Finally! Another Valle Girls’ Trip (Part 1)

Pre-COVID, my friend Patti and I made semi-regular gals’ trips to Valle de Guadalupe. We resurrected that tradition earlier this year, booking a cabin at Casa Mayoral, with one bed on the ground floor, another in the loft. We’ve stayed at CM twice before, but never in this casita/cabin. 

Cabin #1 at Casa Mayoral.

We love the ambiance and staff at CM. It’s south of the Ensenada-Tecate highway, far enough away to feel secluded and enjoy the nature, but with relatively quick access to the main highway. 

View from our little balcony at Casa Mayoral.

After checking in, our first stop was one of our favorites – Vinos Lechuza, which has added food options since my last visit. Fantastic to see Armando, who has become a highly valued employee at Lechuza; I first met Armando more than four years ago. Patti and I enjoyed a great wine tasting and shared a fabulous plate of almejas ahumadas (grilled clams smothered in cheese, veggies and herbs).

Yummy almejas (clams) at Lechuza!

Then it was off to our reservation at the Bruma Wine Garden. I’ve been to Bruma’s Fauna for their tasting menu, maybe four years ago; it was fantastic, and I really admire Chef David Castro Hussong.

Bruma’s Wine Garden is down below and north of Fauna, Bruma’s signature restaurant, and as you might expect, is outdoors, but under a lovely canopy of trees. I had heard positive reviews of their pizzas, so Patti and I shared one, along with a bottle of wine, and a very chocolaty dessert. It was a fine meal, but with so many Valle options, would I return? Not sure.

Bruma wine and fluffy pizza.

Ambiance at Bruma Wine Garden.

After finding our way back to CM on a dark, drizzly night with lots of traffic on the highway, we settled in for the night. I insisted on taking the loft bed, and it was a bit of a challenge negotiating the ladder/staircase to get up and down. But somehow I managed not to fall off. Whew!

I considered the access to our cabin’s loft the stairway to heaven.

Saturday morning we enjoyed an included breakfast at CM and received some helpful updates about the Valle from staff. We were saddened to learn that the long-standing Farmers’ Market at Mogor Badan went by the wayside during the pandemic and has not been revived since. 

We heeded a recommendation to visit the Misiones de California winery, which involved taking an unmarked road north of the highway in San Antonio de Las Minas. Once we finally found and proceeded up that dirt road, we did spot helpful signage. And, we found it! A rather hidden gem.

We did not have reservations (heck, we didn’t even know if we could find the place!) but our host Addie set us up for a great tasting even though she was awaiting a reservation that was running late. Once they – another pair of gal pals with a driver – arrived, happily we all merged together. This is not a place where you would expect wine tour buses to show up; it’s off the beaten Valle track. Patti and I especially enjoyed their Nebbiolo, and we promptly bought a bottle for our cabin. 

Entering the unassuming but wonderful Vinicola Misiones de California.

With our host and fellow wine fans at Misiones de Californias.

We stopped at Los Globos in San Antonio de las Minas for rosemary cheese and a bunch of other local products. On the way back to CM, I introduced Patti to Vinedos Don Tomas for another wine tasting. Don Tomas provides a very nice cheese/tomato/olive tray with their tasting, a super nice touch. Then it was back to CM to get ready for the highlight of our wine and culinary journey: a tasting menu dinner at Lunario.

Stay tuned for Part 2 with detailed info about our tasting experience, and our other rather crazy recent Valle adventures, coming soon!

 

 

Market at Mogor Badan went by the wayside during the pandemic. 

 

 

Girls’ Weekend in the Valle: A Trilogy (Part III)

After our tasting at Mogor Badan, we stopped by Deckman’s to put in our dinner reservation. Returning after our visits to 3 Mujeres, Viñas de Garza, Finca Altozano & La Esperanza, the sun was slipping behind the hills. Deckman’s is certainly the lowest key of the “high” cuisine restaurants I’ve visited in the Valle. Its intimacy makes Finca Altozano and La Esperanza seem rather large and, in comparison, somewhat commercial.

