Mexico has been making wine since the sixteenth century and almost nobody outside it knows. The evening puts those bottles next to the ones you already respect and lets them argue.
A first glass and the shape of the evening. What you are about to drink and why it is in that order.
Two glasses, no labels. One is Mexican. Guessing wrong is the point and almost everyone does.
Five pours against five plates. The oenologist explains each pairing before it arrives, then argues with it afterwards.
Down among the bottles, where the conversation stops being a tasting and becomes a conversation.
Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California is the best-known region, but there is serious work in Coahuila, Querétaro and Aguascalientes, some of it from vines planted decades ago and almost none of it exported at volume.
The evening is built as a comparison rather than a lecture. Nebbiolo from Baja next to Nebbiolo from Piedmont, and a room deciding for itself.
A working oenologist — someone who makes wine or advises those who do, not a sommelier reciting a list. The difference shows up in the answers when the table asks about fermentation, altitude or the 2023 heat.
The pairings come from the same person, which is why they hold together rather than reading as a menu with wine attached.
Mexico City sits at roughly 2,240 metres. Altitude and alcohol interact and the evening is paced with that in mind, but eat properly beforehand anyway.
Non-drinkers are catered for seriously, not with a token juice. Say so when you request.
Transport home is included. Nobody at this table is driving.
No. The point is the comparison. Expect old-world benchmarks alongside the Mexican bottles.
No. The oenologist reads the table. Beginners get a genuinely good evening and experienced drinkers get argued with.
Some are commercially available and the house will tell you which. Several are not.
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Read moreMexico has been making wine since the sixteenth century and almost nobody outside it knows. The evening puts those bottles next to the ones you already respect and lets them argue.
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