INTRODUCTION
Mexico is the oldest American producer, but its quality wine industry is relatively recent. Rustic wines and brandy (Tequila, Mezcal…) still dominate production and the country is overshadowed by its neighbors to the north (USA) and south (Argentina, Chile..).
To keep up with international competition, bad wine can no longer exist. Of course there can always be occasional defects.
Wine-growing technology has been developed so much that the margin of error is very limited. See for example the fermentation temperature controlled by computer or the yeasts produced in laboratories.
The evolution of the wines is also supervised by winemakers who know the same about science as they do about earth.
CHAPTER 1
THE BEGINNING AND THE MISSIONARIES
In pre-Colombian times, the indigenous people used wild vines to make a drink to which they added other fruits and honey; To date, acachul wine is made in some places with grapes and wild fruits.
The wild vines (maroons) were loaded with bunches, but due to their acidity they did not produce wine. There were different species of wild vines such as vitis rupestris, vitis labrusca, and vitis berlandieri. They were different from the European vitis vinifera, which is the most appropriate vine species for making quality wines.
Juan de Grijalva is considered to be the first Spanish navigator to drink wine with Aztec lords sent by Moctezuma in ancient Tenochtitlan. It was on June 24, 1517.
For the Spanish conquerors and colonizers, wine was a fundamental part of their daily diet, and for this reason the commercialization of this healthy drink in the newly discovered lands increased rapidly. Wine was consumed as food, as medicine and as a restorer of strength.
The history of wine in Mexico developed during the Colony to the rhythm of the impositions of its metropolis. The first European vines to be planted in Mexico were brought by Spanish conquistadors and missionaries.
The vineyard of New Spain began to spread from Mexico City, capital of the viceroyalty, to the northern regions: Querétaro, Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí, later reaching a great development in the Parras Valley, and then in Baja California. and in Sonora. At that time, plantations in Puebla (Tehuacan and Huejotzingo) also developed.
The vine was immediately cultivated by missionaries who needed wine to celebrate Mass.
When the Jesuits arrived at that time in the Baja California peninsula, grape cultivation accompanied their missions. The missionaries transformed the inhospitable deserts into cultivation and viticulture areas.
His successors, the Franciscans advanced into what is now the state of California in the United States of America. Its leader, Friar Junípero de Serra established 21 missions from San Diego to Sonora in which they planted vines that he enjoyed especially renown.
The grape variety planted by the friars acquired a special denomination, the mission grape. Today, this variety is also called "creole" throughout South America.
EPISODE 2
THE COLONIAL BOOM
Hernán Cortes, governor of New Spain in the 16th century, ordered on March 20, 1524 that each settler plant 1,000 feet of vine for every hundred aborigines. From that time on, the grafting of Vitis vinifera in native strains began to be practiced, which was not done in any other country in the world at the time.
Thus Captain Francisco de Urdiñola established in 1539 the wine cellar in the Hacienda de Santa Maria de las Parras (Coahuila state)
In 1626, Lorenzo García inaugurated the Bodegas de San Lorenzo and sold it in 1634 to Luis Hernández Escudero
The vines adapted to their new locations and were productive enough to produce wine and brandy at the same time.
After a few years, the Spanish crown prohibited the production of wine, for fear that in the future there would be competition with Spain, because the vineyards quickly acclimatized.
Law XVIII, title XVII of the Compilation of the Indies established the total prohibition to plant vineyards in Mexico, but it was possible to continue using the existing vineyards.
The missionaries refused to abide by such a barbarous disposition and continued to spread, albeit on a small scale, the cultivation of the vine and the making of wine in New Spain.
CHAPTER 3
THE XIX CENTURY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY
At the end of the 19th century, the Concannon family, pioneers of viticulture in California (Livermore Valley) persuaded the Mexican government to take advantage of the country's viticultural potential and introduced a few dozen French varieties to Mexico. In the year of 1895, the Mexican government was concerned with extending the planting of the vines, but this effort could not be continued due to the social changes in the country.
In 1904 James Concannon left Mexico but six years later another Californian winemaker Perelli Minetti planted another range of vines on hundreds of hectares near Torreón.
Around 1900 a large part of the Mexican vineyards was destroyed by the
Phylloxera and political troubles disturbed the country for many years after the 1910 revolution.
Mexican wines began to be seriously produced until 1920, but it was not achieved that they had good quality due to many factors:
More knowledge of winemaking was lacking, faulty equipment was used and there was not an adequate selection of varieties.
The result was yellowish white wines, oxidized reds: they lacked or excess sweetness or acidity.
CHAPTER 4
AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR
In 1948 the National Association of Wine Growers was created, which initially affiliated fifteen companies. In the period between 1950 and 1954, fourteen more companies were incorporated.
The general situation has changed considerably since the 70s, so the cultivation of the vine has increased.
The implantation of selected grape varieties, the installation of wine cellars integrating the advances of the most modern enological science, the improvement of the standard of living of the middle class, the commercial and educational efforts of the big brands, have allowed to place in the market quality products, raising public interest in new habits of wine consumption.
Production already tripled between 1970 and 1980. This unprecedented growth means that the area of the vines grown, the capacity of the vinification facilities, is multiplied by six every ten years, that is, practically by two every three years. conservation, bottling, marketing and distribution efforts and therefore human and financial investments.
In the 1970s, the annual per capita consumption of wine in the Mexican Republic was one-third of a bottle, it rose to three-quarters of a bottle in the 1980s, ending in the 1990s to two bottles.
Few countries, few products above all in our day, are confronted with such a phenomenon of growth. It is recalled that in 1980 the important OIV (International Wine Office) chose Mexico to celebrate its Annual Assembly and its great Congress.
At this seventieth General Wine Assembly, the increasing quality of Mexican wines was recognized worldwide. At that time, there were more than twenty wine producing companies (with more than eighty different brands) in the national market. After 1982, when the borders were closed to foreign wines, there was a brief boom in Mexican winemakers.
In 1987 two million boxes of wine were sold in Mexico (twenty-four million bottles of 750 milliliters). Of that number, ninety-eight percent was from national wine.
Wine producers are dedicated to export markets and increase the quality of their wines more than their quantity. New wine styles, capable of competing with those of Europe, California and Australia, have made it possible to obtain white wines with aromas of fresh fruit and rich reds, with a deep color and with intense flavors and aromas.
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