Valle de Parras, explore the rambling vineyards and haciendas of North America’s oldest wine-growing region, home to some decent Cabernet Sauvignon. Around 160km west of Saltillo, the Valle de Parras is the oldest wine-growing region in Mexico. Dismissed as poor quality for years, the region’s Cabernet Sauvignons in particular, which account for around seventy percent of production, are finally garnering a following in international markets. The area is anchored by the pleasant colonial market town of Parras De La Fuente, served by regular second-class bus from Saltillo. Once here you can walk everywhere in town, though you’ll need to take a taxi to Las Bodegas de Casa Madero and Hacienda Casa Grande, 8km north of town; this is the largest and oldest producer, with roots going back to the Americas’ first winery, established here in 1597 by the Spaniards. You can take free thirty-minute tours of the facilities and museum, buy and taste the wine, and admire the colonial hacienda on site. Just 2km west of town at Ramos Arizpe 131, the Antigua Bodega de Perote produces fine wines as well as brandy and sotol, the local spirit.Established by Italians in 1891 back in downtown Parras, Las Bodegas El Vesubio is a smaller operation at Madero 36.

Was founded in 1598 being one of the first Spanish settlements in the lagoon like Mapimí, the city is known for being where the first winery in the Americas was established, as well as being the birthplace of the revolutionary hero Francisco I. Madero. In 2004 was named Magic Town by the Tourism Ministry to consider its cultural, gastronomic and artistic contribution. It is located 150 kilometers from 157 kilometers from Saltillo and Torreon.

His monumental places speak of an agricultural development that places it in the top of the production of wines, spirits and diverse, so known and appreciated spirits as its textile industry specializing in denim, considered high quality in the world. The wine is produced with pride since the late sixteenth century, to the request of the religious orders to the Spanish crown to allow the cultivation of the vine in these lands in order to have enough wine for religious services. Together with industry, the production of textiles and fabricated metal products and accessories, as well as raising cattle, goats, pigs and poultry, attracted the attention of many foreign nationals from different parts of Europe, particularly Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Greece, which came as technical advisers and wine, giving rise to an interesting cultural and racial mix that has given it a special character to the locals, which owns 0.4 percent of the total indigenous population the municipality, which has as main language Tarahumara, followed by the Nahuatl.

Since the sixteenth century, Parras was also known as the Valley of the Pyrenees, for its resemblance to that of Europe, so conducive to the cultivation of vines and olive trees, standing from that time a large number of houses and warehouses dedicated to winemaking, such as the ancient cellars of Perote, Bodegas El Rosario, Vesuvius and Bodegas Casa Madero in Hacienda San Lorenzo.

The history of the cellars is closely related to the city, as in 1593, Jose de Aslor and Virto de Vera, Second Marquis of Aguayo, obtained by the mercy of King Philip II of Spain a set of 15 small livestock sites, land where he built a large hacienda area known as San Lorenzo de la Laguna, a place that would later founded some of the most important cities in Coahuila, as Torreon, Durango and even. Later, the estate was sold in equal shares to Mr. Leonardo Zuloaga and Juan Ignacio Jimenez, of which first obtained the ownership of the land that was in Coahuila. During the period of the French Intervention, the hacienda he was expropriated from Dona Luisa de Ibarra, widow of Leonardo Zuloaga, although it was later returned in a significant percentage, same that was acquired by Fernando Chapman, a British citizen who finally renamed the place as Perote, which is said comes from the name of a native of Parras, who lived 400 years ago and was known as Don Pedrote, scourge of the Spanish and caravans moved to neighboring towns, for continually he and his tribe watch assaults perpetrated from the hills near the city. Chapman, given the difficulty pronouncing the D Pedrote, it became Perote, reinventing fame wineries from 1865 worked as a guard and delicious dessert wines, brandies and spirits remain high quality famous worldwide.

Casa Madero was founded in the late nineteenth century by Don Evaristo Madero Elizondo in the facilities of the Hacienda de San Lorenzo, gradually establishing itself as one of the most important wine companies in America. Its popularity is due in part to crops that have given rise to some of the most famous wines in the world such as Cabernet Sauvignon, in 2013 the wine Chenin Blanc was awarded in Paris as the best white wine in the world getting in this contest gold medal for the 2013 harvest, while the V Rosado wine won two silver medals in the same event, both can be tasted at the Wine Museum. The best times for growing grapes are spring and summer, since the fields are covered in green and Parras is transformed into a real garden.

Parras has also distinguished as an outstanding exporter of denim. Mal would in not mentioning that it is considered one of the most important and oldest producers, the Star, founded in 1854 by Colonel Rafael Aguirre and acquired in 1870 by Evaristo Madero, the same who founded the famous house wine Casa Madero , who managed to consolidate its international reputation in the production of jeans high quality product whose boom continues to rise. Sights; Iglesia de Santo Madero, Recinto Madero, Hacienda de San Ignacio de Loyola, Museo de los monos, Hacienda de San Lorenzo, Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Museo de la Revolución y del vino (llamado también Casa Madero), Estanque de la Luz o de la Hacienda (manantiales), Acueductos, Museo y Archivo Matheo, Jardín botánico, Palacio Municipal, Antigua Hacienda Perote, Vitivinícolas Bodegas de Vesubio, Parroquia de Santa María de las Parras.