What Is the Best Mexican Wine? What the 2026 Awards Say

Asking for the best Mexican wine is like asking for the best mole: the answer depends on the table, the taste and the occasion. There is still an honest way in, and that is to look at what the juries say. In 2026, three international references gave clear signals: the Guía Peñín (Peñín Guide) to the wines of Mexico, the Bacchus competition in Madrid and the Decanter World Wine Awards, run by the British magazine Decanter.

The short answer, if you are in a hurry: according to the Peñín Guide 2026, the best-rated Mexican wines of the year are the Sol de Noche 2023 from Bodegas del Viento, the Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 from Guidova and the Gran Ricardo 2023 from Monte Xanic, with 94 points each. The long answer includes the medals from Madrid and from Decanter, the state that won the most awards and a warning about how to read all of this before you buy.

01What is the best Mexican wine according to the Peñín Guide 2026?

The Peñín Guide is a Spanish publication that rates wines with points, and for several editions it has given a volume to Mexico. The 2026 edition, whose results came out in May, gathered close to 400 tastings from 57 wineries, and three wines landed at the top with 94 points, the highest score of this edition:

• Sol de Noche 2023, from Bodegas del Viento, one of the wineries of Coahuila. The winery sits in the Sierra de Arteaga, in the southeast of the state, and according to its profile it began as an experimental vineyard of the Dávila family, planted in the late 1990s.
• Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, from Guidova, also from Coahuila.
• Gran Ricardo 2023, from Monte Xanic, in Guadalupe Valley (Valle de Guadalupe), in Baja California, Mexico. It is the house's flagship red, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot aged 18 months in French oak barrels, according to its profile.

Behind them, twelve other wines scored 93 points. And one fact speaks to consistency: in the 2024 edition of the same guide, the Sol de Noche and the Gran Ricardo also led the list, according to the Baja California press. On the Peñín scale, 95 to 100 points means an exceptional wine. This year no Mexican wine reached that range, and the ceiling stopped one point short of it. The guide's director, Carlos González, highlighted the country's potential and the process through which its regions are trying to define their identity. One useful detail: a guide publishes the score of every wine it tastes, including those that do not top the list, so it works for comparing labels from the same winery or the same grape.

02Which Mexican wines won at Bacchus 2026?

Bacchus is the international wine competition that the Unión Española de Catadores (the Spanish tasters' association) organizes in Madrid, with the backing of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. In 2026 it established itself as the largest wine competition held in Spain.

In the 2026 edition, the Spanish trade press singled out Mexico as one of the revelations of the year. The published tallies give it more than 70 medals. The one from Vinetur counts 72, among them 2 Gran Bacchus de Oro awards, the competition's top distinction, 44 Bacchus gold medals and 26 silver.

The wineries of Guanajuato led the Mexican count with 26 medals: 1 Gran Bacchus de Oro, 18 gold and 7 silver. That top award went to the Syrah 2022 from Viñedos Cuna de Tierra, in Dolores Hidalgo, one of the 51 wines in the world to reach that distinction in this edition and one of only 18 reds. Cuna de Tierra made its first official wine in 2005, a blend of four grapes, according to its profile. Another Guanajuato house, Viñedo San Miguel, won five medals in the same competition, according to the state tourism office.

The state comes to these lists with credentials. Its government presents it as the fourth-largest wine producer in the country, with more than 650 medals in national and international competitions. And here the prize has an address: Cuna de Tierra is in Dolores Hidalgo, on the road to San Luis de la Paz, at Rancho El Rosillo.

03Which Mexican wines did Decanter honor in 2026?

The Decanter World Wine Awards, the competition of the British magazine Decanter, bring together thousands of wines from dozens of countries every year. They are judged by a panel that includes Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers, two of the most demanding titles in the trade.

The best Mexican result went to Monte Xanic. Its Cabernet Franc Edición Limitada 2024, a 100% Cabernet Franc from the Valle de Ojos Negros aged 13 months in French oak barrels, won a gold medal with 95 points, the highest recognition for Mexico in that edition, according to Mexican coverage of the competition. The same winery added a silver for its Viña Kristel Sauvignon Blanc 2025 and bronzes for its Chardonnay 2024, its Merlot 2024 and its Selección 2024, and that coverage named it the Mexican winery with the most medals in the contest.

Monte Xanic was born in 1987, founded by five friends who, according to its profile, believed it was possible to make high-quality Mexican wines when few people imagined it. Among its innovations, its profile mentions night harvests, which protect the grapes from the heat of the day.

04What about the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles?

