Guide to MEXICAN WINE - VALLE DE GUADALUPE MEXICO | Travel to Ensenada | America's #1 Wine Show

welcome to ensenada say it in spanish fees for vino is going south of the border never heard of mexican wine you say well get ready the area we're heading to has been called the napa valley in mexico and has been producing wine for hundreds of years this region is full of the spirit and passion the mexican people are known for and it permeates into every aspect of life the food the tenacity of the people the culture and the wine welcome to ensenada and welcome to v is for veto [Applause] luckily for me the main wine region of mexico is located less than four hours or so from my home in la and if you're in san diego it's less than two hours away making it perfect for day trips or long weekends we're driving to ensenada which is a region about 60 miles south of the border that includes the city of ensenada and the valle de guadalupe wine area this is all within the larger mexican state of baja california it's good when crossing borders to meet with a local tour guide or someone stateside who's made the trip before for me i went with my buddy josh who's been an advocate of baja for years and runs tours from san diego to help first-timers like me get the most out of their visits we made it across the border now all you and i got to do is go find a beach and live the rest of our lives down here i wouldn't mind in fact but we just got to find someone to fix this margaritas constantly because that's that's a necessity at the beach in uh in in mexico we couldn't film going across the border but essentially you just drive through there's a there's cameras and such but you pretty much just drive through unless they they stop for a secondary basically you just you go on the outside of tijuana and it places you right on this beautiful toll road uh called the quota because there's tolls and there's three tollbooths from tijuana to ensenada government's done a great job with keeping this road uh well maintained on you know on a clear day like this with no traffic man you're only looking at about an hour and we really were only what half hour from san diego to the border hour and a half from san diego and you're you're there yep and so we're heading down to your favorite place why why is it your favorite place yeah there's this energy about that place and it's just something you can't replicate it's like if you're here doing it now and you're experiencing via guadalupe the way it is now pure and and just you know farm to table restaurants open open seating it's brilliant it's just a brilliant overall scene and the wine to boot is high quality and you like it enough that you've started running towards them yeah yeah so i started this business around five years ago i have such an affinity for the the region and i understand how some americans can be hesitant to come down to mexico they don't have a driver so i said you know what i'm gonna start a tour company and i'm to give i want to give people the same experience that i had going down there i'd be much more comfortable coming down with someone like you first time than maybe coming on my own yeah you know knowing how to navigate the dirt roads once you're down inviting guadalupe also knowing how to drive you know in mexico um and knowing where to go it just gives you an overall sense of um comfort looks like we're gonna be in the car for a bit a perfect time to brush up on our mexican wine history [Music] so is the mexican wine scene new or old i'd say a little both let's start with the old at 500 years of history mexico is actually the oldest wine growing country in all of the americas okay from the top in the 1520s hernan cortes the spanish conquistador had complete control of much of what is now mexico though he was calling it new spain he and his men had brought some wine from spain but naturally it only lasted so long so he did what any wine loving conqueror would do and ordered his men to grow grapes over time more and more grapevines were brought from spain and planted in mexico this lasted until around 1699 when the king of spain charles ii noticed people were buying less spanish wines chelsea took over and he halted production of all mexican wines except for those for religious purposes his plan kind of worked let's just say there were a lot more people willing to observe the sacrament this hurt the mexican wine market significantly as these restrictions lasted up until mexican independence in 1810 next between the mexican revolution and a combination of social political economic factors plus phylloxera commercial wineries weren't really planted in the baja region until the 1970s baja's high quality wine making renaissance is relatively recent starting in the late 1980s into the early 90s but the growth has been quick there are now over 100 wineries here which is more than some american wine regions like lodi california or the finger lakes in new york better techniques and equipment better grape selection for the terroir and cleaner water have all helped the industry improve over time however the number one factor in the rise of this region is simply the sharing of knowledge resources and