Mexico

Question 1

Trade and Wine Laws- Mexico

Answer 1

Approximately 50,000 hectares of grapes grown, mostly distilled into Brandy, used as table grapes and raisins. Importation of juice to ferment is permitted. Hecho en Mexico on the label indicates Mexican grown grapes.

Question 2

Regions and Grape Varieties- Mexico

Answer 2

90% of quality wine production is from Baja California on the pacific coast underneath California. Similar Maritime influences as California, cold Alaskan current produces morning fogs, similar to those in the San Francisco Bay area. Most vineyards are irrigated from underground aquifers, salination of water can be a problem for full bodied reds from Petit Sirah (Durif), Zinfandel and Bordeaux Varieties.

Question 3

Mexico: History

Answer 3

1521: start of winemaking in Mexico w arrival of Spanish settlers. Old wine making country in the Americas.
1523: Cortes issued an edict for Spanish settlers to plant 1,000vines for every 100 natives on their land.

End of 16th: country self sufficient in wine

1597: 1st commercial wine produced at the Mission of Santa Maria de las Parras, hence the oldest winery
in the Americas. Wine only allowed for religious purposes.

1900s: phylloxera devastated Mexico’s vineyards
1948: National Association of Winemaking created by 15 producers -> devt of small domestic market

1970’s: doubling of the vineyard size

1990s: drop in sales due to flood of cheap German imports after 89 free trade agreement with EU.

Question 4

Mexico: Key Regions and Characteristics

Answer 4

Sonora; most of the vineyards but grapes mainly used for brandy & table grapes production.

Baja California (underneath California): 90% of the quality wine production. Good Petite Sirah & Cab Sauv.

Key subregion: Valle de Guadalupe.

4 other subregions: Valle de Calafia, Valle de Santo Tomás, Valle de San Vicente

Question 5

Mexico: Climate and Weather

Answer 5

Mediterranean climate with maritime influences similar to California w cold Alaskan current producing morning fogs

Low annual rainfall makes irrigation a necessary & heavy feature in this area.

Question 6

Mexico: Petit Syrah

Answer 6

Relatively tannic, dark (i.e. well-coloured blending partner w Zinfandel)

Can be essential backbone to red blends

Produces sturdy reds in Mexico

Question 7

Mexico: Zinfandel

Answer 7

Exotic black grape originally from Croatia

Uneven ripener with thin skinned berries growing in
compact clusters

Best in warm (not hot) well drained areas

Produces dry vigorous big reds

Question 8

Mexico: other Red Grape Varieties

Answer 8

Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Cabernet

Question 9

Mexico: Colombard

Answer 9

Gouais blanc + chenin blanc

Produces neutral, crisp base wine for white blends

Question 10

Mexico: Chenin Blanc

Answer 10

Usually Pinot Blanco in Latin America

Vigorous vine w tendency to bud early & ripen late
(less so in this hotter climate) - Hi acidity

Question 11

Mexico: Viticulture

Answer 11

Most vineyards irrigated from underground aquifers + planted w grafted vines

Question 12

Mexico: Wine Styles

Answer 12

Full bodied reds from Petite Sirah (Durif), Zinfandel & Bdx varieties

Question 13

Mexico: Production and Business

Answer 13

• 50,000ha; 25th largest world producer (//Uruguay & Switzerland) • Home market wine consumption: 2 glasses/pers/year
• Key producers: Monte Xanic, Vinos Pedro Domecq (Santo Tomás valle), Chateau Camou

Question 14

Mexico: Wine Classification

Answer 14

Wine taxed at 40%

Importation of juice for winemaking allowed. ‘Hecho en Mexico’ -> made with Mexican grapes.

