Clos Ancestral 2019, the revival of the Penedès' red past

Our next nominee for Revelation Wine comes from one of Spain's great wine families. We are talking about the Torres Family, whose fate in the history of Spanish wine has always been marked by some significant event.

Clos Ancestral 2019 is a meaningful wine for many reasons. First of all, it is a wine with a fresh character, very fruity and not given to over-extraction, be it of tannins, wood or fruit, something that adapts perfectly to the new tastes in the wine world. So far nothing revealing, but if we look inside we see that it has been made with a blend of ull del llebre (tempranillo) 50%, garnacha (30%) and moneu (20%). It is precisely this last grape that attracted our interest the most, as it is one of the 60 "new" grapes studied and recovered in the ambitious plan for the recovery of ancestral varieties that the Torres winery started 30 years ago and that begins to materialise commercially with this Clos Ancestral 2019 wine.

The Torres family has been linked to wine for five generations and each new generation has contributed in one way or another to the industry. Miguel Torres i Carbó, the third generation, was able to position the house as one of Spain's benchmark wineries, something that only happened with sherry brands such as Tío Pepe, and not only that but also to promote the internationalisation of its wines, a career that has never ceased to develop and that served as an example for other great houses. The fourth generation, represented by Miguel Torres Riera, brought science and a much more technical profile to the business, generating an opening towards new horizons and projects that sought a greater impact both in the production branch and in the wine industry in general.

The fifth generation, represented by Miguel and Mireia Torres Maczassek, is the one that brings us here today. This new generation continues with the scientific legacy of their father, committed to local projects with a certain historical inclination, while successfully completing some of the initiatives already started by their predecessor. As can be seen, this is a family that is restless and little given to inaction.

In the last year, the Torres family has presented five varieties that formerly populated Catalonia, the most interesting of all those found, according to what they reveal. These are white and red grapes which, located and developed in their original place of origin, could open up new local scenarios. Grapes such as pirene, gonfaus, querol, forcada and moneu will return years later to have a place in the Catalan vineyards where they come from thanks to the complex work of recovering ancestral varieties, work that can take up to 15 years for every variety regenerated.

The arrival of the moneu in Penedès, or rather the return of this variety to the vineyards where it used to grow, may seem a trivial matter, but it is a very important one. Before phylloxera, the Penedès was a land of reds. Today, however, the picture of this wine-producing area is quite the opposite. It is a designation of origin focused on the production of white wines, mainly based on xarel.lo, where excellent results are being achieved. Although they also make reds, these are no longer one of the main pillars of Penedès wines. This pharaonic work developed by the Torres winery and represented in this Clos Ancestral 2019 opens the doors to the future development of local red wines in an area where the weight of this category revolved around very mature, full-bodied wines with high doses of oak and grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

As Miguel Torres Maczassek acknowledges, the second vintage of this wine will bring a significant increase in the moneau variety, up to 50%, which will give it a greater prominence.

The Penedès appellation has been particularly agile in incorporating two new grapes, moneau and forcada (white), to its specifications, which has allowed the winery to bottle its new wine with the DO seal. This fact, together with Torres' commitment to altruistically share the new plants already recovered in nurseries, opens a new horizon for a D.O. that has not stopped updating since its great conversion in favour of quality xarel.lo white wine.

Clos Ancestral 2019 is the materialisation of a pharaonic study, it is the first step that its creators have taken in the Penedès appellation, and they do so by opening the doors to a new batch of wines based on this particularly well adapted local grape, very resistant to the new climatic era and which is also capable of offering a style of fresh and more subtle wines, as demanded by the market today.