Top 100 wines of La Laguna
Discover the top 100 best wines of La Laguna as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the wines that are popular of La Laguna and the best vintages to taste in this region.
Discovering the wine region of La Laguna
The Parras Valley is a small wine region in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains of Central northern Mexico. Despite being an area with a Rich viticultural history, Parras Valley is a relatively unknown region of wine production on a national and international scale. The valley plays only a small Part in the modern Mexican wine industry as 90 percent of the nation's wine comes from Baja California.
The oldest winery in the Americas – the Casa Madera – can be found here, on the site of a Jesuit mission.
From here, the vitis vinifera wine Grape species was taken northwards to California and South to Chile. Parras de la Fuente (which means 'vineyards of the spring') is the commercial Center of the Parras Valley. Parras is also known casually as The Oasis of Coahuila – for many miles in every direction the landscape consists entirely of mountains and semi-desert.
At an altitude of almost 1,525 meters (5,000ft), the Climate here is significantly cooler than on the Caribbean coast below and to the east.
The Tropic of Capricorn passes just to the south of Parras, confirming the area's proximity to the equator. To find quality wine being made at such a tropical latitude is unusual, and is only possible because of the air conditioning effect of the combination of altitude and Dry desert air.
The very low annual rainfall in the Parras Valley makes irrigation essential. The climate here is classified as Warm Arid Desert on the Koppen Climate Classification scale, and in the driest areas the annual rainfall can be as low as 200mm (8 inches).
Discover the grape variety: Malbec
Malbec, a high-yielding red grape variety, produces tannic and colourful wines. It is produced in different wine-growing regions and changes its name according to the grape variety. Called Auxerrois in Cahors, Malbec in Bordeaux, it is also known as Côt. 6,000 hectares of the Malbec grape are grown in France (in decline since the 1950s). Malbec is also very successful in Argentina. The country has become the world's leading producer of Malbec and offers wines with great potential.
News from the vineyard of La Laguna
American whiskey becomes most valuable auction sale of its kind
The Sotheby’s New York sale of Bourbon and Rye Whiskey, held at the weekend, combined two significant collections of American whiskey, with almost 100% of lots sold and 75% of them selling for above their pre-sale high estimates. The top spot for the most expensive lot in the auction went to a bottle of LeNell’s Red Hook Rye 24 Year Old Barrell #4, which sold for $43,750, double its pre-sale high estimate and making it the joint most valuable bottle of rye whiskey ever sold at auction. The sum w ...
Best in Show: The top 50 wines of DWWA 2022
The 0.27% of entries awarded Best in Show at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards reflect the inspiring world of wine and quest for quality among winemakers globally, with 50 wines expressing the best of their categories. An all-time record for wines tasted at the world’s largest wine competition, it’s quite possible that Decanter World Wine Awards 2022 marks the largest-ever wine competition to be held in history. And of the record-breaking 18,244 wines tasted, just 50 were ...
Penfolds to release second rare wine NFT
Penfolds has announced it is to launch its second rare wine NFT with direct-to-consumer wines and spirits NFT platform BlockBar. The second rare release will comprise limited edition NFTs tied to 300 bottles of Penfolds Magill Cellar 3 Cabernet Shiraz from the 2018 vintage. Crafted under the watchful eye of chief winemaker Peter Gago, recipient of the Decanter Hall of Fame award last year, the wines will not be available from retail, nor Penfolds Cellar Doors. The release coincides with BlockBar ...