Baja wine, making big strides

Very few people know this, but Mexico was actually the first place in the new world where wine was made. The first winery in the new world was “Santa Maria de las Parras”, in the north central state of Cohauila, and even today it operates as Casa Madero.

For Mexicans until recent generations, wines have been a thing you use for cooking Christmas dinners and not much else. Famous brands like Pedro Domecq and Padre Kino where regulars at supermarket stands but nobody dared to drink them, wine as simple, bad, and for cooking.

All of that changed in the early 1990´s, wineries realized that there was a market in the new emerging middle class of Mexico, and started the first efforts to make drinkable wines. Brands like Monte Xanic, Sto Tomas, LA Cetto, Domecq, started to make pretty decent wines that while still amateurish in nature, found a domestic market eager to consume home made wine. In the late 1990s, we started to see the first small scale boutique wines, names like Mogor Badan, Bibayoff, Chateau Camou, Vino de Piedra, and others where the first wineries who pushed for creating wine that was not only drinkable, but very good. Results where mixed, some years some winemakers created good to very good wines, and other years it was drinkable again. This past decade, we have seen wineries in Baja jump from maybe a dozen, to at least 50 labels and growing. And after 20yrs of hard work, i can honestly say some wines are simply outstanding. I have tried some Guadalupe Valley cabernets that could easily compete with some of the top Napa names, and quality keeps rising and breaking old rules.

Another interesting aspect of Baja wines is their style, instead of the typical one grape wines from america, or the traditional french blends, you see a lot more experimentation with different grapes here. Grapes like Nebbiolo, Petit Sirah, Mission, Carignan, and other not so popular grapes in the americas, are widely used here for winemaking. The results are interesting wines, and lately because of the hard work of the winemaking community, complex and unique. Other wine regions are starting to come alive all over the place, wine growing vines have moved from the traditional Guadalupe Valley, to Ojos Negros and other valleys, and theres plans for making wine in the Vizcaino desert in the southern Baja peninsula in the not so distant future.

Here are some top brands that are making good wine here in Baja:

Santo Tomas: A long time value winemaker who has struggled to create high end wines. if you stick to their traditional wines like Tempranillo, Tempranillo-Cab, or Barbera, you can't lose.

LA Cetto: The biggest producer in Mexico has been accused on selling mainly quaffable wine, but not any more, Cetto has been pumping pretty decent wine lately, and even their low end labels are making heads turn. Try their Petit Sirah, their 2010 Chenin Blanc, and you will see.

Baron Balche: Mexico's most expensive wines come from this winery. Some of their wines are superb yet in my opinion, overpriced, but if you put price aside, some of their wines like their 2012 Syrah can show you what the future of Baja holds.

Casa Baloyan: This is one of the newest wineries, and also one making perhaps the best wine ever made in Mexico at a decent price. Try their 2008 vino tres tintos @ $275 pesos and be ready to become a mexican wine lover, not to miss is also their 2007 reserva Cabernet Sauvignon @ $585 pesos and taste the best damn cab you can find in northamerica outside of Cali and Washington.

Other names: Emeve, Montefiori, Roganto, San Rafael, Pijoan, and many others.


© Jesus Chavez – 2011 all rights reserved