It is an international competition that travels, changing host every year. In 2024 it was held in the Americas for the first time, in Guanajuato, and its numbers give an idea of the country's level: Mexican producers entered 663 wines and 152 went home with a medal, among them 9 Grand Gold Medals, a record. Two of those went to Guanajuato wines. In 2026 the competition traveled to Armenia, and according to the Guanajuato government the state ended up as the second most awarded in Mexico in that edition.

The same organizer runs an edition devoted to the country, México Selection by Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. The 2025 edition took place in November in the capital of Chihuahua, a wine state on the rise, and Puebla was announced as the host for 2026. Its results are published at the close of the competition on its official site, and they are worth following to complete the picture of the year.

05What other awards do Mexican wineries record?

The 2026 awards have a history behind them. Several profiles in our directory record honors from other years, with the name of the competition:

• Solar Fortún, in Guadalupe Valley: its Elixir Cordis 2016 was the best-rated Mexican wine in the Peñín Guide 2022, with 93 points, according to its profile.
• Casa Madero, in Parras: according to the house, its Gran Reserva Shiraz 2014 won gold at Syrah du Monde 2018, in France, and its Shiraz Casa Grande Reserva 2013 won a Grand Gold at Mundus Vini 2017.
• Bodegas Pinesque, in Chihuahua: its profile records silver medals at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles in 2016 for two vintages of its 5 de Pinesque, and at México Selection in 2018 and 2020.
• Vinícola Campo Real, in Trancoso, among the wineries of Zacatecas: a June 2023 note that its profile cites records a gold for its Merlot 2019 at the China Wine & Spirits Awards.

06What do a medal and a score really mean?

A guide and a competition measure different things. The guide tastes each wine and gives it a number. The competition hands out medals to every wine that clears certain thresholds, and it can give many: Mexico collected more than 70 at Bacchus 2026. A gold medal says that the wine landed in the gold band, along with others. The scarce distinctions, such as the grand gold, which only 51 wines in the whole competition received at Bacchus 2026, are the ones that truly set wines apart. Before you let a golden sticker sway you:

• Check the year of the competition and the vintage of the wine. A medal rewards one specific vintage, and the next one can be different.
• Look for the full name of the contest. An international medal with no named competition tells you nothing.
• Do not compare points with medals. 94 points in a guide and a gold in a competition are different scales.
• Check the source. Competitions publish their results, so if a bottle claims a prize, look it up on the official list.

At Bacchus and at Decanter the wines are tasted blind: the jury sees neither the label, nor the winery, nor the price. That is the greatest virtue of a competition, because it rewards what is in the glass and not the fame of whoever made it.

To decode the rest of the bottle, from the region to the alcohol level, our label guide also has a section on medals and scores.

07Which regions and grapes stand out in the 2026 awards?

Coahuila signed two of the three best-rated wines in the Peñín Guide, one of them from the Sierra de Arteaga, far from the classic image of Parras. The profile of Bodegas del Viento speaks of mountain vineyards, a landscape that looks little like Guadalupe Valley. Guanajuato dominated the Mexican count at Bacchus. And Baja California, the region with the most profiles in our directory, held its weight with Monte Xanic in the Peñín and at Decanter.

Among the wines named in this list are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and a Bordeaux-style blend. Among the whites, the Decanter silver for a 2025 Sauvignon Blanc is a reminder that Mexico also knows how to make freshness. If you want to see these regions on the ground, our Guanajuato wine route and our guide to Parras list the wineries you can visit.

08So which Mexican wine should I buy?

The best Mexican wine for you is the one that fits your taste, your table and your occasion, and the lists are there to shorten the search. A few ways to use them:

• If you want the best-rated wine of the year, look for one of the three 94-point wines in the Peñín Guide, and ask at the winery when to open it and what to serve it with.
• If you are drawn to an awarded house, look at its other lines too: the Selección 2024 from Monte Xanic also made the Decanter podium, with a bronze.
• If you are shopping for a gift, an awarded bottle with its medal clearly identified arrives with a story to tell. There are more ideas in our suggestions of Mexican wines to give as gifts.
• If you want to learn, buy two wines from the same grape, one awarded and one not, and taste them blind with our tasting guide. Your favorite may not be the one with the medal.
• If you want to celebrate, October 7 is Mexican Wine Day, a good excuse to open one of these wines.

If you would rather taste them where they are born, Bodegas del Viento welcomes visitors with tours and tastings, always by reservation and for adults only, according to its profile. At Monte Xanic the visit walks through the vineyards, tells the story of the house and can include pairings with Mexican cuisine. To plan that trip, you have our plan for a weekend in Guadalupe Valley. Cities and Wines of Mexico does not book visits: check hours, availability and prices with each winery.

Pick one of the wines on this list, ask for it at your trusted shop or write to its winery, and open it with someone who has opinions of their own. Write down what you thought next to the prize it carried. With a few notes like that, you will know which jury is closest to your palate.