Wine tasting in Mexico!? Yes! Only 4 hours away from Los Angeles is a magical little valley in Baja CA called Valle de Guadalupe. I’ve visited three times now! Once in October 2018 for one of my best friends weddings but I did not have much time to explore. My second visit was for a bachelorette party and third was for Valle’s annual Food and Wine Festival. I was really looking forward to going back to Valle to celebrate one of my friends bachelorette parties this May but unfortuently that’s been cancelled due to Covid 19 :(. Valle is so affordable compared to other wine countries and I was blown away how vast the valley actually is, over 200 wineries! Did I feel safe? 100% yes!
Valle de Guadalupe is located about two hours past the US, Mexico border. I highly recommend you to take the tollroad route there for a straight shot to the valley. Google maps led us through the Tecate route which was very long and desolate on a dirt path (kinda sketchy lol). To be honest, both times I did feel a little apprehensive about driving through Tijuana but with the improvements of the toll roads and the city it’s self, it was a lot less stressful than I remembered it being about a decade ago. I did purchase Mexican car insurance for my car to make my mind at ease over the weekend. I purchased a two day insurance plan through www.bajabound.com and it was only $50 for the weekend! If you take the toll road route you will have to pay a small amount so have small bills in US dollars or Mexican pesos available. I believe we did 3 toll stops for less than $2 each. I did hear a horror story from one of my clients how she had to leave her cell phone at the toll station while she was searching for an atm. Yikes!
I’ve stayed at Airbnb’s but the highlight stay has been at a very modern boutique hotel called Encuentro. The rooms were pretty basic but cute and comfortable. One of our rooms was the Ecocasa which is the only suite on the property. The floor to ceiling windows made the view even more incredible! The star of the hotel was definitely the pool. It was an infinity pool overlooking the valley and not very crowded. Your stay at Encuentro comes with a complementary winetasting in their wine cave and unfortunately we didn’t have time for.
Eco Casa view at Encuentro.
I was so impressed with the wineries and restaurants we visited during my visits. Amazingly delicious plates that were mostly farm to table style and really refreshing, crisp wines. I can’t stress enough how incredibly fresh everything was! I highly recommend the Valle Food and Wine Festival. It’s every October and was one of the highlights of my year! It was about $100 USD for a ticket and it include unlimited food and wine for 2 hours but we feel like it was longer than that. There were booths with world renound chefs such as Wolfgang Puck, Rick Bayless and was founded in 2017 by chefs Javier Plascencia and Nancy Silverton and food writer Carolina Carreño.
Favorite bites: the ribeye steak at Deckman’s. Even the half portion was big enough for two people. SO juicy and you can taste the elements of their outdoor fire grill brought.
Steak at Deckmans
Literally everything at the food and wine festival!! We had restaurant portion bites from multiple booths and everything tasted insanely good!! It was such a great deal. Here are some of the bites!
Breakfast at Doña Estella is a staple to try in Baja. It was awarded one of the best breakfast restaurants in the world! The wait gets crazy long but it’s worth it.
Favorite site: the views from Cuatro Cuatros, a restaurant nestled on top of a mountian that has views of the valley and ocean! It was so beautiful and such a perfect lounge set up! I recomend for sunset but make sure to make a reservation!
The highlight of my previous visits has definitely been a wine tour on ATV’s. It was through Moto Tour Valle de Guadalupe, they were so pleaseant to work with! We chose the 4 hour tour for $80 USD. We had 4 stops but our favorite stop was Viña de Franes and decantos!
Getting around. The roads aren’t paved, so drive in an suv or crossover if possible! There are many resources if you wanted to book a personal winery tour in a private van. The driver we used was reliable and named Armando Cadena, +52 1 646 200 7459. One of my clients used him as well and had a great experience. Be prepared for a very long line at at border coming back to the US. The key is to leave EARLY at 5-6am to beat the weekend rush. I’ve been able to use my global entry to get into the centri express lane and that was less than 10 miinutes compared to the hours in the regular line. I did have to register my car online months ahead for the centri lane. I always felt safe. I’m mexican but I don’t speak Spanish (I can only order food lol) and it was easy for me to communicate because it’s a touristy area!
The wine was delicious. I wish I could have brought wine home from every winery however boarded patrol limits it to two bottle per person. So enjoy it while you’re there! Ask me more questions at out next appointment! Cheers!