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Deckman’s is nestled under pine trees; the dining area’s walls are hay bales; its wooden tables rest upon a carpet of fallen leaves and pine needles. We felt fortunate that Chef Drew himself was in the house, diligently slaving over the firewood-fueled grill that is the restaurant’s centerpiece. Since he is a Michelin-starred chef, we HAD to go with the five-course tasting menu, which worked out to a very reasonable $45. We began with a fish sope (compliments of the casa), continued with delicious oysters mignonette, clam salpicon, quail with delicate mole and black beans, very moist and tender lobina (fish) and a decadent dessert. All the dishes were so beautifully presented!  A very memorable meal; after paying our tab, we paid our respects to Chef Drew.

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Sunday morning was our last at Casa Mayoral. We walked down to get a closer look at the ostriches (como se dice “ostrich” en español? Avestruz – thank you Eduardo Mayoral!) in a large pen on their neighbor’s property. From time to time the big birds would preen and bellow – quite interesting!

Ostrich crop

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After another great breakfast – this time, huevos a la mexicana – we packed up to journey out of the Valle. When we stopped in to say goodbye to Eduardo, we met Ismene Venegas, the chef at El Pintar de 3 Mujeres, which was closed for the winter. We look forward to sampling her cuisine on a future Valle visit!

Adios, Casa Mayoral! But we weren’t done eating and drinking our way through the Valle. We checked out the nearby Clos de Tres Cantos, which is artsy (love the cement easy chairs) yet casually elegant. But their wines? For us at least, not terribly memorable. Maybe we need to make a second visit . . .

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Speaking of low-key, we sought – and eventually found – Lechuza. I loved their wines I’d sampled at events, but had never visited their winery. Alas – they were closed! Hopefully you can catch them at KM 82.5. But don’t expect a lot of signage to help you find ’em!

Heading west, we stopped to peek at Finca La Divina on the outskirts of San Antonio de las Minas. This three-bedroom B&B opened about a year ago by fave Baja chef, Javier Plasciencia. Rita and her husband, from Mission Valley, were the only guests, and she encouraged us to snoop around. One look at La Finca’s great room – a lovely chef’s kitchen at one end, fireplace with sheepskin-strewn chairs clustered about in the middle, a bar well-stocked with Baja wines at the other end and cool art sprinkled in between – made me want to move in!

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The pool, jacuzzi and groovy chairs outside aren’t bad, either. According to Rita, stays at La Finca include breakfast whipped up by the onsite caretaker/manager, and guests can order food from Plasciencia’s Finca Altozano to be delivered! What a wonderful refuge right outside San Antonio, which felt like a bustling city after two bucolic days deeper in the Valle.

We found our way to Vinícola Retorno, which has to get the award for the funkiest winery we visited. But their wines: great! We enjoyed chatting with our young hosts and would have purchased a bottle, but were already at our limit for taking back to the U.S. We also stopped at Los Globos, the venerable cheese and gourmet goodies shop in San Antonio; we sampled a few and bought a big slice of their cheese with a crust of rosemary and other herbs. It’s called “greñudo,” which loosely translates to “shaggy” or “hippie” – imagine, a hippie cheese!

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I’d heard great things about Malva, named Baja’s best restaurant in 2014. Malva is just west of San Antonio, perched above the Mina Penelope winery. It’s on the first curve heading west; don’t blink or you’ll miss the turnoff! What a hidden gem with a fantastic vibe. Wish we’d been hungrier: Malva’s seven-course tasting menu was going for 600 pesos, or just $35 U.S! In my opinion, Malva’s grilled oysters won the prize for best dish on this trip. We also shared the duck carnitas sopes, which were very tasty and generous. Our server told us about the chowder with chicharrón de crab; I hope it will be on the menu when I return!

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We’d planned to stop at Madera 5 on our way back to El Sauzal; we know Chef Ryan Steyn had El Clavo, outside their tasting room. Alas, Madero 5 was locked up and from what we’ve learned, El Clavo has moved off the premises. Bummer – I love Madera’s Nebbiolo and Chef Ryan’s cuisine! We headed north, stopping at Popotla to visit with Bob and friends and catch a bit of the Super Bowl on our way back to San Diego. Although we gathered an awesome assortment of Baja wines, gourmet, bath & body products during our adventure, we kept talking about the things we should have bought.

