We booked a wine tour in the Valle de Guadalupe for the day. We had a nice young man as a guide, and he picked us up right from the hotel. We learned a little history from him. There are 192 wineries in 10 wine regions in Mexico. Of the 10 regions, three are main, and the Baja Peninsula produces 85% of the countries wines. The Baja is just a smidge north of the 30 degree latitude line and benefits from cooling breezes off the Pacific Ocean. There are 4 subregions in Baja – Valle de Guadalupe, Valle de Calabria, Valle de San Vincent and Valle de Santo Tomas. The granite-rich alluvial soils are similar to what would be found in the Northern Rhone Valley of France. Our visit was to Valle de Guadalupe and the area has been dubbed the Napa of Mexico. But talking to the residents, they don’t want the area to gain the popularity that Napa Valley has. They love the tourism, but want to keep things more boutique and hands-on, and have no interest in increasing wine to the levels of mass production that California sees. The Valle is just inland from the city of Ensenada, which is a port for cruise ships, and many tour companies now offer pickup from the port and drive guests to the vineyards for tastings. We had read that wine making in this country began with the arrival of Spanish ships in the 16th century, who brought European vines on their voyage. And Mexico is considered the oldest wine region in the Americas. We were surprised to be told that the wine vines were abandoned in the late 1800s and the Valle de Guadalupe was settling around 1905 by Russians who created 4 farming communities in the area, which including the farming of grape vines, many of which were brought to the area by the immigrants. The modern wine industry really began in Mexico in the 1950s, when Italian immigrants began commercial production. And we were further interested to learn many well known wine makers from France, Italy and Spain have projects in this area. We also learned from our guide, the college kids in the valley drink cheap red wine mixed with Coca Cola at parties. He thought the cocktail originated in Spanish, but its all the rage these days. We vowed to give it a try. If you find yourself wanting a unique wine experience, these guys were awesome: ValleWineLife.com – tours@ValleWineLife.com