Question 15

Missionaries

Answer 15

• Have doubtless played a role in the establishment of viticulture all over the world.
• Missions and missionaries particularly profound effect, on the history of wine production in Latin America, California, New Zealand, and, to a certain extent, in Japan.
• Soon after European colonization of South and Central America, missionaries, particularly Jesuit missionaries, established missions alongside more commercial ventures
• Missionaries grew vines to provide some wine for the eucharist
• Argentina and Chile date their wine industries from successful attempts to cultivate the vine at missions in the foothills on either side of the Andes (16th C). By the 17th century, Peru’s viticulture, which probably pre-dated that of both Chile and Argentina, was concentrated around Jesuit missions in coastal valleys.
• Mexico is the Americas’ oldest wine-producing country. Jesuit missionaries are believed to have been the first to cultivate vines for winemaking in Baja California (northern Mexico) in 1670s.
• 18th century they established a series of missions up the west coast of what is now california, and brought with them the so-called mission grape from Mexico.
• 1545, Portuguese Jesuit missionaries had introduced wine to the feudal lords of southern japan, who developed a taste for wine and continued to import it.
• More recently, Jesuit missionaries sowed the seeds of the modern wine industry in china.
• At the same time or earlier, in 19th century, French Marist missionaries played a significant role in New Zealand’s wine history by introducing vine cuttings from Europe, brought expressly to provide sacramental wine. The first Catholic bishop of the South Pacific, from Lyons, arrived with cuttings in 1838 and by 1842 they were reported to be performing well. The Mission winery in Hawke’s Bay, founded by Catholic priests in 1851, is still in production and run as an adjunct to a Marist seminary.

Question 16

Zinfandel

Answer 16

California name of the black grape variety known in its native croatia as both tribidrag and crljenak kaštelanski and in Puglia as primitivo. California grows far more of the variety than anywhere else: nearly 48,000 acres/19,433 ha in 2012.

• 20th century, the viticultural ‘pioneer’ Agoston haraszthy was credited with introducing this important variety to California from his native Hungary, but a more worthy Zinfandel hero is the California historian Charles L. Sullivan, who unearthed the truth, or at least part of it, about Zinfandel’s route to California (Zinfandel never mentioned in Haraszthy’s promotional literature in the 1860s, and that, long before Haraszthy arrived in California in 1849, the variety was well known on the American East Coast.
• The vine was imported, to US from the Austrian imperial nursery in Vienna by George Gibbs of Long Island, probably in 1829. He took it to Boston and by the early 1830s
• Many of those who participated in the California gold rush of 1849 turned to agriculture, dependent on shipments of plant material from the East Coast. ‘Zinfindal’ arrived in 1852 and by 1859 the variety was grown in both Napa and Sonoma.
• Zinfandel has no French connection, it escaped the detailed scrutiny of the world’s ampelographic centre in montpellier and its European origins rested on local hypothesis rather than internationally accredited fact until the application of dna profiling to vines in the early 1990s. Only then was it irrefutably demonstrated what had been suspected, that Zinfandel is one and the same as the variety known as Primitivo in Puglia. Subsequent DNA profiling at davis established that the Croatian variety plavac mali is in fact a cross between Zinfandel and Dobričić, Analysis of this variety’s DNA showed an exact match with that of a 90-year-old herbarium specimen of an ancient Croatian vine known locally as Tribidrag.
• Zinfandel took firm hold on the California wine business in the 1880s, when its ability to produce in quantity was prized above all else. By the turn of the century, Zinfandel was regarded as California’s own claret and occupied some of the choicest North Coast vineyard.

In 20th-century California, Zinfandel occupied much the same place as shiraz (Syrah) did in Australia and for many decades suffered the same lack of respect simply because it was the most common black grape variety, often planted in unsuitably hot sites and expected to yield more than was good for it. Zinfandel may not be quite such a potentially high quality grape variety as Syrah but it is certainly capable of producing fine wine if yields are restricted and the weather cool enough to allow a reasonably long growing season, as Ridge Vineyards and others have proved. And the fact that so many of California’s oldest vines are Zinfandel means that the best wines labelled with the varietal, sometimes field blends, are exceptionally complex (see vine age).

Zinfandel’s viticultural disadvantages are uneven ripening and thin-skinned berries in compact clusters. Bunches often ripen unevenly with harsh, green berries on the same cluster as those that have reached full maturity, and that once grapes reach full ripeness, in direct contrast to its great California rival Cabernet Sauvignon for example, they will soon turn to raisins if not picked quite rapidly. Zinfandel performs best in warm but not hot conditions and prefers well-drained hillsides since it is subject to bunch rot if caught by autumn rains.

Although Zinfandel has been required over the years to transform itself into virtually every style and colour of wine that exists, it is best suited to dry, sturdy, vigorous reds that mature rather earlier than a comparable Cabernet Sauvignon. Dry Creek Valley in sonoma has demonstrated a particular aptitude for this underestimated variety. See california for more details of Zinfandel the wine, both red and white.

