Better Roads Offer Easy Access to Mexico’s Wine Country

“A Field of Dreams” is what I call vine­yards in north­west­ern Mexico’s Baja Cal­i­for­nia wine coun­try. I think every per­son who plants grapes has dreams of cre­at­ing some­thing per­sonal, spe­cial and significant.

As a grape grower I main­tain an inti­mate rela­tion­ship with grapevines, my own pri­vate Ital­ian fam­ily of Neb­bi­olo grapes. I’m blessed with spoiled Ital­ian bam­bi­nos who demand organic food, water twice a week, and they won’t per­form well unless I play Johannes Brahms and Fred­eric Chopin for them dur­ing the cool evenings, just before sun­set! And every vine­yard man­ager, wine­maker and win­ery owner has a vision to pro­duce the best pos­si­ble prod­uct, express­ing the land, the grapes, the pas­sion and the likes of each individual.

Vine­yards and winer­ies con­tinue to sprout up in the Valle de Guadalupe, and the “Wine Route,” the “Ruta del Vino,” is the link that now joins them together. Gone are the days when wine tast­ing in the val­ley was a com­bi­na­tion of the TV series Sur­vivor, off-road rac­ing and demo­li­tion derby.

The Ruta del Vino has been expanded, and the old dirt road from Fran­cisco Zarco towards Monte Xanic and beyond to Bibay­off and Viñas Pijoan has been paved. In the next month or two (Mex­i­can time) the road will be paved all the way from the lit­tle vil­lage of Fran­cisco Zarco to the free road near El Tigre. This is a rev­e­la­tion and a rev­o­lu­tion in the sense that you’ll no longer need “dou­ble strength” Poli­dent to keep your den­tures locked-in as you fight the wash­board roads where some unlucky folks often encoun­tered pot­holes that could eas­ily con­sume an entire car. And now, (for bet­ter or worse) you’ll see motor coaches at back coun­try winer­ies that once were acces­si­ble only to Baja off-road vehi­cles, ATV’s, ATC’s, naive grin­gos or local adven­tur­ers.  As well, the new road tra­verses once hid­den olive groves, tree farms, “old vine” vine­yards, ran­chos and “secret arti­san” wineries.

Today there are about ten to twelve winer­ies that can be eas­ily accessed via the new Zarco-El Tigre wine route. In order of loca­tion from Fran­cisco Zarco, they are Vini­cola Sueños; Fuentes Broth­ers; Monte Xanic; Chateau Camou; Adobe Guadalupe; Baron Balch’e; JC Bravo; The Wine School; La Villa; Bibay­off; and Viñas Pijoan.

And there are a few more “hid­den trea­sures” along the route wait­ing for your dis­cov­ery, but I’m leav­ing that adven­ture to those who still want a place to hide, relax and avoid the crowds. For lovers of the won­der­ful wine of Monte Xanic, you might note that they are now open on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day from 10 am to 3 pm They do not take motor coach tours, no groups larger than twenty peo­ple and with prior approval only.

Fam­i­lies look­ing for qual­ity wine with super value pric­ing, and a place for kids to play while mom and dad taste wine, should explore Vinos Fuentes win­ery near Km 1.25 on the new Zarco-Tigre wine route. One of the newer mem­bers in our regional “wine boom” is the fam­ily of Hec­tor and Miguel Fuentes, along with broth­ers Mark and Hec­tor Fuentes Jr. These native Baja Cal­i­for­ni­ans have a long his­tory of farm­ing in Mex­i­cali and Valle de Guadalupe. Over the last sev­eral years they have been con­vert­ing their for­mer fruit orchard into a fam­ily ori­ented win­ery, recre­ation area, bou­tique gift shop, tra­di­tional Mex­i­can restau­rant and steak house.  

Accord­ing to Miguel Fuentes, “hos­pi­tal­ity is the key here and we plan to built a family-oriented project where there is some­thing to offer the entire fam­ily, from young chil­dren to grand­par­ents. We are a fam­ily that respects and appre­ci­ates the needs of every­one in a fam­ily and we plan to share that per­spec­tive with our guests. The chil­dren can play in the recre­ation area with super­vi­sion, while the par­ents enjoy wines in our tast­ing room. We’ll offer food in our family-style restau­rant, snacks on the patio, bar­be­cues, and even host spe­cial events to include birth­day par­ties and wed­dings. We’re cre­at­ing a venue where we can offer some­thing for every­one in an envi­ron­ment based on fun, edu­ca­tion and fam­ily entertainment.”

Vinos Fuentes has sev­enty hectares of nat­ural and sus­tain­able land on both sides of the Guadalupe riverbed. Twelve hectares are planted with Mer­lot, Caber­net Sauvi­gnon and Tem­pranillo, while sev­eral addi­tional plots are planted in table grapes that include Ruby Red, Globe, Supe­rior and Thomp­son seed­less grapes. The vines range in age from two years to twenty-five years. In 2008, Miguel will plant Neb­bi­olo, Syrah, French Colom­bard and Mus­cat vines to com­pli­ment his wine port­fo­lio. The win­ery facil­ity, bou­tique gift shop and restau­rant are located in an 8,250 square foot build­ing on a beau­ti­ful and nat­ural farm setting.

Miguel cur­rently cre­ates small quan­ti­ties of high qual­ity wine that include 2005 Caber­net Sauvi­gnon; 2005 Caber­net Sauvignon/Grenache blend; 2006 Caber­net Sauvi­gnon; and 2006 Caber­net Sauvignon/Grenache blend. Com­ing soon will be his 2007 Mer­lot and 2007 Caber­net Sauvi­gnon. Vinos Fuentes wines are a Baja Cal­i­for­nia “super value” at US$10 to US$15 per bot­tle, with addi­tional case dis­counts.  Hours of oper­a­tion will start with Thurs­day through Sun­day from 10 am until dusk. Tast­ing fees are US$3 per­son – refund­able towards wine pur­chase. The win­ery is located on the paved road (Calle Prin­ci­pal No. 290) that passes through the small vil­lage of Fran­cisco Zarco, almost directly across from the entrance to Monte Xanic winery.