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Ensenada-wine tasting in Valle de Guadalupe!


norwega
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Who knew Mexico has incredible wine! They don't export to the US so if you enjoy small wineries and good wine, go to Valle de Gaudalupe. I found a husband and wife, she the guide, he the driver, who listened to our preferences, and took us to 4 wineries, 2 small and 2 larger, on a Tuesday, for $55 per person, which only includes their services of driving and guide, and a Tshirt!. http://wineroutebaja.com/ Average tasting fee was $12 I think and bottles of wine were $25-$35. We paid with credit card. We were there on the Carnival Imagination, and Eugenia and Luigi picked us up from the end of the pier at 10AM and dropped us off at 5PM. Our favorite winery I think was Sol y barro. I had asked if we could not go the a restaurant for lunch but just have some cheese, bread, etc, which we did at Sol y barro. We also went to Santo Tomas, which is one of the oldest wineries, where we tasted Chardonnay, Barbera, Syrah. We also visited Vinos ATP, which is not in the official guide http://www.discoverbajacalifornia.com/images/folletos-institucionales_pdf/Folleto-Ruta-del-Vino.pdf, but we enjoyed his wine very much! Merlot, Cab Sauv, Nebbiolo, and a blend of the 3. He and Sol y barro opened just for us, through reservations made by our guide, Eugenia. I was the only one of 4 of us that speaks Spanish, and all servers spoke English. The last winery we visited was Dubacano where we had a cheese plate as well as wine. In total we bought 9 bottles of wine, which Carnival took from us when we got back to the ship. We picked it up the morning we left and put it in our suitcases. We included it in our customs form, as it was probably over $300, no issues. Eugenia and Luigi also took us to the wine museum in Valle de Guadalupe, where they paid for our entrance. It was fantastic, clean, and they provided binders with English translations. We had a wonderful, quiet day, with incredible wine, warm conversation, and full of information. Another couple joined us at the last minute, as there was space in the van. Before we left the US, I reserved the tour, and Eugenia asked me to make a 30% downpayment so I sent her $33 via Paypal, email. I had never done that before, but she emailed me back in about 5 minutes saying "I received your money!" We paid the rest in US dollars. We could have paid via credit card. In fact we wanted to buy several bottles of wine at Santo Tomas, but their website/credit card wasn't working, and it was our first stop so we were hesitant to use all our cash, but Eugenia allowed us to pay her, and then she paid Santo Tomas.

It was a full day, alas we did not have time to buy any trinkets or be bothered by peddlers. We're fine with our wine as souveniers :-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

We are buying a condo at Rosarito and just discovered the Valle de Guadalupe wine country and spent a few hours at Santo Tomas last year. The venue is beyond anything we have done in the Napa Valley and the wine was very good, not excellent, but still very good. It probably needed to lay down for a few months.

 

Being down there we found Baja Test Kitchen that does foodie tours along northern Baja. Check out their www site as they will pick you up at the port and take you on an all day wine and foodie tour. They also pick up in San Diego and take you down. Actually, they have you walk across and pick you up on the Mexico side, which is actually a good idea to avoid the hours long back up going north.

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OP - glad you enjoyed Valle de Guadalupe. I much prefer to go here than our other local area in Temecula, which is north east of San Diego. Too bad you weren't really able to try any of the restaurants. Valle is lots of fun during the Vendimia (harvest) with special concerts and music. Come back if you can.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have book marked their www site and will use them next time we go to Rosarito. It also looks like they might be good for picking up friends at the border who come to visit us bring them to our condo and on to a wine tasting tour.

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