In Mexico excellent wines are being produced, of a very good quality and appropriate with its price, it is the conclusion at which Arturo Bodenstedt arrived, after looking after the task of blindly tasting, classify and issue a score of 201 wines in its guide Artboden, Mexican Wine Guide 2008.

Without a doubt, the Mexican wine is red because it reflects largely the heat, the sun and the earth, assured this personage who studied Economy and for pleasure, cultural and family tradition, educated his palate about what he likes.

“I think that in Mexico we have enough wine to fill up a wine list and we have wines for all pockets. We have cheap wines, fewer than 100 pesos and expensive ones, above one thousand”, declared who is considered a wine fond.

 

 

The Mexican consumer despises his own wine but it is because his lack of knowledge, Bodenstedt said, who added that the guide is addressed to the people fond to the wine and not to expert sommeliers or oenologist.

“From there the guide, which has the purpose of encouraging the consumption of the Mexican wine among us, ¿and how do I encourage it? Well, with information. I had the opportunity to taste these 201 wines of 34 houses and I cataloged and scored them. That is to say, I scored the Mexican wines that no one had done it before until today”.

This classification allowed Bodenstedt to score with high points to the economical wines as well as low points to the expensive wines. “The score is related to the price but that does not mean that the cheap wines are bad, and what I found was very good wines, extraordinary, I was really surprised with certain wines”.

 

 

“On the other hand”, he added, “I found very famous wines that I did not like. Then what it is captured on the book is a very personal opinion, it is my point of view; is my taste, that may be different from the taste of the reader, but my intention is that the reader grabs the book and say: Ah! There is this wine and Arturo says it is really good, ah! Let me taste it and, if you like, then we might have a connection point and if you don’t like it, then we have another point of connection”.

For Arturo Bodenstedt the Mexican wine has as basic characteristics as follows: fleshy bouquet, very strong, powerful and its attack results in a binding wine, with sourness, heavy.

“Thick, robust, it is not a thin wine, but it is the Mexican red wine that you cannot see through it, it is pretty dense and in its flavor it also reflects its bouquet and color; salty touch”.

 

The Top 10 Red Wines

Bodenstedt doesn’t doubt in affirm that the Mexican wine is red: “The thing is that the white grapes have a period of ripening much longer; however, the red wine is much more robust, stronger then you have great Mexican white wines but without a doubt the best wine is the red wine”.

And he had the assignment of classifying the top 10 red wines by Price range; from 100 pesos up to more than one thousand pesos.

 

 

 

For example, the cheap wines (less than 100 pesos) is the la Petit Syrah from L.A. Cetto; 50 pesos more expensive, the Nebbiolo Private Reserve from L.A. Cetto, other 50 pesos more expensive, the Tempranillo from Santo Tomás, as well as the Don Quijote XVI from Lafarga Vineyards.

“Then I liked the Tinta del Valle from Aborigen (between 300 and 350 pesos); the Kerubiel from Adobe Guadalupe; also the Tardos Tempranillo from Santo Tomás; the BA II Arenal from Paralelo”.

In the more expensive ranges, where the wine reflects its best flavors and aromas, besides of a better composition, Bondested granted it to the Grenache from La Llave, and in the range of 650 pesos to one thousand and 200 or 300 pesos, the Balché Cero from Barón Balché and Ojos Negros Gran Reserva from Passion.

 

The Top Five White Wines

The top five white wines reached a good score for their color, bouquet, development in the mouth, by the end and for its global.

sive, Sinonimo from Aborigen; more expensive Rincón del Barón Double Blanc, from Barón Balché; more expensive Silvana from Villas Pijoan and the most expensive of all, the Casa Grande Chardonnay, Grand Reserve from Casa Madero.

To finish the interview, he doesn’t want to leave aside that the Mexican wine is very expensive because it has the quality that is required, “then if you compare it with a Rioja or with any Burdeo, with bind tastes they are going to compete and I can assure they are equal”.

“Give it the opportunity, that cost 600 pesos, let’s taste it, there are really extraordinary Mexican wines and very good, they are very expensive but they are worth it”, he concluded.

 

 

 

 

Text: Fabiola Galván Campos ± Photo: Rodrigo Hernández Marco / Cortesía LA EUROPEA