skills between the winemakers [Music] we arrived in downtown ensenada the closest major city just 45 minutes south of wine country to meet with a friend and one of the many local certified tour guides from the area mariana [Music] what is this place we're in i mean it's obviously a historical building but tell me about it this happens to be one of my favorite bars here in ensenada it's called the bar and loose and it's placed and setting is in a historical building california style spanish-style building that is from the 1930s and to today we enjoy it as a spot to hang out have margaritas my margarita is perfect and this is one of the spots that is rumored to be where it originated right there are many urban legends that circle around the margarita drink people from the state of chihuahua national tourism they would probably say no no it was invented in juarez city in sioux so it really depends these urban legends make it like part of our identity here in sonata yeah there's a lot of cocktails that are like that i know the old-fashioned there's like six bars who want to say that they were the one who invented it and it's now just lost to history uh so we just drove we just drove in here we're now in in downtown ensenada what makes devaye and what makes ensenada area so special when i started as a tour guide i was 19 years old and i wanted to get myself through college and i had the advantage that i spoke english as many local tour guides do to this day right ensenada has the particularity that it has many things to offer and one of the things that i love well for sure is seafood because i grew up having my parents say eat this eat that and it could have been an oyster it could have been even a piece of creole sure and then as time went by i started discovering the world of wine and then i started discovering mixology and then i started discovering uh craft beer and it made a real big front with all the commercial brands of beer that everyone knows the eclectic gastronomy scene the i mean the port the fishing town the fresh seafood everything going on here it's one of the only places in the in the region in in this part of the world where this is happening now and we're a part of it and it's very special and all the history behind it mines gymnastics and pyramids and the natives and the russians and the missions but there was also a huge melting pot here in ensenada and i think that is something that a lot of people don't really understand about baja california yeah i mean it's simultaneously new and old right you have this new you know wine region that and the culinary scene that is evolving continuously but at the same time they've been making wine here a long time obviously we're like you see the history of what we're doing now we're in a 1930s building drinking the place that maybe invented the margarita so you have you have all this history that you can come visit but you can also go and explore the brand new ensenada and the brand new valley as well we've been interacting with this border crossing for all our lives this is a huge part of our identity so many of us we grew up going to this san diego area and coming back and also many san diego's and los angeles los angeles they've always come down here and little by little the united states many states have been um discovering how how complex baja california actually is it's really cool because when you come into this region like and you drop down into the valley from the mountain this overall sense of i'm home so we did just that we drove 45 minutes over the hill from downtown ensenada into the via the guadalupe wine region let's get oriented shall we 90 of mexico's wine is made in the area near downtown ensenada colloquially known as the valley guadalupe let's break it down geographically the actual vibe to guadalupe is where the bulk of the tasting rooms hotels and restaurants are but people use the words valle de guadalupe to refer not only to the valley itself but also the surrounding areas where grapes are grown in fact less than half of the grapes grown come from the literal via guadalupe many also come from nearby wine regions like ojos negros lagruya santo tomas and san vincente it's like living in a suburb but only referring to the big city nearby for a simplicity sake the climate here is exactly what you'd expect from a mexican wine region spicy no not spicy dry and hot the via is right at the edge of being too close to the equator and thus too hot to make wine at all but if you watch this show you know where i'm going from here like most great wine regions there are a few x factors or microclimates that allow grapes to grow number one is the breeze coming from the pacific keeping the grapes cool and dry number two is the higher altitude that the grapes are planted at this may be the only time that being left high and dry is actually good this is because you get diurnal shifts or temperature fluctuations from day to night that allow the grapes to ripen in the day but stop ripening and retain acidity at night hey the terroir here contributes to a characteristic almost all mexican wine share a beautiful stony saline-like minerality this is common in other places in