Querétaro Vineyards: A Guide to the Cheese and Wine Route, by Municipality

On the Querétaro route, the cheese often arrives before the glass: a board with something fresh and something aged, bread, and then the wine, often with the Peña de Bernal showing on the horizon. The Querétaro vineyards we have gathered in this guide are in Tequisquiapan, Ezequiel Montes, Colón, Cadereyta, San Juan del Río, El Marqués and Huimilpan. Together with the cheese makers, they form the Ruta del Arte, Queso y Vino (the Art, Cheese and Wine Route), which La Crónica de Hoy described in 2025 as the state's main tourism product.

Here we organize the wineries in our directory by municipality, with what each one offers, add the cheese makers that route guides cite most, and tell you when to go. If you are coming from the capital and still deciding how much time to give the trip, start with our guide to vineyards near Mexico City, where we compare drive times and car-free options.

A note on coverage: the route has more projects than we currently have listings for. We count 18 in the state, and three of them, Viñedos Donato, La Redonda and Viña del Cielo, do not yet have a recent verification, so we do not give their visiting details here.

01Why is there wine in Querétaro?

Largely because of elevation. Querétaro sits at about 20 degrees north latitude, south of the Tropic of Cancer and far from the latitudes usually associated with wine, and it makes up for that with the height of the terrain. According to Mexico News Daily, its vineyards are generally planted between about 6,230 and 7,550 ft (1,900 and 2,300 m) above sea level. The wineries themselves put altitude at the center of their pitch. San Juanito, for example, places its vineyard at 6,560 ft (2,000 m) and credits the character of its wines to the soil, the altitude and the microclimate of the Valle de Bernal.

The other signature is the bubble. Finca Sala Vivé, from Freixenet México, makes Champagne-style sparkling wines and, according to its listing, opened to the public in 1998. Cava 57 makes sparkling wine its specialty, and Tierra de Alonso, La Revuelta and San Juanito also have bottles with bubbles. If you try only one style on the route, make it this one. For what brut, extra brut or semi-dry means on a label, see our guide to Mexican sparkling wines.

02Which wineries are in Tequisquiapan?

Tequisquiapan, a Pueblo Mágico (Magical Town, a national tourism designation), is the natural base for the route and the municipality with the most wineries in our directory: ten, all gathered in our guide to things to do in Tequisquiapan. These five each offer something different:

• Viñedos Los Rosales was founded in 1970 and holds its own harvest festival every year. Besides its walking tour of vineyard and winery, it organizes tram rides and guided tastings.
• San Juanito planted vines brought from France in 2011. According to its listing, it produces around 30,000 bottles a year, breeds show-jumping horses and ends its tour with a tasting on the terrace and wood-fired pizzas.
• Vinícola San Patricio, a family business behind the Santiago Apóstol wines, describes itself in its listing as the first winery in Tequisquiapan. Its vineyard and winery tours end with a tasting of six wines.
• Vinícola Tequisquiapan is the project of the Ochoa family, which brought from Navarra, Spain, a winemaking tradition more than a hundred years old. Its tastings are booked on its official site.
• Viñedo La Revuelta brings together a vineyard, a winery, a country restaurant and a gourmet shop, and serves multi-course tasting menus of country cooking paired with its wines.

The town also has its own festival: the Festival Internacional del Arte, Queso y Vino (the International Art, Cheese and Wine Festival), which celebrated 50 years in 2026 with an edition from May 7 to 24, free to attend, with venues spread around the center, from Parque La Pila to the Jardín del Arte. For the rest of the weekend, our Tequisquiapan guide collects plans beyond the glass.

03What is there to see in Ezequiel Montes and Bernal?

North of Tequisquiapan, Ezequiel Montes concentrates three wineries that invite you to stay the afternoon. Bernal, about 22 miles (35 km) from Tequisquiapan and about 31 miles (50 km) from downtown Querétaro, supplies the scenery: a monolith that appears on the horizon of several wineries in the area.

• Finca Sala Vivé, at km 40.5 of the highway between San Juan del Río and Cadereyta, belongs to Freixenet, which arrived in Mexico in 1979. Its listing mentions a cellar 82 ft (25 m) deep, food events and horseback rides through the vineyards.
• De Cote lets you tour its vines on foot, by bike or on a train, go down into a cellar 23 ft (7 m) deep and eat with a view of the Peña. According to its listing, its six-course paired menus change every three months, and its bistro serves something simpler.
• Viñedos Azteca grew out of the friendship between Jorge Ferreira, a Mexican, and Miguel Giménez Montesinos, a Spaniard, who according to its listing formed the company in 2000 and in 2002 bought an old hacienda in Ezequiel Montes. It has a charro ring (a rodeo arena), a wine bar with its seven labels and the restaurant El Itacate, which crosses Italian and Mexican cooking.

If you are going to climb the Peña or walk the town between tastings, we have 12 things to do on your trip to Bernal.

04Which wineries are in Colón and Cadereyta?

