Exploring The Napa Valley of Mexico! (Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California)

Hola! Bienvendios! Welcome to beautiful Valle de Guadalupe! Buenos dias, good morning Country Collectors. If you like food and wine today's video is for you because we have found ourselves here in Valle de Guadalupe an area in Ensenada that has been coined the Napa of Mexico as it is home to over a hundred wineries and many fabulous restaurants. I think I might need a Napa after this one. We can't wait to show you around but before we get started make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures. Valle de Guadalupe is located about 40 kilometers Northeast from the city center of Ensenada. As you can see we rented a car we heard there's no taxis or Ubers in the area so it's pretty essential to have your own vehicle to get around to the different wineries and restaurants. The drive here after leaving the city we entered up through the mountains and then The Vineyards you know came into view it was just so gorgeous. Our first stop is breakfast though and many of you said we had to come to La Cocina De Dona Esthela so we are here right now. We heard they have corn pancakes! Corn pancakes! I am very excited for this so let's head in. As you can see we have been seated outside which we are absolutely loving. When we went in they were completely packed. I mean this place it's like a giant room with just tables all around. There's an open kitchen you can watch the ladies like rolling out the flower and making the tortillas it's pretty sweet. But we can definitely see that it's a popular place because it's a Tuesday. I've heard if you come on the weekend you need to come early or else you're gonna have to be ready to queue. I mean we're in one of the last tables right now but totally thrilled to be outside we even got some dogs hey! Yeah and they just started us off with some chips and some salsa and some fresh cheese there's only one cube left. Can I have it? I can't help myself. Yeah you can have it babe. It's so good and tasty just so soft. Mmm. They also make a mean cup of Joe right here. Yeah. Oh there's a dog under the table with us! But yeah we'll see you when the food arrives! Oh look at this. Our best friend has arrived. Yes! Oh my goodness those pancakes look amazing! You got some tortillas. Tortillas. Yeah! Machaca. Machaca. Oh and a plate to share. I love it. And a gordita? One moment. Tranquillo. Tranquillo. (calm down) I get excited about gorditas. Eva, tranquillo eh? Yeah! Gordita surprise! Oh I love it! Wow. Thank you. El hombre fantastico. (The fantastic man). Yes. Amazing. Thank you so much. Muchas gracias. All right we're gonna have to grab a chair for you because we have enough food for a whole football team here. The main reason we came here was to try their signature dish here this is called Machaca he said right? Machaca egg. So it's shredded beef and it's mixed with some eggs here. It actually won best breakfast in the world in 2015! Can't wait to jump into this. Then look it here. These are the corn pancakes. Check that out triple stack. On the side we got some fruit and some bacon. And our lovely server recommended we try one of their famed gorditas so we also went with that. Adam's drooling behind the camera here so am I so without further ado let's jump into this! Mmm. He's got the tongue out. I'm so excited it looks so good! Corn pancakes. Wow that's like the most unique pancake flavor I think I've ever had. It like it really tastes like corn. It's not masked at all and it's so sweet like without any butter without any syrup on it. These are absolutely delicious. And it's time for their signature dish let's try this out. It looks so good. Wow incredible! It's like shredded beef jerky almost. It has such a unique flavor very savory. Definitely recommend it. Adam you stick with the pancakes I'll be over here. I want at least a bite. You got it. Adam what happened? You can't do it? I think I need my first Napa of the day. We're gonna package this up and take it with us when we head down the road and go to a place where we can learn a little bit more history about the region we're in right now so we can appreciate it that much more. Come with us! We've made it to our second stop but before we go in I wanted to point out that the ride here was gorgeous. We passed so many Vineyards. You can see the vines the olive trees. Were in the off season right now so there wasn't anything on them but you can just like picture it in your mind what it would be like when they're all in bloom. All right let's head inside and learn some fun stuff about the region. It looks like we have found the best place to start this little history lesson. This was the site of the mission here of Our Lady of Guadalupe of the North. It was actually the last mission that was formed in all of the Californias. It was only here for a very short period of time