Familia Torres: From Sustainability to Regenerative Agriculture

Familia Torres, a Spaniard winery, had been working actively since 2008 to mitigate and adapt to climate change through its Torres & Earth program. At the beginning of 2022, when the pandemic was finally nearing its end, the challenge for Familia Torres was how to define a sustainability strategy for the future. This had led Familia Torres to search for new terroirs at higher altitudes to find the right balance of heat during the day and cold at night, in order to achieve a quality wine. Another strategy had been to recover local ancestral varieties, resilient to these new climate scenarios. The threat of water scarcity also loomed over the vineyards, as well as other ecological risks which reduced its productivity. A "beyond sustainability" strategy was presented as a hopeful one, which focused on reversing climate change from the local sphere of action and was consistent with the family motto "the more we take care of the land, the better wine we produce". However, this promising strategy involved many uncertainties. From a commercial perspective, it was not clear how it would affect production, how it would be articulated with the commercial strategy, or whether consumers would know how to appreciate this product. From an ecological perspective, it was unclear how much carbon it would absorb, and for how long. In the light of this situation, the Familia Torres management team sometimes ask themselves whether they should maintain the strategy of going "beyond sustainability" or consider strategies more con-sistent with the mainstream approach to climate resistance viticulture, such as, for example, the genetic improvement of the grapes, or intensify the strategy of transfer to colder areas.

• Competitive strategy
• Risk management
• Social entrepreneurship
• Environmental sustainability