The Torres family’s most spectacular vineyard is called Tremp and is located at an altitude of 950 meters up in the mountains, north-west of Barcelona. In the 1950s and 1960s, people made a living here from their vineyards, but they were hard to work and eventually they were abandoned. Torres planted new vines here a few years ago, around 100 hectares. The grapes are pinot noir, riesling, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, garnacha, tempranillo and a few more. Also, a number of forgotten grape varieties were planted as an experiment to see how they would do. Up here it is 7 C cooler, and the harvest is usually 2-3 weeks later. This year, the harvest in Tremp ended on October15. The last grapes harvested were an old variety called pirene.
Pirene is a grape that almost disappeared with the phylloxera. But it has been replanted by the Torres family. The grape ripens late and can withstand both heat and drought, which, says Torres, makes it a “promising grape variety in a changing climate”. Pirene has proven to be particularly well suited for high altitude viticulture.
