Mexican wines and grapesCoahuila
Mexican Brandy: The History of Grape Aguardiente in Parras and Cuatro Ciénegas
From the grape aguardiente of Parras' 1597 land grant to Ferriño and Casa Madero: what Mexican brandy is, how to serve it, where to buy it and the price.
In the center of Cuatro Ciénegas, the shop of Bodegas Ferriño is open every day. Among the bottles of Sangre de Cristo, the sweet wine the house has sold for more than a century, quieter bottles wait: an aguardiente named for the town and a brandy, the Miguel Primero. They are the least told part of the story of Mexican brandy, a spirit whose paper trail in Coahuila is as old as the one for wine.
The land grant (merced) that in 1597 gave rise to the Hacienda de San Lorenzo, today Casa Madero, authorized Lorenzo García to plant vines and make wine and aguardiente. Four centuries later, grape spirits still come out of the state's wineries, almost always in the shadow of wine.
What is Mexican brandy and how does it differ from aguardiente?
Mexican regulation defines it precisely. Under NOM-199-SCFI-2017, which governs the naming of alcoholic beverages, brandy is obtained by distilling wines made from musts that are 100% grape, and that spirit has to age at least six months in oak containers. Much of its color and aroma comes from that wood.
Grape aguardiente, by contrast, can leave the still without that rest: clear, more direct, with the fruit in plain view. That is why one winery can sell both. In Parras, aguardiente is also the word with the most history, because it is the one used in the 1597 land grant.
Since when has grape been distilled in Mexico?
In Parras, the paperwork goes back to 1597. The story of that land grant, and of the ban that came before it, is in our history of wine in New Spain. For centuries the Mission grape served every purpose: communion wine, table wine and aguardiente, as we tell in the history of that grape.
The 19th century brought distillers with names and surnames. Around 1860, the Italian Michele Francesco Ferrigno, born in Padula, settled in Cuatro Ciénegas, Hispanicized his name as Miguel Ferriño and began distilling grape aguardiente and brandy under the name La Fronteriza. In 1865, the English engineer Fernando Chapman bought land west of Parras and built the winery of the Antigua Hacienda de Perote, which still crushes its grapes in July and August and sells the result as wine and aguardiente.
The 20th century was the century of industrial brandy. According to Radio Fórmula, the Jerez house Domecq arrived in Mexico in 1947, formed the company Aguardientes Vínicos in 1955 and launched the Presidente brandy. The profile of Vinícola Santa Elena recalls that in the 1970s a good share of Aguascalientes grapes ended up in brandy, and in Jesús María, Viñedos Casa Leal, founded in 1959, still makes wine, brandy and grape concentrate.
What does Bodegas Ferriño distill today?
Ferriño presents itself as the oldest winery in Mexico still run by direct descendants of its founder. When the railroad arrived, La Fronteriza widened its market, and in the 20th century the house turned to fortified wines. In 1955, seven of the founder's children formalized the partnership Bodegas Ferriño. Its best-known label is still the Sangre de Cristo, a sweet wine of Lenoir and Rosa del Perú inspired by the Italian Lacrima Christi.
The spirits did not go away. In its online shop, the house offers the Cuatro Ciénegas aguardiente, in 750 ml and 250 ml bottles, and the Miguel Primero brandy, alongside its Muscat from century-old vines and a pomegranate liqueur. The winery is right in the center of town and can be toured along with its vineyard. Call ahead for the tour. If its sweet wines intrigue you, our guide to soft and sweet red wines explains how they differ from dry ones.
Does Casa Madero distill too?
It did in the 20th century, according to the history the house itself publishes. Casa Madero says that the boom in brandy consumption made it a national favorite, along with the Blanco Madero, an unaged grape spirit, and that the family modernized its facilities and bought copper stills. Around 1981, its spirits included the Blanco Madero, the Reserva de la Casa, the Madero Brandy and the Madero XXXXX.
Today its profile talks mostly about wine, from the 3V to the Gran Reserva Shiraz wines. The Blanco Madero is still sold in stores, in a 900 ml bottle at 35% alcohol, and old bottles of the Reserva de la Casa turn up now and then at auctions. The guided visit to the hacienda covers the work areas the house calls the Museo del Vino, with fermentation and distillation rooms, as we tell in our guide to the wineries of Parras. Ask at its shop which spirits are for sale.
How do you drink brandy?
- Neat, in a small glass. A glass with a closed mouth concentrates the aroma. Serve it at room temperature, slowly, and let your hand warm it.
- With a few drops of water. They open up the aroma and soften the first hit of alcohol.
- In a cocktail. Two classics on the official International Bartenders Association list call for brandy: the Sidecar, with orange liqueur and lemon juice, and the Alexander, with crème de cacao and fresh cream, dusted with nutmeg.
- Aguardiente, separately. With no barrel, it asks for different treatment: well chilled, in a caballito (a small shot glass), or as the base of a citrus cocktail.
After a meal, brandy goes well with toasted and sweet flavors. Try a tablet of Mexican table chocolate, with its grainy sugar and cinnamon, some walnuts, which grow among the vineyards in Parras, an ate (a firm fruit paste) with fresh cheese, or a pan de nata (a cream-enriched sweet bread). The Alexander, with its crème de cacao, is nearly a dessert in itself.
Tip
Read the label before you buy. If it says brandy, by regulation it has spent at least six months in oak. A plain aguardiente makes no promise of barrel aging.
Where can you buy Mexican brandy and how much does it cost?
As of September 2026, the online shop of Bodegas Ferriño showed its 750 ml Cuatro Ciénegas aguardiente at about 210 Mexican pesos (MXN) and the Miguel Primero brandy at about 280. The 900 ml Blanco Madero appeared in online stores at under 500 pesos, with differences from one store to another.
Taxes weigh on those prices. Spirits above 20% alcohol by volume pay a 53% IEPS (the federal excise tax), double the rate that the great majority of table wines pay, as we explain in why Mexican wine costs more.
To buy them at the source, the three Coahuila houses in this story are among the Coahuila wineries. The Ferriño shop, in Cuatro Ciénegas, is open every day. In Parras, the Casa Madero shop is also open daily. At the Antigua Hacienda de Perote, which operates as a hotel, ask at the front desk about its aguardientes and the tour of the cellars.
If you travel to Coahuila, bring home an aguardiente and a brandy from the same house. Pour them side by side in two small glasses and compare the color, the aroma and how the alcohol feels in your mouth.
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