By Sifu Renka on Flickr

That’s the question Miguel Torres, president of Catalunya’s (and Spain’s) most successful winery, Torres, seems to answer in a compelling piece in the March 10th edition of The Australian News. Not only has Torres diversified its product offering by investing in lands beyond the Iberian peninsula (and as far as way as China), but the company is now using technology to help preserve (or in some cases revive) old Catalan grape varieties, as well as accelerate growth:

It is his love of the old world that has driven the creation of Torres’s private research facility, a venture that must have few parallels anywhere in the world. While the techniques and equipment are cutting-edge, the projects all have practical aims and outcomes. One of the key projects (initiated in 1984) has been the identification and evaluation of ancestral Catalan grape varieties, using DNA analysis to build a comprehensive and ever-expanding database. So far researchers have identified 30 autochthonous (native Spanish) varieties, four red grapes being of particular interest. The variety garro has been a success (samso is not far behind), with both planted in Torres’s Les Muralles vineyard at 450m.

Evaluation of these and dozens of other varieties has been accelerated by hydroponic culture, adapted from ornamental shrubs.

By grafting throughout the year and accelerating growth, it is possible to predict the likely growing rate in normal vineyards.

You can read the entire (fascinating, I think) article here.

Via: The Australian News

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