from 1834 to 1840 due to the frequent indigenous attacks on the site. Yes but this building back here is actually a museum and I know looking at it it looks quite small but let me tell you it is packed with information! Absolutely. You start out with some of the indigenous history then you get into the religious roots that were here. And then you go and learn about the Russian settlers I believe their names were the Molokans that came here to escape the wars in Russia back then and brought the olives and grapes that helped make this region what it is today. Yeah it was very interesting so we definitely recommend stopping by here. It's free to go in but leave a donation. Absolutely. Yeah it's nice to give back but now I feel like we definitely have that much deeper appreciation for the region. We know the history now so when we're drinking that wine we can. It's gonna be that much sweete!r Appreciate it a bit more. Yeah but we are now gonna head over to the wine museum! Oh fancy. Yeah and learn a bit about that so come along. Welcome to the Museum of Vine and Wine. This building is absolutely spectacular. Check out this architecture. It's situated right on the edge of vineyards that seem to go just go on and on all the way to the mountains. Let's head inside and learn some fun facts about wine and just have a good time. Come along. What an interesting place. I think the first thing we learned was that this region here creates over 90% of all wine in Mexico. That's 45 million liters of wine per year! That's incredible. So it started us off actually in the country of Georgia where... I had no idea but this is where wine was actually created 7,000 years ago. Yeah and then from there it traveled to Egypt and then to Europe and Spain. And then Spain brought it over to here and then that's how the wine got here. I thought it was the Russians that brought it over I was wrong. But the Russians were cultivating crops here and they just weren't doing well so then they found you know the grapes and they were like why don't we try this and ba-boom they had the first winery here. Bada bing ba da boom! Yeah it was in 1917. It was a Russian Vineyard so hey there's the history. We learned all that just in there. I know and the photography and the videos they are showing are just stunning. Yeah and then they also showed us you know the whole process how you harvest wine and then even down to like how you cork it. The Oak Barrel. The bottling. I mean they had some really interesting vintage stuff in there that you definitely want to check out. And we also learned about the climate here. We would never think that Mexico had this region where they were growing wine. But apparently we're between the 30 and 50 longitudinal line which is the same as the Mediterranean so they get a Mediterranean climate here. Which is why it's so good for wine growing! Wow! Mind blown. And on the way out they had wine art so you could also enjoy some really cool impressionistic artwork about people drinking wine having a good time. It was really cool. It kind of like brought it all together. Yeah as you can see we are pretty excited. Behind us here is the vineyard. I know we keep saying this but we're just imagining it like green and lush and overgrown. And in front of us is a platform that gives you a 180 degree view of this entire region. Yes they do events here so I'm imagining people come down here to get married and stuff. Very nice. Amazing! And when you're done marveling at the vineyard and snapping some photos come over to the garden area. They have these massive old barrels they usually put the wine in. You can fit like a hundred of me in here. Maybe 50. Maybe 50. After breakfast this morning! They also have some vintage equipment they used to use like a giant tractor and one of the old like bottling presses. It's really cool you should definitely check it out. We're gonna head over to our accommodations now so come along! And oh my gosh when we were walking out I was like oh that looks like a Olive Tree right there and then I looked a little bit. Look at this! These are olives! I am so excited because this is the first Olive Tree I've ever seen in my life so this is just like blowing my mind. I guess my whole life when I've eaten olives I've never kind of thought about where they come from. They come from a tree! It's so cool. They look like they're black olives. There's some that are green over here that look like they're not ripe yet but yeah this is just neat. Have you ever seen an olive tree? I don't think so. Yeah I love it I love it all right let's go to our place! We have made it to Tres Vides days which translates to Three Vines and let me tell you this place is so special. I feel so blessed to be here. They have five of these cute little cabins. We're staying in this one behind us here. When we walked in it was so inviting. And then I saw the bed and the decorations.They