We made a couple of quick year-end visits to Valle de Guadalupe. The first took us to a winery we were not familiar with, En’Kanto. It’s off the “back road” as you enter the Valle via La Mision, on an unpaved road heading south that later becomes paved and connects with Hwy. 3 in San Antonio de las Minas.

En’Kanto has reasonably priced food options, including breakfasts. They also have cabanas, which look lovely.

En’Kanto is a low-key, hidden gem with good wines. We shared a regular tasting of four wines for 300 pesos (about $17), including a natural Merlot named WYGIWYG (What You Grow Is What You Get), a 2020 Merlot and Enigma, a delicious blend of Nebbiolo and Merlot.

In our humble opinion, En’Kanto’s wine bottle labels are among the most beautiful in the Valle! Right up there with Torres Alegre’s Cru Garage series of labels by Leonardo Torres.

We had to pull ourselves away from this peaceful refuge to get to our lunch reservation at Santo Tomas’ Villa Torrel, not far from En’Kanto.

Villa Torrel has a beautiful setting, with vistas to the west. Villa Torrel ranked very highly among Mexico restaurants in recent awards recognizing culinary excellence throughout Latin America.

Bob and I shared the yellowtail amberjack raw fish . . . 

. . . and the seafood rice (covered in greens).

Everything was delicious, we had very attentive service but . . . something was missing. In our opinion, our visit to Villa Torrel did not come close to reaching that rustic-meets-high-level-cuisine-vibe that we look forward to in Valle de Guadalupe.

Gracias por fotos de Bob Gove. We’ve been eating and drinking in Baja a lot lately, so stay tuned for more posts coming soon!