Baja goodies crop

IMG_1196Hey, there’s always a reason to return to Baja and Valle de Guadalupe!

Photos by Patti Anderson, Carole Ravago & Bob Gove.

 

Girls’ Weekend in the Valle: A Trilogy (Part II)

It’s always great to visit the Valle; it’s even nicer to stay in the Valle. I highly recommend Casa Mayoral as your base camp for explorations. Casa’s four modern-yet-rustic cabins/casitas are about a mile off Highway 3, so it’s uber quiet and ultra comfortable. It’s also perfectly situated, near Clos de Tres Cantos, El Mogor, Deckman’s, Tres Mujeres, and not far from Laja and the road to Finca Altozano.

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We loved our delicious breakfast of chilaquiles, and enjoyed chatting with Casa’s only other guests, Devin and Beth from Colorado. We told them about the Mercado Orgánico on Saturday mornings at El Mogor. By the time we made it to the Mercado, we weren’t surprised to see them there!

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The Mercado Orgánico runs from 11am to 1pm Wednesdays and Saturdays. Not a traditional farmers market, wonderful merchandise is displayed on a variety of baskets and tables. We admired fresh greens and veggies, cheeses, olives, salsas, eggs, honey, olive oil, Mexican vanilla and Viniphera bath/body products. But the piece d’resistance? The super-fresh, still-warm bread that arrived from Laja. The Mercado is a great experience; don’t miss it if you’re in the Valle Wednesday or Saturday.

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Our good fortune continued as we caught Natalia Badan ready to pour at El Mogor’s outdoor tasting room. Again, the only customers (Super Bowl weekend ROCKS!) we bantered with this Valle matriarch and enjoyed hearing tales of then vs. now. It seems like Saturdays are the best time to catch El Mogor open – Natalia shared that at least 50% of her wine sales are to fancy restaurants in Mexico City, so she doesn’t rely too heavily on tastings by visitors like us.

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Badan 2We felt very special when Natalia invited us to their the barrel room. We bought the top-of-the-line Mogor-Badan 2012, which Natalia called a “Sunday wine” – not an everyday bottle, bound to get better with age (but can we resist consuming it sooner?)

We continued to Tres Mujeres, tasting in the artsy cave and chatting with Yvette, one of the tres mujeres (three women owners/winemakers). I tried to visit Tres Mujeres about four years ago but they were closed; we really enjoyed our visit, and their wines, especially their Merlot.

Tres MujeresNext we dropped in on one of the newer Hwy 3 wineries. Viñas de Garza was a culture shock; it’s one of the few wineries in the Valle I consider to be “Temeculized.” The grounds are big and manicured; there’s room to park a number of buses; you gotta to pay at the register before they drop the velvet rope to let you into the tasting area, and they mark off every tasting. I’m sorry, the vibe at Viñas de Garza is NOT why I come to the Valle.

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We shot over to my fave, Finca Altozano, for a some tasty snacks and sips; our food was delicious and La Finca was doing boom business on Saturday afternoon.

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Then we jetted down to La Esperanza to check them out; we were fortunate to meet the father and mother of Chef Miguel Angel Guerrero’s wife, Judith, in the process! Hopefully, I’ll be able to sample La Esperanza’s cuisine soon; we love Chef Miguel’s La Querencia in Tijuana.IMG_20160206_161730

To be continued soon! In Part III, read about dinner at Deckman’s and visits to Clos de Tres Cantos, Finca La Divina, Vinicola Retorno, Los Globos and Malva. Stay tuned.

Photos by Patti Anderson & Carole Ravago

Girls’ Weekend in the Valle: A Trilogy (Part I)

My good friend Patti and I have been talking about a girls’ trip to Valle de Guadalupe for ages. She hadn’t been in more than a decade, and after hearing my tales of fabulous new places in which to eat, drink and stay, she wanted to experience it for herself. Once Patti got her GOES card and could cross in my SENTRI-fied vehicle . . . game ON! Speaking of game, we chose Super Bowl weekend for our Friday-to-Sunday adventure, figuring the football-frenzied fans would be glued to their big-screen TVs and out of our way. And, although weather can be a crap shoot in February – especially during a much-ballyhooed El Niño year – we lucked out, with beautiful, summery, sun-splashed days and clear, star-studded nights.

