape variety project. And the Promenade Oenologique, where winemakers stationed themselves at tables for guests to roam and taste, like a wine fair — a chance for more informal interactions.

The course culminated with a multiple choice written test and blind tasting, with prizes for the first, second and third places (the top spot was rewarded with an engraved Riedel decanter and a magnum bottle of the renowned Mas La Plana Cabernet Sauvignon).

Inspiring global sommeliers

Familia Torres draws on its network of international distributors to identify sommeliers in each country, who might like to learn and engage with the Torres wines in greater depth. Hopefuls must submit an application letter explaining what they hope to get out of the experience, and it is on this basis that selections are made.

“We always try to have a mix,” says Sanchèz. “We're looking for people who really, actually have the energy and patience, who want to learn, want to know more about Familia Torres, and that’s the idea of it.”

Attendees have hailed from countries including France, Germany, the UK, USA, Chile, Croatia, Poland and more. In future years, the company hopes to broaden the areas of Spain to which it introduces its students, potentially incorporating the likes of Galicia, Ribera del Duero and Rioja.

For now, the sommeliers seem to have plenty to keep them occupied in Catalonia alone.

What the students say

“It’s been very informative,” says Danish sommelier John David Paulsen, one of this year’s participants, “but we also get to meet other people from around the world, making a bond and studying as a group where we can all rely on each other and ask each other for information, and keep in touch going forward.”

“One of my motivations for taking the Familia Torres Wine Course was definitely to expand my knowledge because, for me, wines is a relatively new topic,” adds the USA’s Jennifer Nolasco, sommelier at two-Michelin-starred Enoteca Paco Pérez in Barcelona. “And it’s just one of those artisanal products that the more you know, the less you know. So I feel that when you have the opportunity to experience something like this, especially through the lens of Familia Torres, this is a great way to educate and also kind of be connected and meet a lot of new people, especially with sharing this same passion that you have.”

The event builds on Torres’ existing commitment to the sommelier community, which sees the brand routinely supporting international sommelier organisations, tastings and competitions, and welcoming professionals to the estate ad hoc. This more comprehensive wine course takes things further, with former participants even called upon to step in for Familia Torres staff on the odd occasion — there is clearly a mutual benefit to the insight provided, and a true desire to raise the profile of this winemaking region globally.

“Mr Torres was always a visionary by thinking, ‘what do we need to do in the future?’” says Sànchez. “He really believed that people need to know more about Catalonia. Catalonia, unfortunately, and Penedès in particular, is not extremely popular — you know, it’s not Priorat, it’s not Ribera del Duero, it’s not Rioja; yes, people know of it but they don’t know all the details of what we are doing here. And in that sense, Mr Torres really wants to put the name of Familia Torres and the name Penedès at the top of everything so that people know where Penedès is, what Penedès is, and the wines that we can make in Catalonia in general.”

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