have some wine glasses hanging from the walls because they know you're gonna get a bottle or two or and bring them back here and enjoy.. on the porch which happens to have two chairs and a fireplace. So later when we come back after dinner we can enjoy a little fire because it is getting a little chilly. And then in the bathroom they have a couple of robes and a big nice shower. I just feel like, well we're spoiling ourselves we're definitely treating ourselves. In front of us here are the vineyards like we said it's not in season so it's not gonna be as lush as like in the summer time, maybe when you come. But it is still gorgeous. And then over here to my left is a pergola. They told us in the morning that breakfast is included in the rate which was a surprise to me. I know Adam's really happy about that one too. So if you are looking for a spot to stay when you come down here this is definitely a good one. So we are actually gonna head to dinner as I said it's December the sun's already going down it's 4 P.M. We want to go have dinner with a view so why don't you come with us. This looks nice! It does look nice. Woo hoo! Man and the landscape is just so beautiful right now. I know. They even have a parking attendant. Yeah this is fancy. I know. All right. Boom Rockstar parking. They knew we were coming. That's right. Let's head in. I love this! We are at Finca Altozano and I am so excited. You can already smell the delicious food cooking inside. And check out the motifs there's a giant barrel here with a winding staircase that goes up to a table that you can sit on and get a view of the surrounding area. There's like that Jazzy kind of music coming out. It just feels nice and I'm so excited to go inside and try some food so let's go find our table. Yeah why wait? Let's get in there! Yeah! This is nice! Let me tell you the vibe of this place they got it on lock. I am really enjoying it. We're outside here they have some heaters luckily you can probably see my nose getting a little red. We're gonna check out the menus, order up some food and some wine. Definitely having wine with dinner. Maybe you're wondering, why didn't they go wine tasting? Well we are saving that for tomorrow! We're gonna, you're gonna have to bring your drinking pants because you're gonna need them so we're gonna check out the menu order and then show you it when it comes. I'm just looking at the wine list right now and what I absolutely love is they have wines from the different vineyards around here, obviously. But I was just like excited to see that because there's this one called Xecue that I wanted to go to that we're not gonna get to tomorrow. And so she just let me taste it and it was absolutely delicious. So we just got a bottle of that. I love it. Yeah so we can we're not obviously gonna finish it tonight Adam is driving so he's just gonna have a little bit but we can take it with us when we leave too. So it's just something really neat they have all these different wines from the different vineyards in the region. And we needed to get a glass for them. Yeah exactly. Yeah we're gonna get you a glass as well. What do you think? Oh wow. It's super complex. There's like a real depth to the flavor. Yeah. A little bit fruity but dry. Yeah I love dry wines and it has a nice body to it. It's delicious. We're happy. We hope you are too. Here have a sip. The food has arrived and I'm speechless. It is absolutely stunning presentation. Look at this. This is shrimp sopes with bone marrow. An entire sliced in half bone of delicious looking marrow. We got a kale salad. I'm not a kale guy but I think I might be after I eat this salad right here. And I hope I don't burn myself okay I didn't. Brussels sprouts in one of my favorite vessels for food right here. Wow I'm just going to jump in. I'm gonna start out with one of these right here. I already had one. I sneaked one. Look at that. Wow! Mmm. I feel like I haven't had brussels sprouts in like two years. It's true since we've been in Mexico. It's so delicious it's got that Brussels sprout with a little bitter. But there's some crema on top that mellows that as well as some peanuts that give it a crunch. Let's try the kale salad now. He's just gonna taste everything for you. I'm in heaven. And Heidi hasn't been eating gluten lately so they did tortilla chips instead of having the usual bread crumbs that they put on top of it. Wow! So good. It tastes like, I don't know if you've ever had like the Green Goddess dressing that is exactly what this tastes like. And it is so fresh. All right now... now the piece de resistance. Is that the main event? That's the one that you can't resist. I got my bone marrow right here. And my sope right here. Man I think I'm in love. Not as much as I love you babe or you people at home. But you know what? Let's do this thing! Oh my goodness melting in my mouth. Mmm. It's a winner? The shrimp are buttery. There