In the late 1980s, thanks to the enormous popularity of white zinfandel, Zinfandel plantings, which had been declining, increased by up to 3,000 acres/1,215 ha a year, mostly in the Central Valley, so that they totalled 34,000 acres/13,760 ha in 1992, just ahead of California’s total acreage of Cabernet Sauvignon at the time. The resurgence of Zinfandel continued in the late 1990s as red Zinfandel began to enjoy mildly cult-like status (with many examples commanding prices over $30), driving total plantings to 50,000 acres/20,000 ha in 2003, only slightly less than Merlot and two-thirds as much as California’s most important black variety Cabernet Sauvignon.

Zinfandel is also grown to a much more limited extent in warmer sites in other western states in the US, and Mexico. Because of its prominence in California, where it is still definitively the second most planted red wine grape, Zinfandel is grown in many of the world’s wine regions, albeit to a very limited extent—quite apart from Puglia where it is known as Primitivo and in montenegro on the other side of the Adriatic where it is known as Kratošija. There is some ‘Zinfandel’ in the Languedoc, South Africa, and Australia where there were more than 100 ha/247 acres in 2012 and Cape Mentelle in Western Australia has been particularly successful with it.

Question 17

Petite Sirah

Answer 17

Name common in both North and South America, and first mentioned in California wine literature in the early 1880s, for a related group of black grape varieties. dna profiling techniques suggested in the late 1990s that the name had been applied in California vineyards to no fewer than four different vines: mainly durif, but also true syrah of the Rhône, peloursin (an obscure French vine which turned out to be Durif’s parent), and even pinot noir.

Petite Sirah is relatively important in a wide range of warm wine regions, especially in both California and South America. In California, acreage declined until the mid 1990s but then began to climb again, reaching 4,400 acres/1,781 ha by 2003 and then almost doubling to more than 8,500 acres by 2012, mostly in the Italian-American enclaves of Sonoma, Paso Robles, Amador, Mendocino, and Napa. Accurate acreage assessment is difficult because so many of the old Italian vineyards were planted with a mixture of different varieties.

Although Petite Sirah has been valued as a relatively full-bodied, well-coloured blending partner for blowsier Zinfandels, it has been somewhat eclipsed by the fashionable true French Syrah. It has nevertheless carved out a place for itself in California, for it makes dark, well-balanced, sturdy red wine of agreeable if not highly distinctive flavour. As such, it has been essential as a backbone for some everyday red blends: useful when rain-weakened Cabernet Sauvignon needed shoring up, or Pinot Noir went too pale and soft in a sunny vintage. Sonoma and Mendocino counties seem to grow Petite Sirah best, especially the dry-farmed, elderly hillside vineyards within the Russian river drainage from Redwood valley down through Healdsburg and out towards Guerneville. California producers started a new promotional push for the grape in 2004 called P.S. I Love You. L. A. Cetto champion it in Mexico.

Question 18

Colombard

Answer 18

Is a natural cross of chenin blanc × gouais blanc. This widely planted Charentais white grape variety was traditionally blended with Ugni Blanc (trebbiano) and folle blanche, but considered inferior to both, as an ingredient in cognac. As Colombard’s star waned in France, almost half of total plantings being pulled up in the 1970s, it waxed quite spectacularly in California, where, as french colombard, it became the state’s most planted variety of all, providing generous quantities of reasonably neutral but reliably crisp base wine for commercial, often quite sweet, white blends to service the prevailing fashion for white wine.

Its disadvantages of being quite prone to rot and powdery mildew are much lesser inconveniences in the hot, dry Central Valley, where almost all of California’s Colombard is planted. And Colombard’s disadvantages for the distillers of Charentes, that its wine is more alcoholic and less acid than that of the other cognac varieties, are positive advantages for consumers of the wine in its undistilled state.

The annual rate of planting of French Colombard in California slowed to a standstill towards the end of the 1980s and then picked up briefly in the early 2000s but by 2012 total plantings were only about 22,500 acres/9,100 ha (whereas Chardonnay’s total was almost 100,000 acres). Colombard is found in other American states, notably Texas.