the world too like chibli muscade and santorini the saline quality is a result of the ocean breeze and soil in the early days of baja wine making winemakers wrestled with this attribute but as they've honed in their techniques has become an integrated part of the wines and gives them a distinctive calling card i'll admit it before i arrived here i kind of thought the lodging would be cute little casitas and motels and while those definitely exist antanana is known for some of the most trendy sustainable luxury boutique hotels around a perfect desert oasis after a long day in the valley sun [Music] there's something hauntingly unique about a wine region in a desert and what that means hotels built into the jagged rocks and cliffs surrounding the valley overlooking up into the massive open plains [Music] if you're more of a city dweller you can stay in downtown ensenada just 40 minutes or so from the valley itself [Music] or if you want to get away from it all might i suggest glamping in some vineyards [Music] i could do this forever but we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow so i will see you in the am hasta manana [Music] i have something really important to tell you don't worry it's not you it's me i realize that i've never explicitly said it on this show before despite it being the number one thing that could take us to the next level it's the single most fundamental change you can make in your understanding of wine it's the importance of place too dramatic that's better my main goal with this show is for you to be able to find wines you enjoy and understanding the importance of place is the easiest way to get you there you see americans tend to look for wine based on grape variety they say i'd like a cabernet or like a chardonnay whereas european wines are all labeled based on the place they come from think sansaire or burgundy the reason they do this is that place affects a wine's character more so than the grape it's made from the reason place affects wine is a combination of local laws tradition and terroir it's also the reason we filmed this show in a different region every episode not just a different winery don't get me wrong the grape is important and definitely helps define the flavor profile of the wine for instance syrah is almost always going to have black pepper characteristics no matter where it's grown but the style of the wine that's based on place let's use my favorite example chardonnay i can't tell you how many people have said the words to me i don't like chardonnay what they're usually referring to is a style of chardonnay that's very popular in northern california big ripe with lots of vanilla baking spice butter and creme brulee flavors but what about a chardonnay from shablee france which is lean high in acid light mineral driven with tart apples side by side you wouldn't even know they were the same grape so what can we take away from this well number one when you find a wine you like remember where it came from and drink more wines from that same area that leads me to number two don't give up on a grape because he had a version of it you didn't like try it groan from somewhere else and number three share this info when you go to assam or a salesperson and tell them the grapes and the places that you typically enjoy for instance if you tell them you like a savion blanc they don't really have enough information to go off but if you tell them you like a napa sauvignon blanc you've now essentially told them that you like new world warm climate savion blocks now they can find you other similar wines they may send you to a chilean sauvignon blanc a south african chenin blanc or even an argentinian torantes because they're similar in style to a new world warm climate sauvignon blanc and now that you know the importance of place start drinking as many places as you can because the world wine is way too vast to drink the same things your whole life so we've talked all about why people love it here the climate geography but what exactly did it grow here well a little bit everything this region hasn't really landed on one signature grape variety it's a new frontier of wine growing which is precisely why so many winemakers from all over the world are drawn here as far as whites chenin blanc soft blank and chardonnay are all popular but because of the heat most of the grapes are red cabernet sauvignon syrah tempernillo zinfandel merlot nabiolo grenache malbec san diego and a native grape called mission all popular grapes the style of these wines are big rich robust high alcohol kick in the face reds if you're a fan of big reds from california you are going to love the bae another important thing to understand about valley wines many are not single varietal wines say 100 cabernet or 100 temper neo but instead are unique red blends that are found nowhere else in the world things like cabernet syrah or cabernet sangiovese or tempranillo syrah you get what i'm saying because here there are no wine laws or boards in place mandating techniques which grapes must go into which wines or which grapes can be planted where wine makers have the freedom to experiment with incredibly unique blends there's nowhere