Valle de Guadalupe

Bae’s side of the family decided that the family trip this year was going to be Valle de Guadalupe, and of course I was more that excited, because who does not like lots of wine and great food?

Valle de Guadalupe is small region located in Baja California (2 hours from Tijuana and San Diego), where some of the country’s best wine comes from. You can find tons of wineries for every palate, from Sauvignon Blanc, Tempranillo, Syrah, Merlot, among other amazing grapes that make amazing wines.

We stayed at a small boutique hotel, Casa Mayoral, which had 6 small cabins (all occupied by the family) in an amazing location, if you google-it the pictures don’t do it justice, my favorite part was the terrace our cabin had, which overlooked vineyards:

For the vineyards, there are so many, impossible to visit all of them in a weekend, but the ones we did visit were amazing, so here are some of my recommendations:

Corona del Valle

The vineyard is beautiful, and they offer a tour of the grounds, so you hop on a wagon pulled by a tractor and off you go to taste wine and soak all the beauty. The tour is short but they give you wine and take you to an amazing place to take pictures so, win win.

After the tour we had reservations at the vineyard’s restaurant, and the food was definitely amazing. As appetizers we ordered a portobello mushroom cooked in a wine reduction that was out of this world (going to be trying this at home), a fresh fresh fresh scallop ceviche and a yummy grilled octopus. For the main dish I ordered the Pork Belly with beet puree that was amazing could not stop eating and the Shrimp in puff pastry with asparagus and baby carrots that was so creamy and good. Of course all of the meal was accompanied by their amazing 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, which paired beautifully. For dessert the flan and carajillos were a perfect ending to a great meal.

Las Nubes

This was the third vineyard of the day, so we wanted a place to sit, drink wine and enjoy the view and company, which is exactly what we did. They have an amazing terrace overlooking the valley, so we grabbed a couple of chairs and tables, order a few bottles of wine, cheese and charcuterie plates and enjoyed the moment. The wine is excellent, we tried a few: Cumulus, Nimbus, Selección de Barrica, and Kuiiy. All amazing!

Vena Cava

This is a totally different vineyard from the traditional ones, from the building made with recycled boats, to fermenting their wine in recycled plastic containers, they are an unusual but amazing vineyard.

They have natural wines (which are wines with little or no intervention, opposed to traditional wine making) which are very unusual wines, with distinct flavors, which are fun to try, but a little to strong and weird for me. The traditional wines are great! We tried a Mezcla Especial which was my absolute favorite and a Blend Especial, which was a little bit more fruity and not as potent and dry as the first one.

The people presenting the wine tasting were absolutely great and definitely knew their wines.

Altozano

Our last day in Valle de Guadalupe we had a planned dinner at the hotel with the whole family so we decided to do a quick bite to calm the hunger and help with all the wine, so we went to the food truck inside Altozano. This is a vineyard that houses of the most famous restaurants in Valle de Guadalupe, Animalon, which we did not have time to visit this time around, but on my list for the next time; so it was only obvious that the food truck had to be good.

The food truck had only “Lonches”, so I decided to get the Milanesa empanizada (breaded milanese), the bread warm as if out of the oven (they make the bread daily, YUM), with refried beans, avocado and coleslaw, safe to say it was ridiculously amazing. For the sides we tried the corn on the cob and the fried, and to wrap it all up, a cold craft beer.

Finca El Mirador - Pasión del Valle

Definitely one of my favorite restaurants, we ate here the first day for dinner and it was an amazing way to start the trip. We ordered a few bottles of wine and a whole lot of food, we ordered family style (my favorite) so we could try a lot of different dishes, a few of my favorites were: grilled octopus with cheese and chorizo (to die for), mussels with sofrito, pork chamorro, ceviche, and so many more, that we were so full that there was no room for dessert.

Puerto Nuevo & Ensenada

To get to Valle de Guadalupe you fly to Tijuana, get a car and drive the coast, beautiful road. On the road to Valle, there is a small town called Puerto Nuevo, known as Lobster Village, so make sure to stop for lunch for amazing and very famous freshly made flour tortillas, refried black beans and lobsters. There are many restaurants to chose from, but we ate at Casa del Pescador, with an amazing view of the ocean.

One place you CANNOT (I can’t stress this enough) miss if you are here is the world famous Guerrerense, which is a cart in the street that serves the best seafood ever. There is a restaurant in the corner, however the cart is the place to go, that is where the founder, Sabina Bandera, always is and serves the freshest and best seafood you will ever eat, you need to get there early in order to try all the amazing things it has to offer.

For me the tostadas are the ones to try, there are 4 that have won many prices around the world, my favorites are: sea urchin ceviche with clam on top and crab salad with shrimp, octopus and scallops. This last trip Sabina recommended the Campechana: tuna ceviche with shrimp, octopus, sea snail, scallops, mussels and clams. Anything and everything you try is amazing.