is some avocado in there. The pickled onions just changes the whole flavor profile. I am in heaven right now. You gotta try this babe. I will you gotta save some for me! Sorry! Adam did save me some food but I just saw that the staff was out here looking at something. And I looked where they were what they were checking out. It's the moon! And it has just risen up above the mountains it's so big and that nice white yellow color. It is amazing! The cherry on top right? I am so happy that we can share this together but also with you at home because I mean I'm getting choked up between the food and the view and the love of my life right here. I've never seen Adam more choked up than he has been here in Mexico. I know. It's at least one time of video. It's so beautiful. It just I I don't know it's never happened before and it just everything here hits me so deep. Like right now there's a guy playing this incredible local music inside. And the bone marrow. I cannot say enough about the bone marrow and the angel. Well thank you so much for coming with us today and enjoying this. We are gonna finish up our meal and go back probably enjoy a nice roasty fire out on the deck. Oh man that'll be so nice. And we will see you guys bright and early in the morning. Get ready for some fun. See you then! Buenos dias, good morning! We are so excited to see you today Why is that? Well last night not only did we have a beautiful time sitting outside on our porch by the fire staying nice and warm and cuddling in our robes but we hit 60,000 subscribers! I cannot believe it. They're 60,000 of you out there following along with us you know on this journey. And we just feel so blessed for you. Being part of our community. And we looked back last year at the same time and there were only ten thousand of you. Which we were like back then you know we were like holy moly ten thousand and now it's sixty thousand. This is just yeah amazing! And it's really for all of us to celebrate together because it's such an achievement and we're just so happy that you are part of our Country Collector family. And while we are on cloud nine we would like to shout out to our new Patrons: Betsy and Nico! You guys rock! Yeah thank you so much for becoming patrons and joining this community. Our journey is richer because of you so thank you for making our days that much brighter. Yeah we appreciate it. Well we are going to get dressed and head outside and grab some breakfast before we go to our first tasting. We'll see you down the road at the vineyard I believe the name is Lechuza. Oooh. Yeah I will Le-choose-ah some wine please. We'll see you there. We've arrived. I hope your palette is ready for some delicious vino. Let's head in! We just sat down here ready to start our tasting we met Armando who was going to do it for us. This place here is so gorgeous aesthetically and just the environment and the vibe. I am so excited let's do this! We just had our first tasting with Armando and let me just say his passion for this place is I mean I feel it now. It's in my heart too it's incredible everything we're learning from him. We started with the Sauvignon Blanc that is so approachable. And that's the number one thing they want to do here is make wine more approachable. He told us that over 15 states in Mexico produce wine. But guess what? They don't drink wine here so there's a problem. And how do they fill that solution that's what they're trying to come up with. You know I'm not a huge wine guy normally but this first wine here it's just so light and so delicious. He was saying that you know a lot of the times we feel like you have to age a wine for a very long time before it's good. But what they're doing here is they're creating wines that can basically be in the bottle for a very short time and then drunk. Because that's the whole point of wine to be drunk. Not to sit in a bottle for 50 years on a shelf. And there's a place for that kind of wine too. But this is the stuff that you want to enjoy with your friends. Like I don't want to how old am I 40 I don't want to be 90 when I can drink my bottle of wine. I want to have this today and I want to share it with you at home. So I hope you guys can come down here and just experience this. I feel like around the world you hear about the point system for wine. Everyone's wondering how many points does this have. Is it going to be good. And you take somebody else's word for what the wine is going to taste like. You don't know that person. You don't have their palette. But he was saying how can you measure the love that goes into a bottle in points. This is a vintage that took a year of someone's life to create. A family took their love, they took their wine, they took their hands and they worked to create this for you. So rather than take somebody else's word with somebody else's palette to tell you what tastes good. Taste it for yourself. We are