else in the world that grows italian french spanish varieties all within the same region it's a bit of the wild west of the wine world there is one grape that the valley is beginning to hang its hat on for single varietal wines and it's probably not the grape you'd expect i'll give you some hints it's typically made in cool climates its tanning structure is through the roof and it's really only made in one other place in the world give up it's nebiolo the grape of barolo and barbaresco in northern italy but isn't the valley a warm climate it is which is why it's a bit of an anomaly that they're making it here as opposed to light bodied with tart red fruits the vine nebiolos are fuller bodied inky with dark red and black fruits and the tannin structure is still sky high there's usually flavors of oak plums blackberry licorice cocoa violets roses and even tar these wines are super high quality and super age worthy and i've got the perfect place to try them out as you've seen the valley has its fair share of luxury boutique tasting rooms but the beauty and charm of this region is this everyone regardless of where you're from your experience or how much backing you have can find their place here in the valley so when i stumbled into adrian's tasting room for the first time i felt an energy that embodied this mexican spirit welcome to retorno this to me is the spirit of a young up-and-coming exciting wine region sometimes we have people coming from different parts of the world a bunch of them saying that here it's like a wine region like very close to napa like 20 years ago tell me retorno first off how did you get the name what does that mean uh u-turn u-turn so it's hence the label yeah it was like kind of a u-turn for my life of being in a big city having like all commodities to get into a place where you you have like a straight contact with the earth with the soil with the plants with with the everything quickly tell me a little bit about your what is your wine making philosophy we take the rape we don't make any correction we don't have any water we don't add any acid like citric or tartaric acid we want to take the grape as it comes that year and to turn it into the wine we make blends so we make a natural correction with it sure so rather than acidify which i won't name any name but there's a lot of wineries in the world who will do that to correct something you'd rather say all right why have this big wine that you know this year we didn't get as much acid out of these grapes so let's blend it with a higher acid grape and balance it that way that's it yeah and that's really cool because a lot of wine regions cannot do that because of either the laws or expectations around the region you know one of the things that's amazing about ensenada and about divided guadalupe is you can blend whatever you want there's no rules for what you have to put into your wine there's no rules of what percentage needs to be what one part of the wine making here is that we don't have that rules so we can have all the time experiments if you go and if you go tasting here in the valley and you go from tasting room to tasting room everyone has different blends they have different wines they have different grapes rather than you know being the same thing everywhere you go some some wine regions here's my version of a pinot here's my version of pinot here's my version of pinot here i don't know like what i'm going to walk into and that's the fun of it so we will start with a tail which is uh the chenin blanc that we have this one has a one deer in oak barrel new barrow very good this is this is oak shannon block very strange to have a shiny blanket for uh for a year in october just going back to like you know you can do whatever you want here you know hey like everybody else is making chatted and you know in stainless well i want to make it i want to yeah and no one can stop you and no oak which is like more strong yeah sure so i just had my first sip this is still poppy because that's the danger of oak right you can lose all your acid but this is fresh this one um has like half of malolactic in oak barrel half mallow very cool and if you combine that with the tropical notes i almost get like a like a toasted coconut thing because you get that oak and then the mallow gives it that creaminess like you would have a coconut that's really cool this wine reminds me a bit of like if you're a chardonnay lover you would love this wine if you love northern california style chardonnays but with a lot more restraint it's a little bit you know it's medium body the acid is still fresh and you get these really really fun tropical notes that you just typically don't get with with chardonnay unless it's way too ripe sweet things also like honey like very mature pineapple yeah this is this is badass i love this wine this one is palabra symphony at least 70 okay and the rest of it is tempranillo and barbera if the symphony is perfect we make a one hundred percent symphony okay but then if we need to have some acidity or we need to have some uh structure on the wine we add some instead of manipulating the wine in post-production what can we blend to make it you know