Spanish wine legend Miguel Torres calls for end to EU-China tariff row

One of Spain's best-known business leaders and a pioneer in the Spanish wine world, Miguel Torres, has criticized tariffs imposed on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) by the European Union (EU).

"I don't believe in this protection," Torres - founder of his eponymous firm Miguel Torres - told CGTN at the Torres Bodega in Penedés, an hour from Barcelona. "I believe in a free market, you know, free to export wines, free to export cars, whatever, and then we compete. I'm in favor of free markets, absolutely."

Earlier this month the EU confirmed tariffs on Chinese EVs. China responded with levies of up to 39 percent on EU brandy. 

Tariffs could spell trouble for companies like Familia Torres, which also produces brandy.

'World's most admired wine brand'

Voted the 'World's Most Admired Wine Brand' in 2024 by Drinks International wine industry magazine, 'Familia Torres' is a mainstay of Spanish wine.

It's the seventh time Torres Wines has won the top award, with "quality, innovation, and sustainability" cited as reasons for its latest prize.

Over 150 years and five generations, its wines like 'Sangre de Toro' have become household names and made Familia Torres one of Spain's most famous family-owned brands.

Torres' vineyards, like those in Penedés near Barcelona, help produce over 30 million bottles of wine per year, and the company's annual revenue isn't far off $300 million.

Don Miguel A. Torres

'Living legend' and 'visionary' are some of the terms used to describe him - but Torres prefers 'intuition, experience, common sense and audacity.'

Torres believed in the Chinese market from back in the 1980s and said he was persistent in China when others gave up and when the company wasn't turning a profit - something he attributes to "family stubbornness and Catalan determination."

Despite losing money in the beginning, the family stayed the course and reaped the rewards. Torres China won an import license in 1999 and helped dozens of other Spanish and French wine and brandy producers sell their goods in China too, along with opening the door to many other products like big-name Iberian ham producers Joselito.

Torres was chosen in Time magazine's top 100 most influential people for his leadership in the fight against climate change. Now in his 80s, he is learning Mandarin Chinese to add to the Castellano Spanish, Catalan, English, French and Russian that he already speaks.

'China is a love story'

On his experience in China he told CGTN: "I think China is a love story. I decided to go there as early as 1992."

He added: "Chinese people, they love red wines, Sangre de Toro has been immediately taken as an icon from Spain. We're always among the top ten wine brands in China."

From exporting its wine through a Chinese importer to owning its own import license, wine retail shops and selling in supermarkets, restaurants, and cornering a percentage of the digital market, Familia Torres has enjoyed huge success.

Recently Torres China was bought by Wajiu, joining another legacy importer Summergate in an acquisition that puts the importation of foreign wines in the hands of Chinese business, a significant shift in the sector.

The Torres family will retain a six percent stake in this larger importer enterprise.

Treated as a celebrity in China, Torres explained that so many Chinese people want to drink with him that he has a favorite barman armed with a bottle of alcohol-free wine to help him make it through the night.

A China-EU trade war?

Torres doesn't want to see the special relationship between China and Europe spoiled and argues that trade barriers hinder healthy competition.

With Chinese investigations ongoing into other EU exports like pork and dairy products, new tariffs would be potentially disastrous, particularly for Spain's pork industry, and the sector is holding its breath.

Torres is among other leading voices of Spanish industry hoping the disputes don't escalate into an all-out trade war where everybody loses.