having our second glass of wine now or is it the first glass of wine with a twist? Well they have created cans of wine. So that first glass of wine we had that was a little sweet they added some bubbles to it and now it has a much drier flavor. This is two glasses of wine here they want you to be able to come home from work pop one of these open and enjoy a fresh glass for yourself or with a friend. And they also said that the cans are more environmentally friendly and cost effective because glass is so expensive now. So I feel like you could just take one of these down to the beach even and just pop it open and enjoy it. I love the bubbles! The third one we just tasted is this Chardonnay. And if you know Chardonnay sometimes it can be a bit too oaky or buttery but they have found such a beautiful balance here. They make it in stainless steel tanks which gives it that brightness. And then they mix it in with the yeast he said so then it gives it more of a depth of flavor. Definitely wonderful. I you know I'm more of a red wine drinker but I'm really enjoying these whites here. They do a wonderful job. Our fourth glass of wine is our first red. It is a pluma from a nebbiolo grape that was brought here in the 1930s from Italy. He was saying that it comes from like a cloudy cold region there but here it is hot and not cloudy so the wine is a much darker color and has a much bolder flavor. Wow! And something else I absolutely love is they are not afraid to break the rules here. At home white wine has to be chilled red wine has to be room temperature. Here they serve it according to the environment. If you're outside and it's hot they serve it a little chilled so that when you get to the end of the glass it's at the correct temperature. They're not worried about like oh by the book we have to do it this way. They're worried about giving you something that tastes delicious and you can enjoy and we appreciate you for it. This next wine we're trying is called Alas which means wings because this is actually made from the two varietals that they planted first which are Merlot and Cabernet. So they were like their wings you know throughout that started their Journey here in flight. And it is wonderful. They only had made 250 cases of this when they made the vintage and this is one of the last cases that they have. So we are so fortunate to be able to be tasting this right now. Salud. We're trying our final wine of the tasting. It's called Amantes. It is their signature wine here and it is dedicated to the late owner of this vineyard who actually went to school at 50 years old to learn the techniques. Then went to Argentina to actually put them into effect before he came here and made his own vineyard. Some of the magic that comes from coming to a smaller vineyard is that you can really feel the passion and this glass of wine is the perfect example of that. It is completely perfectly rounded. Like the flavors are at the front and the back. You feel this journey in your mouth. And I am so excited that we get to come here and especially thanks to Armando for painting this picture for us that we are tasting in each glass. Unfortunately the tasting is coming to an end but as you heard and saw we love this place. What a magical experience and I honestly feel like I've gained an appreciation for wine I haven't had in my entire life and that's all thanks to Armando. And I love that they give you time. You know it's been about two hours we tasted what five or six wines. And you know they're not just pouring wine they're pouring their heart and their passions into every glass. So yeah it was just wonderful. Well this was just the one tasting we're gonna do today but we're gonna go check out some more vineyards get some more wine from them so come along! And as we were leaving we asked Armando where we should go next and he gave us this list that they have made up there with other vineyards and restaurants in the area. Also some places in Ensenada we should try out which that is so sweet. Really is, so nice. So we are heading right now to Finca La Carrodilla and yeah gonna check that out. As you can see, maybe you can see we're bumping around a little bit. The roads here a lot of them are dirt roads that connect everywhere and they are quite bumpy so just know that before you get here. Take your time, take your time. And definitely go to the bathroom before you get in the car because it can be tough on that little bladder. All right we'll see you over there. We just pulled in here and you can see the vineyards behind us here this is so picturesque. I think the building is right over here so let's head on in. Armando we knew you wouldn't steer us wrong. We just went inside here at Finca La Carrodilla. You can see I have a glass of their Cabernet Sauvignon. Rodrigo inside told us all about their different wines. They have quite a beautiful selection. And he also told me that