It would take some sorcery to transform Colombard into an exciting wine, but pleasantly lively innocuousness is well within reach for those equipped with stainless steel and temperature control. In a nice example of transatlantic switchback, the producers of the Armagnac region set about duplicating California’s modern winemaking transformation of the dull Colombard grape on their own varieties surplus to brandy production, thus creating the hugely successful Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne. Colombard plantings have been steadily growing in France. It is the most planted variety in the Gers département where about two-thirds of France’s 2011 total of about 9,000 ha/22,230 acres was concentrated, although it is grown all over south west france.

It is even more widely planted, as Colombar, in south africa, where it was once important to the local brandy industry, and is now also popular for cheap, commercial off-dry white. Total Cape plantings have remained steady at just over 11,000 ha, making it the country’s third most important wine grape, just behind Cabernet Sauvignon in 2012. As in Australia, it provides usefully crisp blending material with Chenin Blanc and the much more fashionable Sauvignon Blanc. Australia’s total plantings had fallen to just over 2,000 ha in 2012, mainly in the irrigated inland regions.

Question 19

Mexico

Answer 19

• Is at long last developing a wine culture.
• Vineyard area in the Americas’ oldest wine-producing country, fallen to 29,000 ha/72,000 acres by 2011 but only just over 10% of this land is devoted to wine production.
• 1960s, most plantings, in response to huge domestic demand for brandy. This was fuelled by import taxes on both wines and spirits, which also encouraged foreign investment from the likes of Martell and domecq, indigenous wine producers such as Casa Madero, L. A. Cetto, and Santo Tomás.
• According to SAGARPA, the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, 160,440 hl/4,238,376 gallons of wine were made in 2011, while oiv estimates were 393,000 hl.

Mexico’s own influence on New World wine has also been considerable, if indirect. Without Mexicans as the prime labour source for vineyard work, California’s late-20th-century wine industry might have developed quite differently.

Question 20

Mexico- History

Answer 20

• 1521, just a year after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, who had no intention of forswearing wine in this new continent. Cortés issued an edict three years later ordering all new Spanish settlers to plant 1,000 vines for every 100 natives on the land they had been granted.
• 1531, King Carlos V commanded that every vessel headed for the New World should carry vines for cultivation, which made the country self-sufficient in wine by the end of the 16th century.
• 1597: First commercial plantings, Mission of Santa Maria de las Parras in the now Casa Madero winery. Father Juan Ugarte is credited with spreading viticulture northwards from mission to mission into what is now the state of california.
• 1699: Winemaking came to abrupt end, when King Charles II of Spain’s protectionist edict prohibiting wine production in Spain’s new colonies was applied with particular vigour in Mexico. Only sacramental wine was allowed.
• 20th century, phylloxera bought to just a few 100 hectares, 1948 the National Association of Winemaking was established by 15 producers, and a fragile domestic market for wine began to develop in the 1960s.
• 1970s, vineyard area doubled although there is enormous variation in characteristics between the various vineyard regions. Average annual wine production was about 2 million cases in the 1980s but, thanks to a 1989 free trade agreement with the eu and a flood of cheap imports from Europe, it shrank in the 1990s.

Question 21

Mexico- V/yard areas and varieties

Answer 21

The seven Mexican states producing wine are Querétaro, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and, by far the most important and promising, Baja California in the north west of the country. Baja California’s principal wine regions are Valle de Guadalupe, Valle de Grulla, Valle de Santo Tomás, Valle de Ojos Negros, and Tecate. Annual rainfall here is only about 12 in/300 mm but vines can thrive in the mediterranean climate, not unlike California’s with its Pacific influence, wherever irrigation water can be found, although yields are relatively low. Generally sandy soils in Baja California mean that phylloxera is unknown, most vines are ungrafted, and vine age is high. Vine varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache, and Syrah together with petite sirah, zinfandel, colombard, and chenin blanc from California, plus nebbiolo, barbera, and tempranillo.

Question 22

Mexico- Most important wineries

Answer 22

The most important wineries are: Casa de Piedra, Paralelo, Monte Xanic, Cavas Valmar, and Viñas Liceaga, all established in the 1980s and 1990s; the much older L.A. Cetto, Casa Pedro Domecq, and Santo Tomás; and the much smaller Adobe Guadalupe, Mogor-Badan, Sinergi, and Montefiori. freixenet of Spain also established Finca Doña Dolores in 1983 near Cadereyta to produce Sala Vivé sparkling wine. There has been a dramatic increase in quality and ambition among the best Mexican wine producers in the early 21st century as well as a surge in international investment.