to give it that lift or to give it that depth or whatever you need that smoky spice that zinfandel is known for mixed with the the brightness of the red fruits and a good amount of oak i mean kind of leathery tannins on this too this is feels like it could be a red meat wine for sure yeah sure you can pair with molle would you compare it with birya the last one it's or naviolo it's called decada which is like a 10-year anniversary wine and we decided to leave this naviolo for three years three years three years in barrel in barrow wow and then we decided to leave it for two more years in the bottle in a bottle wow so you have a five year old wine wine you know a lot of people say what is the difference between you know cheap wine and expensive wine and i'd say most of it is one the fruit that's going in and then it's are you paying the winery to store it for you and and do that aging for you and then obviously the oak oak is expensive just generally what's funny is that one of the things that makes barolo or barbaresco expensive they too have to mandate their aging process in oak before they're allowed to release it and what's cool about you is you're doing it voluntarily so you don't have to do this you could release naviolo in one year or six months but instead you chose to do it like this and that's the the freedom that this region allows so at the nose soil dirt some cinnamon and then you got dry leaves yeah like dried tobacco and then it turns like very sweet like a mature fix i get a rich dark character from the fruit like beautiful mouth coating kind of juicy blackberries and the tannin structure is beautifully integrated it coats the mouth but it's not like a young wine where i get really socked in the face with tannin it's well integrated into the wine and that's obviously due to the the aging it was an honor to taste with you thank you thank you for coming [Music] cheers [Music] hey everyone i wanted to tell you about our brand new vino vip club you can sign up on our website and get behind the scenes videos full interviews episode commentaries and virtual tastings and discounts on the lines from the show plus your support really helps us continue to make new episodes thanks again and now back to the show [Music] [Music] welcome to the beat if you use nerd lab we take complicated wine topics and make them simple today we're talking about hangovers that's so loud man we've all been there we barter for a bit of fun one day just to pay for it the next i'm talking about the salvia which is the scientific name for a hangover ever since man invented fermented beverages they've been cursed with hangovers or blessed depending on your perception after all if it weren't for hangovers what would stop us from drinking all day long the weird thing about hangovers is that despite the troubles they've provided human beings with over the millennia we know surprisingly little about why they happen or how to cure them sure we've achieved engineering feats such as seedless watermelons but no surefire way for me to painlessly enjoy a day of wine tasting followed by a night of tequila shots thanks for nothing science kidding aside let's start with the why most scientists recognize that hangovers occur due to a mix of the following factors dehydration the increase of acid in your stomach electrolyte imbalance your immune system thinking it's being poisoned low blood sugar blood vasodilation alcohol withdrawal when you're done drinking and finally not being able to sleep well and recover since research shows that it's a mix of these factors at play it kind of makes sense that we can't really pinpoint a solution yet are certain types of alcohol worse for your hangovers for the most part not really studies show that beer wine and liquor all have about the same hangover severity because at the end of the day it's the alcohol that matters but there are a few exceptions darker alcohols like brown spirits and dark tannic red wines tend to have more congeners containers contain chemicals other than the alcohol itself which studies show can make your hangovers worse carbon dioxide like in sparkling wines and bubbly mixers and also make your hangovers worse since co2 helps alcohol enter the bloodstream quicker then you have your sugary drinks and mixers which don't necessarily have any effect on the hangover itself but does make it a lot easier to consume more drinks in a shorter amount of time plus you wouldn't normally eat three slices of cake in one sitting because you know you feel bad the next day but you probably wouldn't hesitate having three drinks with the same amount of sugar does mixing beer wine and liquor make hangovers worse no but your friend in college who swore by liquor before beer you're in the clear is probably right order matters the more alcohol you drink the harder it is for your body to process said alcohol so start with higher alcohol drinks while your liver can process it a little better and then give your liver a break with beer or wine towards the end of the night are there any surefire remedies well there's certainly no lack of options sports drinks vitamins electrolytes exercise spicy food greasy food soupy food tea coffee