they were the first vineyard here in Mexico to produce organic wines which is something really incredible. But we are up here on this rooftop I will give it over to Adam to show you around here because it is spectacular! Welcome to the coolest rooftop I may have ever been on in my entire life! Look at this garden here. The tables that run down the middle have actual Agave plants growing out of them. There's trails that wind through the greenery. And they even have a statue of La Carrodilla. She is the patron saint of Agriculture so that covers grapes and farmers here. And when you're done marveling at this rooftop go to the edge and look out at the view it is amazing! It's 360 degrees and just looks out over the vineyards and into the mountains! It's like (mind-blowing) kind of beautiful. We also just had a cheese board dropped off and some coffee for me because I'm driving so I'm not having the wine. Be safe, safety first people! The board looks incredible. My mouth is watering! I might share it with Heidi. Hey, yeah you are! Okay we can have it we can both jump into it let's go check it out! They have three different cheeses. One has Chipotle. One is Rosemary and Olive. This looks like some kind of goat cheese I don't know. And then they have some salami as well as chorizo, marmalade and I'm guessing these are local olives. I cannot wait to jump into this! It looks incredible. I think we have some bread over here as well let's do this thing! I don't know if this day could get any better. We even got a puppy to come out here and hang out with us while we eat our cheese, coffee and wine. Look at his little head right here. Oh my goodness you are the cutest! So sweet nothing like a vineyard dog! And when you're done enjoying your cheese board and wine make sure to come down and walk around the grounds. Look at these gorgeous flowers behind me. It's absolutely pristine down here. And if you're here in August they have a huge festival here where they have music, tastings, food and you can even see some fun stuff like wine stomping where they come out and they jump on the grapes like right over here in their giant barrel that has the flag in it. What a nerd! Now we're gonna head over to our last vineyard of the day Casa Frida recommended by our good friend Laura. Muchas gracias! We'll see you over there. Wow we just pulled in and you can already tell that this place has a whole different vibe than the last two. The music is pumping. All right let's do this. I can see why you like this place Laura it's definitely your style! We know Adam's the DD today luckily but I'm still pretending to drive in this. This is so cool. I mean this place just has so much character. Such a vibe. They have a bunch of different restaurants and places to have a drink. In season she said it's a lot more lively obviously more stuff is open here but this is like the Instagramable spot where you come to really like let loose and party. I can imagine like bachelorette parties come here just have a really good time. Lots of unique stuff like this cool truck right here. In the back are plants in the bed of the truck. It's just awesome. I'm loving it! We just got a couple of drinks - you can tell! Adam went with the carajillo which is liquor 43 and espresso. And then I got a spicy margarita. We're not sick of wine just wanted to mix it up a little bit but really cool in there everyone's just having a good time. The few people that are in there but still it's a good time. And they have a nice list of food so if you want to get a snack you can get it over there as well. They do have a couple of other restaurants and bars down here so let's go check those out together. Behind me here is El Corazon restaurant and it looks pretty sweet inside. It has decorations, details and delicious food. That's the 3DS of a great restaurant for me. I mean this place has everything. We're in a little secret forest right now that leads down to a tequila and beer tasting place over here. I mean I feel like the valley really has something for everyone. You want quiet they got it. You want a little bit of a party they do too! If you want something a little crazy come to Fridas because this place is cool! What a fun place to end this journey here in Valle de Guadalupe. We had so much fun over the last two days I really hope that you enjoyed the experience with us but definitely come down here and do it for yourself because it's awesome! I know especially if you live in like Southern California you can just drive down here and spend a fun weekend you know with your friends or a nice romantic weekend with your partner. Yeah! Well thank you so much for joining us. We would have had nowhere near as much fun if you hadn't been here to share it with. If you enjoyed this video please give us a big thumbs up, comment, subscribe and don't forget to DLING, DLING, DLING, DLING the vineyard! We'll see you, next time! Adios!