Question 23

Mexico

Answer 23

• Began with the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas in the 16th century.
• 1st tried using the indigenous grapes but found it didn’t work
• After the defeat of the Aztec Empire, Spanish missions introduced the Mission grape
• In the 1970s the industry saw a resurgence as Mexican wines were heavily promoted in Mexico City’s restaurants and winemakers began participating in international competitions. Established Spanish wineries such as Casa Pedro Domecq and Freixenet invested in the winemaking regions of Baja California and Querétaro.
• No government laws surrounding the regulations of Mexico.
• 8 states produce wine: aja California (Norte), Sonora, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, and Querétaro.

Question 24

Baja California- Mexico

Answer 24

• 85% of Mexico’s wine across 3,360 planted hectares, maritime-influenced Baja California is the most important state for winemaking in Mexico.
• Production areas include Guadalupe Valley, Ojos Negros Valley, San Vicente Valley, Santo Tomás Valley, Valle de la Grulla, and Tecate.
• Mediterranean climate.

Question 25

Guadalupe Valley- Baja California

Answer 25

• 140 wineries in Guadalupe Valley, including L.A. Cetto, the largest winery in Mexico.
• Situated 400 meters above sea level and 25 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean, strong oceanic influence.
• Soils: Valley floor are sandy, soils on the hillsides are a blend of granite and poor clay.

Question 26

Ojos Negros Valley- Baja California

Answer 26

800 meters above sea level, Ojos Negros is the highest altitude valley in the region. It is even cooler than the rest of the valleys, with occasional snow, and can be warmer than surrounding areas in the summer. The soil is a blend of sand and clay.

Question 27

San Vicente Valley- Baja California

Answer 27

San Vicente is the northernmost valley of Baja California and is situated just 11 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. The ocean and the vineyards are divided by a hillside that limits the humidity entering the valley. The soils are deep red clay with high mineral content.

Question 28

Santo Tomás Valley- Baja California

Answer 28

Santo Tomás is 45 kilometers from Ensenada. Soils here are a blend of clay and volcanic soil.

Question 29

Sonora- Mexico

Answer 29

• Semi-arid climate.

- The important regions in the state are Bahía Kino, Caborca, and Hermosillo.

Question 30

Coahuila- Mexico

Answer 30

Coahuila is located to the east of Baja and Sonora, bordering Texas. Production areas include Arteaga, Saltillo, and Parras de la Fuente.

Parras de la Fuente is the most important winegrowing region in Coahuila. An oasis in the middle of the desert, this valley is situated at 1,500 meters above sea level. It has a tempered continental mediterranean climate with cool winters and warm summers. The soils are clear clay. Located here is Casa Madero, the oldest winery in the Americas, founded in 1597.

Question 31

Durango- Mexico

Answer 31

Durango has a semi-arid climate and soils composed of sand and clay. The region is divided by the Sierra Madre mountain range, creating microclimates. The key sub-region in the state is Gómez Palacio.

Question 32

Zacatecas- Mexico

Answer 32

The viticulture areas of Zacatecas are in the southern part of the state. Elevation ranges from 400 to 2000 meters above sea level. The soils are clay and sand, and there is a semi-arid climate, with consistent temperatures year-round. The key regions are Ojocaliente and Valle de la Macarena.

Question 33

Aguascalientes- Mexico

Answer 33

A small region tucked along the southern border with Zacatecas, Aguascalientes has a semi-arid climate and soft sandy soil with gravel and clay. Its altitude is 800 to 1,800 meters above sea level. The growing regions are Pabellón de Arteaga, El Llano, Asientos, Jesús María, and Rincón de Romos.

Question 34

Guanajuato- Mexico

Answer 34

Guanajuato was one of the first Mexican states to produce wine and is known for being the place where the Mexican revolution began. It is home to three different climates due to the proximity of the Sierra Madre mountains, but in wine country, the climate is mostly continental. Its altitude is 1,900 above sea level, and the soils are a mix of volcanic and gravel. The important areas for winegrowing are San Miguel de Allende and Dolores Hidalgo.

Question 35

Querétaro- Mexico

Answer 35

Located in the very center of Mexico, Queretaro is between 700 and 3,300 meters above sea level and has a semi-arid climate. The soil is chalky and sandy. The key areas are Ezequiel Montes, San Juan del Río, and Tequisquiapan.