We moseyed down the coast, turning inland at La Misión in order to approach the Valle via the El Tigre/El Porvenir/Francisco Zarco road – my favorite way to arrive. The hillsides were beautiful and green – not something you see during the summer! Our inaugural tasting was at Lomita, a favorite Valle first stop. The only customers, we enjoyed having our run of the tasting room. Our host suggested Finca La Carrodilla as our next stop – turns out they are sister wineries.

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Carrodilla patio

Again, the only customers at La Carodilla, we enjoyed chatting with our hostess, Jasmine (with the sparkly sneakers and Jude the cat) and checking out the lovely garden patio. The ambiance was great and the wines, very tasty!

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Stop number three was Adobe Guadalupe; since I last visited, AG has added a new chapel-like tasting room in front of the B&B. AG’s red blends, named for archangels, were as delicious as ever; I was tempted, but had to stop myself, from tasting Lucifer, their mezcal. We enjoyed their shopping opportunities and bought a bottle of Miguel – a wonderful blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache & Merlot – for our casita. TIP: if you can get reservations for the VIP tasting at AG, DO IT: the special experience is well worth it.

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AG horses

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Time to travel to Viníphera for our spa appointment! This tiny refuge, located in modified shipping containers perched against a Valle hillside behind Quinta Monasterio, is a true gem. At first I thought their package prices were a bit high by Mexico standards, but now I understand – each is intended to be a true experience – Viníphera is not a massage-by-the-minute machine.

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In the past, I had purchased their wine-infused bath & body products (including my favorite exfoliating scrub with grape seeds & peels) at the Rosarito Art Fair, and when I learned they opened a spa, I HAD to visit! Patti and I were the only customers in the facility, which has a changing area, bath with indoor/outdoor showers, sauna, two massage tables and a lovely terraza. We enjoyed our hands-and-feet ritual (soak, scrub, massage, moisturize) while watching the sun slip behind the hills. This was followed by a special request “fango” (mud) treatment, and a neck/shoulder massage to conclude. Feeling ultra-relaxed, we pulled on our clothes and headed to the cozy tasting room for the delicious glass of wine and salad included in our spa package.

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One disadvantage of staying in the Valle in wintertime: the days are short. And, it REALLY gets dark in the Valle once that sun goes down! Plus, even if it doesn’t rain while you’re visiting, mud abounds, since nothing is paved once you get off the three main roads.

Mud-caked tire

We left the spa in pitch darkness. I had planned to cut across the Valle to stop at Finca Altozano  – but we were faced with a HUGE mud bog, stretching from edge to edge of the dirt road to La Finca. Begrudgingly, we turned around and stayed on pavement through Francisco Zarco to Highway 3, hell-bent on finding Casa Mayoral, our lodging.

This was not easy. It was super dark, no moonlight and traffic on the highway does not tolerate those who don’t know where the heck they’re going! I pulled off on the shoulder, realizing we were close . . . and lo and behold, the access road to Casa was right across the highway. Now, Casa Mayoral is not big; it consists of four modern & comfortable cabins/casitas approximately one mile off the highway toward the hills, hidden behind a cluster of trees. We followed the low-key signage and, gracias a dios, safely arrived at Casa! We were warmly welcomed by Eduardo Mayoral, the wonderful host who speaks excellent English. Gratefully, we checked in, made ourselves at home in our cabin/casita, and uncorked a bottle of wine. We’d already had a grand adventure, and this was just Day One!

NEXT UP: More on Casa Mayoral; Mercado Orgánico; El Mogor & Natalia Badan; Tres Mujeres; Viñas de Garza; Finca Altozano; Deckman’s; Clos de Tres Cantos; Vinícola Retorno; Malva. Stay tuned!

Photos by Patti Anderson & Carole Ravago