On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:00:43 GMT, Bill
wrote:


The oldest winery in the Americas............In Mexico
Casa Madero, founded in 1597 in the Parras Valley of Mexico.
Who says there are no old vines in the Americas.

Seems the vikings might have made wine a lot earlier...

Juan de Gijalva tasted wine made by the aztecs from local labrusca in
1517. The wine tastes bad, and Hernan Cortes in 1524 orders 1000
plants of vinifera to be planted in Tenochtitlan; from there,
viticulture spreads all over New Spain. Already in 1589 Jose de Acosta
publishes a book describing wine consumption in America. Production
increases so much that it is competing with Spain, so Philip II
forbids wine production in the colonies, except California is allowed
to continue.




Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France
email link http://www.tommasi.org/mymail