Casa Madero

Casa Madero is a working winery and distillery in Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila, founded in 1597 under a land grant from the Spanish crown and generally cited as the oldest winery in the Americas still in continuous operation. The estate, Hacienda San Lorenzo, was established by Jesuit missionaries who planted vines to produce sacramental wine for the region's missions, taking advantage of Parras's natural springs -- the town's name derives from the wild parras, or grapevines, the Spanish found growing there. Ownership passed through several families after the Jesuit expulsion of 1767 before the Madero family, ancestors of revolutionary-era president Francisco I. Madero, acquired the property in the nineteenth century, giving the estate its current name. The hacienda complex preserves colonial-era stone cellars and aging rooms alongside later nineteenth- and twentieth-century production buildings, so a tour moves through several architectural layers rather than a single restored structure. Exhibits and guided walks cover the estate's winemaking history, its brandy production, and its connection to the Madero family's political legacy. The site functions primarily as an active commercial winery rather than a formal museum, so its historical presentation is woven into working tours of the vineyards, cellars, and tasting rooms rather than laid out as a discrete chronological exhibit. Restoration has focused on keeping the colonial cellars structurally sound for continued use, rather than converting them into a static display, meaning visitors see the same spaces still used in production today.