Meet the generations of wine makers at Torres and Juan Gil

For wine, that can be a single man or woman, more often a couple, perhaps two generations. But there are bigger families who still create a happily personal feeling.

The first I think of is Torres. Despite being a giant in Spain, and stretching out to North and South America, every time I drink their wine I think of modest, gentle Miguel junior - now the very senior head of the company his great grandfather Miguel co-founded in 1870 - and the bottle of 'Spanish Chablis' he showed me in the museum at the company headquarters in Catalonia.

Marimar Torres (Image: Marimar Estate/Fells)

The modern iteration of that wine is a classic sunny lunchtime choice: Viña Sol (around £8, supermarkets), light, fresh and cleanly fruited. Go up the Torres range, and fine wines come from all over Spain, from Priorat (Salmos, Perpetual) to Penedès (Fransola), Costers del Segre (Purgatori) to Rias Baixas (Pazo das Bruxas).

Day-to-day running, with a continuing ultra-serious emphasis on sustainability and recovering ancestral grape varieties, is now in the competent hands of the fifth generation - Miguel's son, another Miguel, and daughter Mireia.

And across in California, sister Marimar, with her daughter Christina, produces wines which absolutely rebut any OTT image lingering there. The two women's enthusiasm is infectious, and the bottled results joyously celebrate Miramar's determination, against her father's will, to stay and make a serious career in the region she loves.

Her pinot noir and chardonnay are deservedly lauded, but fascinating and very appealing are unique takes on albariño and tempranillo, with more Spanish-origin single-variety bottles on the way.

Olivier Bourdet-Pees among the Plaimont vines. (Image: Bernard Dugros)

For all Torres family wines, you're spoiled for choice at londonendwines.com and farehamwinecellar.co.uk.

Spain is home to another big family set-up whose wines I've recently much enjoyed. Juan Gil also has estates from the north to the far south, each run separately and individually named. Again, green aims are paramount, alongside using native varieties, with new vines grown from clones of venerable centenarians.

Here, too, the company is under fourth and fifth-generation control, though major expansion came only at the start of this century. Its heartland remains Jumilla in the south east, home of the long under-regarded monastrell.A bottle from the Gil Family Estates (Image: Courtesy of the producer)

Juan Gil's examples have raised the grape's profile to world class, especially in the splendid Clio, opaque, velvety, layered, long yet with remarkable delicacy for its power.

For less outlay, Juan Gil Sliver Label (around £17) is another impressive expression, aromatic, rounded, warm and spicy. Both are available at allaboutwine.co.uk and other independents - see wine-searcher.com for more choices.

Lagar da Condesa, Rias Baixas (£28, theframwineshop.com) Is the Gil family's top mouth-watering example of albariño.

There's another kind of wine family, though not linked by blood. I always think of the best co-operatives as extended families, whose members work together for the happiest results.

A shining example is Plaimont Producers in south west France. André Dubosc, now in honorable retirement, was the founding father in the late 1970s and the man who put Gascony's crisp, zesty whites on the world wine map.

His successor, Olivier Bourdet-Pees, is the best 'son' Dubosc could hope to have.
For wine-grape buffs, Gascony and the Pyrenean foothills are heaven - they represent just a tenth of France's total vineyard area, yet hold half of the country's grape diversity.South African white 21 Gables is a late August recommendation (Image: Riehan Bakkes/Bakkes Images)

Plaimont has celebrated this to the maximum, creating and carefully tending a 39-variety vine conservatory. This has more than historic interest: several of the varieties are now included in Plaimont's commercial wines.

And one in particular - tardif, from a 150-year-old plot of pre-phylloxera vines - may well have a golden future in this time of global warming. Plaimont wines (from £8) are easy to find. From rediscovered grapes, white Saint Mont Les Vignes Retrouvées (£9.95, thewinesociety.com) is a scented, flavour-full delight, and Le Manseng Noir (£16.80, lescaves.co.uk) is tannat-like, but lighter.

For a huge choice of Plaimont wines head to corneyandbarrow.com.

Finally, two quick late-summer recommendations, from South Africa and Argentina. Spier 21 Gables (£25, slurp.co.uk) is a delicious example of oak-aged chenin blanc, concentrated and spicy yet fresh. And for a bargain end to the barbecue season try juicy, rich-fruited Minimalista malbec (£8.50, Sainsburys).