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Antonio Treviño and Antonio Treviño, father and son
By Alfredo Espinola
In San Juanito, Querétaro, wine is not only drunk, it is listened to, stepped on, and honored as a story told sip by sip. Located in a challenging landscape with expansive clay soils, unpredictable rains, and untimely frosts, Bodega San Juanito, a 15-hectare vineyard, has achieved what many experts considered impossible: producing world-class wines with the soul of a family and the stamp of a territory that defied the rules.
“It started as a ranch to relax on weekends and turned into a life project,” recalls Antonio Treviño, winemaker and co-founder of Bodega San Juanito. The story begins with an instinctive, almost stubborn impulse: to plant vines in a place where winemakers said it couldn't be done. "They told us about a thousand obstacles: climate, soil, diseases. But something inside us told us we had to try."
Today, when talking to Toño, as everyone knows him, you don't hear technicalities, but emotions, a voice that breaks slightly when he recalls that first harvest in 2013, done by hand with the help of his family on the terrace of a house, without pumps or professional presses. “It was like going back to the origins of wine, in buckets, forming a human chain, destemming with a borrowed machine, and in the end, that wine won medals in Europe. No one could believe it.”
A family story with the aroma of oak barrels
The story of San Juanito cannot be told without mentioning Silvia Martínez and Antonio Treviño (father). It was Silvia who fell in love with the landscape of Peña de Bernal and said the first “yes” to what would be the beginning of everything. “She was the emotional heart of the project,” says Toño. His father, an engineer by profession, ended up carrying barrels with him, laughing and getting blisters. “We didn't have a forklift, we brought the equipment down with ropes and wood, it was pure ingenuity and a lot of heart.”
That family work is what gives San Juanito its unique personality. Each plant is known for its character, each harvest has its own name. “We don't buy grapes from outside, everything we do has been grown here, with our own hands,” explains Toño.
Extreme viticulture: pride and resilience
The area where San Juanito grows is outside the ‘wine fringes’; technically, it shouldn't work. But Mexican wine is rewriting the rules, and Querétaro is making a name for itself as a region of extreme viticulture.
“We are so far south in the northern hemisphere that without the altitude, there would be no vineyards,” explains Toño. This combination of complex conditions and meticulous care has forged a wine identity that is not based on convenience, but on character. “What grows here does so because it is cared for like a child. Each plant is a daily commitment.”
A down-to-earth hospitality experience
Visitors to San Juanito will find no architectural flourishes or celebrity chefs; instead, they will find shade under mesquite trees, wine served on country terraces, and tours led by the family who dreamed it up. “Before, no one came; now we welcome a thousand people a month. We're not big, but we do it with honesty,” says Toño.
Here, taking the snobbery out of wine is almost a life mission. “You don't have to know anything about tannins to enjoy it. Just bring your desire to try and let yourself go.”
The harvest that stayed in the bottle
In 2015, a bee invasion ruined the third harvest. The grapes were harvested early, and the resulting wine was unfit for sale. “We decided not to market it; we preferred to lose everything rather than betray what San Juanito represents.” Today, those bottles rest in silence, sometimes used for experiments, and sometimes to remind us why we do what we do.
The taste of emotion
When I ask him to choose a wine that represents an emotion in a bottle, Toño doesn't hesitate: “Any of the first harvest. We did everything blind, it was dedication, exhaustion, nerves, pride, and then medals. It was like hearing your child say their first word.”
A region that flourishes against all odds
Querétaro was one of the first wine regions in the New World. What is now recognized as innovation is, in fact, a return to its origins. And in that revival, projects like San Juanito are leading the way.
“Querétaro is living its moment. We are not many, but we are making our mark. There are more and more restaurants betting on local products, and that changes everything.”
Reflection in a low voice, with a glass in hand
San Juanito is not a brand, it is a promise fulfilled, a story that is trodden like ripe grapes and bottled with respect. Every visit, every glass, every conversation on its terrace is part of that legacy.
As Toño says, “The most worthwhile wine is not the most expensive or the most complex, it is the one that, when you taste it, makes you feel something you didn't know you had inside.”
And at San Juanito, there is a lot inside; just open a bottle to start evoking memories.
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