painkillers and of course more booze hair the dog anybody some crazy theories include rubbing lemons under your armpits in puerto rico drinking pickle grind in poland and drinking a tea made from green tree ants in australia and by all means if you found a hangover remedy that works go for it because the reality is that there is no proven hangover cure that's been effective besides time rest and perhaps replenishing fluids and sodium levels so our biggest scientific conclusion today moderation is key hangovers would have to be proof that you had a good time i hope you enjoyed this nerd lab on hangovers and as always keep geeking mexican cuisine in america oftentimes means quesadillas and burritos but the truth is that contemporary mexican food resembles nothing close to its american cousin and the food scene here in the valley well i'll be honest it's gonna blow your mind before our big meal at fauna one of the most famous restaurants in the valley i met with chef david husson at the local fish market to talk about how he became one of mexico's most respected chefs cheers man thank you for having me in ensenada what do we have uh this is a half order okay half order of uh ceviche la casa she's really close to the market that i want to show you uh later on that's basically where they get like 80 of their ingredients that is why i want to bring you here fresh product super tasty very simple this looks amazing so and because enzonata is essentially a port town so it's a fishing it's a fishing town yeah they're bringing it all in which is so cool exactly every day we get a fresh product but like a lot of people say that and it's like five six seven days old and this is like they go in the morning really really early by seven o'clock i'm already getting a text from the the fishermen is like uh today i have three guys you know i have three fish three yellowtail or two rock cuts or and i was like okay that's what we're gonna have today and that's it and so yeah and you get your stuff for the restaurant you'll come here pick it up and that's that's what you use okay cool yeah that is why when we go to the market probably you're gonna see a lot of people are like hey hi how are you hey yeah they all do yeah i'm here every day that is why i found a spot in the parking lot when everybody's like not finding a spot i already have my guy there he's like oh king david yeah red carpet okay so what is this okay that's extremely spicy how spicy okay no it's not spicy just go for it just go for it oh yeah that's that's gonna yeah it's good it's good oh it's delicious but it's really spicy yeah yeah all right okay i'm not shy so go for it please so tell me tell me about the restaurant is it i think it's elevated in a way of the product and the freshness talks but not really elevated in at least not for for founder it's not elevated with flowers and with you know fancy stuff it's like this like you don't see any flowers or anything that is so tasty and we focus on that we focus on just making food taste how it should be you are doing what actual mexican cuisine is it's really just taking the fresh ingredients and now you're using you know a lot of the same ingredients but they're done in ways that we don't see often and so you have that communal seating and that really just like leans into the party atmosphere right everybody's at the table they're having a good time yeah it happens a lot of times that people don't know each other they eat together in fauna and then they come back now as friends and they eat together and found again i have to let you go because you have to prep for a big dinner with us i know thank you so i am so excited to eat there tonight i can't even tell you cheers cheers man [Music] no one likes to eat alone so i gathered six of the best wine makers from the valley to dine at fauna santiago from santo tomas the oldest winery in baja lulu who spent 16 years in france but decided to return to her home to make wine for bruma glenda representing vena cava who's making some of the best natural wine in the valley santiago the young gun who's a master of fun fresh new style wine kristen from lechuza the santa barbara transplant who's one of the most passionate advocates for the valley i know and fernando from cavas velmar one of the most respected elders of the valley i've been to other young wine regions and they're not as established as the valley quality across the board is fairly high and i think that's because everybody works together really well one i mean i spent 16 years in france and of course france is a very you know a lot of rules and it was a grand cru so even more rules and i remember coming back and i'm from ensenada my family has been here for five generations so i'm you know really really proud insane but i had forgotten i left when i was 16 and came 17 and came back when i was 30 30. and i had forgotten how nice we are if i don't have something i can give a i know that i've called both of you guys during this harvest because this harvest came fast um rather than failing or allowing your neighbor to fill that idea of let's just all succeed together mission is not a common grape i've seen in california or anywhere