Profile - Miguel Torres

What first got you interested in wine?

When I was young I didn't think much of wine. It was only when I was studying in Burgundy when I was 20 that I suddenly discovered a passion for it thanks to the fact that I was meeting winemakers and visiting vineyards.

What are the biggest challenges facing winemakers in the near future?

I think that for European winemakers our greatest challenge is learning how to compete with the New World given that we don't have the same flexibility. The legislation surrounding winemaking in Europe stifles creativity right now, but hopefully in the future things will be more flexible.
Climate change is, of course, a huge challenge. Vines are very sensitive to temperature and if it increases by more than 2ºC in the next 20 years vines will suffer. In the past 40 years we've already seen temperatures rise by 1ºC and we now harvest 10 days earlier than we used to. If this continues we will have to redraw the map of the wine-growing regions - we've already had to start planting new vineyards at higher altitudes in Spain.

Of all the wines you make, which makes you the most proud - and why?

There are many wines that we're proud of, but perhaps I'd choose Mas la Plana in this context. In 1979 it was selected by Gault Millau as the best wine in its category - it was the first time that it was widely acknowledged that Spain could produce wines that could compete with the best of France.

Is there anywhere you would have liked to have wine but didn't?

I think I've followed up on every crazy idea I've had over the past 50 years. Not always successfully, but you only learn through experimentation.

Of all the restaurants around the world you've eaten in, which is your favourite?

There's nowhere quite like home - my wife's a great cook.

How much emphasis do you attach to matching wines with food?

Matching wine to food is very important, but I also think it's important to match the wine to the person you're eating with. It's important that a wine should please - and there would be no point in serving a glass of Mas la Plana to someone who wouldn't appreciate it fully.

What would be your desert island wine?

I'd want a bottle of Manso de Velasco, our top Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. For me, Chile was a great discovery and I was very glad that we were the first foreign company to make wine in Chile in the late 1970s - so my choice of wine has a great deal of emotional resonance for me.

And what would you want to eat with it?

This wine is the ideal match for game - which is great, because I love game. I don't think it's very healthy to eat factory-farmed animals, whereas when you eat an animal that's been hunted you're eating an animal that has enjoyed life. When it dies and is cooked it not only tastes better, it gives you its best energies as well.

Winemaker Miguel Torres is not only one of Spain's most respected winemakers, he's also one of its most innovative. Widely credited with being a modernising force, bringing the use of stainless steel, vine trellising systems and international grape varieties to his home country, he's also been keen to explore further afield and has invested in vineyards in Chile and California. He tells us why, these days, his focus is on climate change, the deregulation of winemaking and the importance of shooting your own dinner.

• Sommeliers