We didn’t have the highest hopes for Mexican wine. It doesn’t tend to feature too heavily in the local wine aisles. In fact, has anybody seen Mexican wine for sale anywhere, ever? Maybe there’s a reason for that….
Sol de Media Noche, our first winery, was a hectic affair, with small wooden trays thrust into our hands at the door, which contained a Lilliputian sized assortment of cheeses.
Cautiously, we asked “err, wine tasting…? Vino?” This was met by a blank stare, a curt “no”, and a gesture which could best be interpreted as “follow me”. We were hustled over to a busy table where we were greeted, thankfully, by someone who spoke English. What followed was a lightning speed commentary on the cheeses, including one that was described as so bland it is just what the doctor orders when you are sick. This was accompanied by 3 red wines which started off sweet and just got sweeter. So a memorable but not the finest introduction to Mexican wine.
The Guadalupe Valley in the Baja winelands is actually home to hundreds of vineyards. So surely with a bit more research I’d be able to redeem myself in choosing somewhere better. Las Nubes got excellent ratings and sounded promising – and so jumped to the top of our list. Definitely more of a first world winery, this one actually had proper toilets and a large open building and patio for wine tasting. Tick. No Spanglish required, we were presented with branded Las Nubes stemmed wine glasses and we got stuck in. The wine was actually rather good (the standouts – a ‘Nimbus’ blend of cabernet, merlot & tempranillo and a Nebbiolo), the cheese and tapas plate decent, and the views of mountains and vineyards just perfect.
Our last night involved a stay in the Mexican border town of Tecate.
Walking back from the taco bar involved running the gauntlet past the dogs of the local Tecate neighborhood. Imagine a reality tv show where the dogs are auditioning for Best Guard Dog! Not content with a little woof to let us know they’re there, each dog we passed seemed intent on outshining the previous one, with a deeper growl, a louder bark or a more ferocious snarl.
Not to scale and not one of the actual wild dogs – but you get the idea.
The little dogs were like mini-Houdinis, able to escape whatever bars or gates were supposed to keep them in. They used this to their advantage to follow, nay chase us down the street relentlessly yapping at our heels, while their bigger butcher cousins lorded it atop precipitous brick walls, drooling and slavering as they eyed us up and down hungrily. Meanwhile, the local cats looked decidedly smug, alert yet carefree as they sauntered around like they owned the place, using us as a diversion.
We had chosen Tecate as not only did it require taking a beeline through the Mexican wine route, but it was also a much smaller, less touristy and less frequented border town than Tijuana. Didn’t particularly feel like the easy way out as we queued up to leave the country. As border crossings go, I guess we were right – only took us 2 hours to get through immigration this time compared with 3 hours at Tijuana in a prior visit.
We did run a sweepstake in the car as to how long it would take. Maybe Darren and I have been in the US too long… Shelley, the pessimistic Brit won. And yet coming into Mexico had taken us less than 15 minutes. Funny that!