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Photo: Courtesy of Marimar Estate Vineyards & Winery
Torres is the daughter of a third-generation winemaker.
The first time Christina Torres ’10 realized that her upbringing might be considered different was when she was a freshman in high school. Or maybe she’s really different. When she told her friends that her mother’s winery had just released Christina Her Pinot Her Noir, they looked at each other. One person looked incredulous and blurted out, “Do you drink wine?”
“I was a very studious person, a box-checker, a little quiet,” says Torres, with a smile in her blue eyes as she reminisces. “They obviously thought it was a little weird to name a wine after you.”
Of course, if you grew up with your family’s last name attached to the millions of wine bottles sold around the world, your mother’s business bears her own name, and the vineyards in that business bear your grandparents’ names. This is natural when winemaking is a tradition. We’re a family-run business that’s been around since the 17th century, so a bottle with your name on it means something.
Christina and Marimar Torres
Photo: Courtesy of Marimar Estate Vineyards & Winery
Cristina Torres was born as a nobody.
Last year, Torres, 34, was promoted by her mother, Marimar Torres, from director of sales and marketing to general manager of Marimar Estate Vineyards & Winery. The winery is located on his 81 acres in Sonoma County, California, with a winery that resembles a Catalan farmhouse and a story built on small dramas and big dreams.
Marimar Torres was the third child and only daughter of Don Miguel and Dona Margarita Torres. Her father was his third generation of winemakers from Vila Franca in Spain’s Penedes region, and his two sons planned to follow in her father’s footsteps. It was a patriarchal project in a patriarchal family in a patriarchal nation. Marimar was raised to ride horses, learn many languages (six in her case) and marry into a traditional lifestyle in a country ruled by Francisco Franco. She persuaded her family to let her study business in Barcelona (she claimed there were more qualified men in Barcelona), but she was unable to satisfy her rich ambitions. She realized that she had to make her own way.
She moved to San Francisco, California in 1975 to become export manager and in 10 years grew Torres Wines’ U.S. sales tenfold to 150,000 cases per year. Continuing to defy tradition, she purchased land that had been an apple orchard in 1983, and in 1986 Green planted her first rootstock in the Valley’s sandy loam soil.
The work was grueling and Marimar Torres was relentless. She never expected her daughter to aspire to the nearly impossible task of running a financially successful winery. So she focused on making sure Cristina felt equally at home in Catalonia and Sausalito, and that she could ride horses, ski, and speak not only English, Spanish, Catalan, and French. I placed it. Marimar, her single working mother, also ensured that her daughter received the formal education she herself had been denied.
But Christina had plans of her own. Christina said that other than her childhood dream of becoming a grocery store clerk, she always intended to join the family business. All her life she has felt the charm of her own lineage, believing that wine runs in her own blood. “When I was young, I was obsessed with researching family trees and looking at wine producers through the centuries. I felt like I was part of something.”
She became strategic. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton and was on her way to getting her MBA from the Wharton School. After a short stint in the fashion industry, she headed to London, where she worked for John E. Fells (one of Britain’s leading fine wine distributors) for two years, before returning to California and joining the Jackson family. Associate Brand worked as her manager.
She then joined her family’s company.
“The wine industry combines many elements: agriculture, chemistry in the lab and cellar, finance, branding, sales, marketing and leadership,” says Cristina Torres. “I’m interested in how people make decisions and what makes them tick.”
Mother and daughter form an impressive duo. Marimar is an attractive hard charger, elegant, dynamic and passionately expressive. Christina is a quiet, thoughtful, kind and polite woman. She is an athletic woman with flowing auburn hair and an ability to soften marketing talk with a graceful smile.
Marimar had the spirit to plant vines and make wine and the charisma to build his own brand. Christina calls herself a “more structured” person, with the discipline to apply her business school lessons and add ideas like sustainability to the mix. Marimar shines in the kitchen and hosts large public events. Christina plans events, posts them on social media, and quietly circulates them among the crowd. Her mother says:“Tapas” and “paella“Direct-to-consumer sales,” the daughter added.
Marimar may not have given her daughter a gold-plated education, but Christina says she inherited the “learning gene” from her mother. Eventually, once Marimar immigrated to the United States, she received a culinary education, and she conducted research and wrote books throughout Spain. spanish table (1986) and The Catalonia Country Kitchen (1992).
A touch of refined Spanish cuisine permeates everything they do together. Marimar has long hosted lavish dinners at her home overlooking wineries and vineyards. During her coronavirus pandemic, Christina used her personal knowledge to imagine and publish recipes on her Facebook cooking show, videos on her website, and online.
Christina’s own passion has also led her to embrace new technologies and approaches. In addition to bringing all of her winery’s systems to the cloud, she specifically targeted younger consumers through events. “Before our first Summer Girlfriend Happy Hour, we were worried about whether people would show up,” she recalls. “And I saw, the weather was perfect, there was live music, the patio was packed, I saw wine club members and people my age talking and lingering. .”
Women’s heritage is part of the brand, and both Torres women are proud of it. Christina added, “I’m very close to my mother, so I wanted to represent what her mother and other women of her generation have created.”
Recipe: Higos Passos Rellenos con Salsa de Chocolate (Dried fig chocolate and nut chocolate sauce)
You can make 24 stuffed figs.
For figs:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange liqueur, such as Torres Magdalene Orange Liqueur or Grand Marnier
24 dried Calimyrna figs, or another moist type
3-1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup shelled pistachio nuts
For chocolate sauce:
1 cup fresh cream
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 tablespoons of the best quality Spanish brandy, such as Torres 15 or Torres 20
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
To prepare the figs:
Combine sugar, liqueur, and 2 cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Add figs, reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until figs are slightly tender. Turn off the heat and let the figs soak in the syrup for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the figs and reserve. Cook over medium-high heat until just before the syrup reaches a stringy consistency (220-225°F on a candy thermometer).
To prepare the stuffing:
Finely chop the pistachios in a food processor, add the walnuts, and finally add the chocolate. Stir 1 tablespoon fig syrup into chocolate mixture. Save the remaining liquid.
To assemble the dish:
Cut off the stem ends of the figs. Use your finger to poke a hole in the stem end of the fig to make a bag. Fill with some of the stuffing. Pinch the fig opening firmly to close it (don’t worry if the fig doesn’t close completely). Warm the figs, stem side up, in a saucepan with the remaining liquid. Serve immediately while warm, drizzled with chocolate sauce.
To prepare chocolate sauce:
Heat the cream in the top of a double boiler over boiling water or in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Melt the chocolate into the cream, stirring over very low heat until a smooth sauce forms. Remove from heat and add brandy and vanilla. Serve hot. If you are making this sauce ahead of time, reheat it in a double boiler, stirring to prevent it from separating.
Wine pairing:
Marimar Estate Cristina Pinot Noir or Marimar Estate Tempranillo
Recipe source: spanish tablepages 213 and 238, by Marimar Torres
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