Mexico’s Hot New Wine Region is a History Lover’s Dream

Published February 7, 2023

by David Shortell

César Fernando Aguayo Juárez, the town historian of Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico, tells a story from the heady final days of his country’s colonial period that has the preternatural weight of history about to be repeated.

At a meeting of insurrectionary plotters, Miguel Hidalgo, a future founding father, then the parish priest of the rural outpost known at the time as just Dolores, served wine made from his own crop of grapes.

Raising her glass to accept a third pour, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, a chief co-conspirator, was chastised by her husband: “Come on, woman, don’t drink anymore. You already have the character of gunpowder.”

“Oh let me be,” she replied. “These wines that Father Hidalgo makes in Dolores are just as good as the French ones.”

More than 200 years later, the testimony to the quality of the wine made in the region is beginning to echo, as a resurgence of viniculture led by a new mold-breaking crew gains acclaim and attention.

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