Short history of Mexican wines
Not only Tequila is made in Mexico, in fact, Mexico is the oldest wine producer of the American continent. The very first winery was established in 1597 and sitlls operating today.
The major wine region is Baja California which and produces 87% of the Mexican wine, however we can find very good wines in other states like Coahuila where is located Casa Madero, the oldest winery of all the American continent. Queretaro which produces good quantities of sparkling wine.
Mexican winemaking is not as well known in the wine world even it is the oldest in the entire American continent. Wine was made in Mexico many years before it was made in Argentina, Chile or even the United States.
It is true that Christopher Columbus came with the first grape vines to Dominican, however the vineyard did not progress due to the weather conditions of the island. It is until the conqueror Hernán Cortés takes the city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) in 1521 and begins a campaign of colonization and evangelism all over the "New Spain". One of its most important ordinances for viticulture was given in 1524 and consisted of the cultivation of 1000 grapevines for every 100 slaves that each lieutenant had in charge. This order promoted a significant expansion of the vineyards around what is now known as Mexico City, areas such as Tacubaya, Puebla and Hidalgo became a large garden of vines and olive trees.
In the northern of the territory, specifically in what is now known as Coahuila was discovered a valley fully covered with native vines which they named "Valle de Parras" (Vines Valley) and the mission in the area was so important that they quickly settled and in 1593 the Marqués de Aguayo Winery is founded. However, wine production on the new continent, particularly in Mexico, was so important that less and less wine was imported from Spain, this situation could not be taken by Spanish wine producers and they demanded that King Philip II address the issue. For this reason, in 1595 it prohibits the production of wine and the planting of new vineyards in all over the New Spain being Mexico the most affected of all continent.
Despite the ban, in 1597 king Philip II himself granted permission to produce wine and brandy in a commercial way to Don Lorenzo García who founded the Hacienda de San Lorenzo winery that today is still in operation and is better known as Casa Madero.
It is a reality that due to many political, warlike and cultural factors, Mexican winemaking did not have the same success as Chile, Argentina or its neighbor United States, however the last ten years have witnessed the growing wine culture in Mexico with great potential in every way.