In Colón and Cadereyta the pace changes: two family projects and a hacienda with almost four centuries of history. You come here for the wine and for the conversation with the people who make it:

• Vinaltura, in the Valle de Colón, wants its wines to reflect the terroir with minimal intervention in the cellar, with the Peña de Bernal as the backdrop. On the property is Envero, a restaurant designed to go with the wine and the region's products.
• Tierra de Alonso, also in Colón, has about 7 acres (3 hectares) of vines and makes whites, rosés, reds and a sparkling wine. The visit covers the winery, the barrel cellar and the bottle cellar. It has a restaurant, a hotel and a spa, and its listing includes verified opening hours.
• Hacienda Tovares, on the outskirts of Cadereyta de Montes, was built in 1640 by Captain Alonso de Tovar y Guzmán, and the act that gave rise to today's city took place there. Today it has a vineyard beside a small lake, cart and horseback rides, a restaurant, lodging and a harvest festival that appears on the Querétaro state tourism calendar.

05And in San Juan del Río, El Marqués and Huimilpan?

The remaining three municipalities each call for a plan of their own:

• In San Juan del Río, Cava 57, on the highway between Mexico City and Querétaro, offers vineyard and cellar tours, tastings and food at Terruño 57. Its story is in our piece on Cava 57. In the same municipality, Viñedos Tres Sarmientos, a family project, makes natural wines with organic processes. To reserve, the most direct route is its social media.
• In El Marqués, five minutes from La Griega, Puerta del Lobo is a large-scale wine tourism park. According to its listing, it covers more than 370 acres (150 hectares), 67 acres (27 hectares) of them vineyard with nine varieties, from Xarel-lo and Parellada to Tempranillo and Syrah. Its tour Vid, Vida y Tierra (Vine, Life and Land) ends with visitors bottling their own young wine and designing the label.
• In Los Cues, Huimilpan, La Terquedad (Stubbornness) lives up to its name: the family bought the land to produce olive oil and, when the olive trees did not work out, planted vines. It offers outdoor tastings, paired dinners in the vineyard and the restaurant Tierra Yerma.

06Where can you try cheese on the route?

Half of this route is edible. Within our directory, the most direct way to combine the two is Tierra de Alonso, which shares its facilities with the Finca VAI cheese maker, where they explain how the cheese is made. Outside it, route guides often cite cheese makers such as Bocanegra, La Biquette and Rancho Santa Marina, with cheeses from cow, sheep and goat milk. Ask each one whether it offers guided visits and on which days.

Several wineries handle the pairing in house. Tres Sarmientos serves its natural wines with boards of cheese, cured meats and artisan sweets. According to their listings, Viñedos Azteca serves the glasses at its wine bar with boards of local cheeses and artisan bread, and the lookout bar at Puerta del Lobo offers wine and cheese boards from the top of the complex.

To build your board without complications, one simple rule is enough:

• Fresh cheese: with a young white or a sparkling wine, whose acidity and bubbles cleanse the palate between bites.
• Goat cheese: with a rosé or a white with good acidity.
• Aged cheese: with a red that has some barrel aging.
• If you are unsure: ask the winery host for a recommendation. No one knows their wines better.

07When should you visit the Querétaro vineyards?

High season is the harvest season, which takes up summer and early fall. In 2026 it runs from June 6 to October 18. It closes with the Festival del Vino Queretano, organized by the Clúster Vitivinícola de Querétaro (the Querétaro wine-industry cluster) with support from the state tourism department to bring the state's wine projects together in one place. The 2026 edition is Saturday and Sunday, October 17 and 18, at Plaza Gran Cué in Corregidora, according to the festival's official account. The previous one, the fifth, was also in Corregidora, in October 2025. The dates of each edition, with their sources, are in the wine events calendar.

Several wineries also hold their own harvest celebration. Los Rosales does it every year, and the ones at Hacienda Tovares and Tierra de Alonso appear on the Querétaro state tourism calendar. Outside the season there are also tours and tastings, with fewer people. Confirm them directly with each winery, because each sets its own days.

08How do you put together your route?

With 15 wineries with verified details in seven municipalities, the temptation is to see it all. Do not try. From downtown Querétaro, Bernal is about 31 miles (50 km), under an hour's drive, and between Tequisquiapan and Bernal it is about 22 miles (35 km). With those distances in mind, this order works:

1. Choose one municipality per day or, at most, two neighboring ones.
2. Reserve each visit using the details on its listing: Vinícola Tequisquiapan handles it on its site and Tres Sarmientos through its social media. Cities and Wines of Mexico does not take reservations. For what details to give and how far ahead, see our guide to booking a visit.
3. Eat at a winery with a restaurant instead of adding one more stop.
4. Leave the cheese maker for before the first tasting or for the drive back.
5. If you are going to taste, name a designated driver or sleep on the route. Puerta del Lobo, San Juanito, Hacienda Tovares and Tierra de Alonso have their own lodging, and our guide to vineyard hotels covers what each one offers.

A sample weekend

• Saturday in Tequisquiapan: a morning walking tour at Los Rosales, lunch with a tasting menu at La Revuelta and a night at La Casona de San Juanito.
• Sunday toward Bernal: a train ride among the vines and a cellar visit at De Cote, a stroll through the town at the foot of the Peña and a last glass at Vinaltura or at Tierra de Alonso, in Colón, before heading back.
• If you have one more day: spend it in Cadereyta and at Hacienda Tovares, or in El Marqués and at Puerta del Lobo.

Confirm with each winery that it receives visitors on the day you plan to arrive. Hours change by season and not all of them open every day.

All the listings in the state are on the Querétaro wineries page. Pick the municipality that calls to you most, open the listings of two of its wineries and write to them with your date. In harvest season you will find a party. Outside it, quieter roads and more time at each bar.