Top 100 natural sweet wines of La Laguna

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).