else in the world so tell me about it we do have mission grapes planted in the valley which happens to be the plant that the vine that was introduced by the missionaries it's an important wine for us because it represents us and it has our origin in the in in bottle and in the label so it's we are missionaries made for everyday purpose you can drink it with pretty much anything jeff decided it was very interesting with abalone so fish seafood we laughed because chef spoiled us abalone is one of the most expensive shellfish around and the light white mission wine with its crisp acidity and citrus fruits paired perfectly and made a great apertivo wine no now we're going to relax who's who's lap or christian fernando they have to stress the whole dinner they go last i will just be very fluid at that point tell me a little bit about why dubai why did you choose here to make wine why did you choose here to live and be part of this culture well i think like a lot of people here bailly chose us once you're here you're surrounded by talented smart uh eager people and it's contagious and you want to be a part of that there's all sorts of levels here right there are large estates and you know hotels and beautiful uh places that have a lot of investment in them but there's also a lot of room for the little guy to come in and buy land and that's something i can't say about a lot of places in the world you don't go to napa and see robert mondavi and this and that you know any any given monday and here you see all of us the wine makers the chefs now you can find good wine everywhere i say that all the time good wine is everywhere but good solid community in people exactly what we're eating what we're seeing what we're smelling what we're living that's what makes the valley unique and community definitely ninety percent of our success this is your one this is my baby this is your wife yes very good tell me about it this is a hundred percent san jose varietal yeah i love to begin with the color you know when you see a very pale colored rose you know you're going to get freshness you're going to get nice acidity kind of very fruit forward aromas and of course very dry it's really cold in a place that is known for bigger boulder style reds you can achieve this sort of lightness and freshness how do you do that is it combination of altitude is it when you pick picking at the precise moment when you have nice aromas complex complexity instead of intensity chef prepared broccoli with a broccoli puree and smoked chili and the freshness from the rose contrasted the smoky character perfectly all right on to the next course it's a scallop poaching and brown butter uh egg computer at the bottom and flour tortilla to uh make a little taco burrito or lightly that's exactly so you brown the so i'm not gonna tell your recipe yeah this dish is unreal i think it's everyone's favorite yeah this is about as good as it gets okay so this is orange wine skin contact first vena cava started making these natural wines in 2014 but we have 15 years as as a winery in vena cava we don't add any sulfites or any yeast to start fermentation it starts naturally aromas of um apricot or dried fruit and also some nuts and these wines are just fun like i they're fun wines there and i know they're not obviously we say they're grapes not oranges but a lot of times you get that tangerine that you know really just juicy tangerine i think elsewhere or in other countries or regions where there's a lot of history behind as an industry um you have to be categorized either you're a natural wine maker or low intervention or you make new style wines or classical or here no labels you have the same producer making a super traditional bordeaux blend and you know a natural skin contact line in the same house and nobody blinks an eye which is really fun oh man what a killer dish but it's a tough dish to pair as the charred eggplant brings some weight to the dish but the scallops are still light and delicate for these in-between dishes orange wine can work great it's weighty enough for the smoky eggplant while retaining enough acidity to cut through the fat of the brown butter and match the acid of the citrus in the dish all right on to the next course uh porcial aguacate tomatillo cilantro a lot of lemon juice in there tortillas taquito and joy all right so what we are trying today is our 2018 movie uh murvedor is not a grade that is like really common in this area there's not that many vineyards that work with it however being that we are in a hot weather region uh it has adapted greatly so laverton is 100 state-grown single vineyard this wine tends to be somewhere around 13.3 13.5 in alcohol it's got a great acidity it's a combination of the clone of mervedra that we're working with along with the sandy soils that we have that gives you this sort of like really uh mid to light bodied moon veteran with great new ones great aromatics you know you got all this like the flowers and spices on this wine yeah and and the one thing i'll say and i hope nobody takes it the wrong way because i mean as a compliment is a lot of these wines are somewhat unpolished in a great way like the rustic when i think of a lot of old world wines right and you get this beautiful rustic quality to it i like it when it feels like a taste from the ground authentic right yeah and that's i get that from this i got that a lot from the rose and that's really fun another one of the best dishes i've had in a long time the fatty salty pork jowl which is similar to pork belly needs acid from the wine and this beautiful muvedra has that in spades it also continues our light to heavy progression and is our first red wine of the meal i can eat tacos for every meal every course of every meal it's only a vehicle it's like a spoon so we have a lamp this is uh so brace which is a whole the whole piece then shred it steer really hard in the plancha at the bottom is rojo from mohawk it's a very special chili that we love to we love to use here in fauna and butternut squash finally the season just started last week so we're very excited to have this dish back salsa negra squash tortillas tacos enjoy okay this is a cabernet sauvignon 2013 our style is the antique style it's a too much time in barrel too much time in bottle and then when i'm ready to send to the market i said it's okay with the barrel french oak it's a good combination with coffee chocolate and fruits and spices and vegetables and everything then it's a very very complex wine every time i go in i smell something different the blend allows you the red fruit and black fruit combination you get this beautiful spice from the barrel and then obviously you get the the benefit of the age and so you can even see it in the color you can see some of that beautiful amber and still fresh by the way like very very fresh uh for a seven-year-old wine at this point yes how awesome and then we also we have a second wine as well so this is our this is our naviolo right yes yes this is a 2016 nebula it has first the celebration of the fruit on the front end it has that that beautiful freshness and then it is followed by backbone and structure some of the cult lines in northern california you get a lot of that similar characteristic in this where you get that buttery creaminess from from the oak character and you have a grape like nabiolo with an insane tanning structure that can stand up to it really well definitely the age ability but it it has a nice suavecito-ness i know you you don't want to be like smooth it's a word that you think may be overused but you can you cannot use suave that's way more exciting this food i'm stealing that one we saved our big reds for last the rich seared shredded lamb was amazing with our rich bold wines that was supposed to be the end of our tasting but fernando one of the elders and founders of the valley well he had one last surprise for us this is a very very special cabernet sauvignon 97 i think this this year was the best of the last 23 years for me this is 23 years old wine and i think it's the the wine that represents the potential the vocation of baja california because it's alive this complex is well taste thank you this is just like a typical uh tuesday right you know i struggle sometimes when i'm in the moment and we're filming but i know this will be one of the moments that i remember for a long time so i really appreciate uh what you guys have done how lucky are we yeah i remember when i lived on the horse ranch the the question the jokers was i wonder what the rich people are doing because we we may not be rich in the sense of money but this here man i'm richard [Music] and with that it was time to say goodbye to mexico of all the wine regions i've been to so far the valley and ensenada was the most unexpected i didn't foresee being so blown away by the genuine caring and hospitality of the people everyone is so overjoyed to share their culture with you it's easy to get wrapped up in the magic of it all and forget that this part of the world has been through a lot but in their struggles they found a freedom older wine regions can't partake in freedom to make what you want in the style you want the freedom to be ingenuitive crafty and brave with your choices and the freedom to turn dirt roads into a desert oasis i'll be watching with anticipation as the via guadalupe and ensenada evolve over the next few decades so that one day i'll be able to say i was there when i hope you enjoyed ensenada and we'll see you next time on v is for vino future is here [Music] in your mind [Music] [Music] hey vince here hope you enjoyed the episode for more behind the scenes content and interact with me make sure you're following on instagram at videos for vino you

Channel: V is for Vino Wine Show

Views: 24,008

Keywords: Learn wine easily, Travel wine country, Where to drink wine, How to drink wine smart, Learn fun wine topics, where to eat in wine country, travel the world of wine, how to study for wine exam, how to pick wine you like, winemaker stories, how to visit baja california, ensenada travel, how to drive to mexico, mexican wine country, fancy mexican food, where to go in valle de guadalupe, america's wine show, best food in baja, san diego wine tour, valle de guadalupe mexico

Id: -1pE5OtpGOI

Length: 46min 14sec (2774 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021