EatMx: Real Mexican food, at home and on the road

TEXAS TEMPRANILLO AND BEEF STEW

Usually you pick a wine to go with the food you're serving.

But I did just the opposite. I created a dish, actually a whole meal, to show off a wine that was really special, a Tempranillo from Texas. 

Never heard of Texas wine? Well you will, because Texas has enough wineries to make it the fifth largest wine region in the United States, and the potential for growth there is big.  

The wine I had was the 2017 Texas Hill Country Estate Tempranillo from Spicewood Vineyards. The Texas Hill Country, where this wine was produced, is one of eight AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) in the state.   

Owner Ron Yates fell in love with Tempranillo while studying Spanish in Spain and visiting vineyards in Ribera del Duero. Tempranillo originated in Spain, and Yates thought it would also do well in the warm Texas climate.  

A sixth generation ranching Texan, he now grows the grape in six locations including Spicewood. It's "my favorite wine to drink by far," he says.

Tempranillo does so well in Texas that other wineries produce it too. One of them is Pedernales Cellars, co-founded by David, Julie and Heather Kuhlken. The  Spicewood estate wine is 100% Tempranillo. The Pedernales 2017 Texas High Plains Tempranillo blends 86% Tempranillo, 9% Mourvedre and 5% Teroldego. The High Plains is another Texas AVA.

Like Spicewood, Pedernales belongs to an organization called Texas Fine Wine, which presented a webinar about Texas wine in collaboration with the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association.

The Spicewood Tempranillo was sent to me to sip while attending the webinar. Other members of Texas Fine Wine that took part were Duchman Family Winery, Brennan Vineyards and Bending Branch Winery.

Yates aged his estate Tempranillo for 20 months in 60% new French oak and 40% neutral oak to give it more intensity and duration in the Spanish style.  "It has a nice balance of savory and fruit on the mid-palate," he says. Loyally, he chose the red and yellow of the Spanish flag for the label. This is the Spicewood cellar, as seen in the wine class. 

Like other Texas wines, Tempranillo goes well with lively Texas food such as barbecue and fajitas. So I matched the Spicewood wine with a beef stew to which I added red chile salsa (for Texas) and smoked paprika to represent Spain. 

Dry, with lively tannins and a deep cherry red in color, the wine showed ripe fruitiness that stood up to all the dishes I served that night, including Mexican squash cooked with tomatoes, corn, onion and garlic (above).

It even held up with pan de elote, a slightly sweet corn cake from a Latino bakery in Los Angeles (above). And it's a natural to go with rice and Texas style cornbread. 

Here is how everything looked on the plate, followed by the recipe for the stew, which I cooked in an Instant Pot. If preparing the stew stove top or in a slow cooker, the cooking time would be longer and the amount of liquid would have to be adjusted, using less for a slow cooker and enough to keep the meat from drying out stove top.  

TEXAN/SPANISH BEEF STEW

1 pound beef stew meat
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium tomato, peeled and diced
1/4 cup red chile salsa
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
8 pearl onions, peeled
1/2 cup sliced carrots
2 whole garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water

Trim off fat and cut the meat into 1- to 1 1/2-inch cubes.

Press saute/more on the Instant Pot. When hot, add the olive oil and then the beef and cook, stirring, until browned on all sides. Add the tomato and cook until softened. Stir in the chile salsa, tomato paste, paprika and brown sugar.

Now add the onions, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, salt and water and stir.  

Lock the lid on the Instant Pot, set to sealing and press beef/stew. The indicated time will be 35 minutes, plus the time it takes to reach pressure, which will be 10 to 11 minutes.

When the stew is done, let the pressure drop naturally until entirely gone and the float valve has dropped, about 15 minutes. Press cancel. Unlock and remove the lid. The stew will contain quite a bit of liquid. You can return to sauté mode and reduce the liquid as desired in the pot. Or transfer the stew to a large saucepan and simmer until slightly thickened. The additional cooking time makes the stew even more flavorful and tender.

Spoon onto heated serving plates and accompany with sides such as squash, pastel de elote (corn cake), rice and cornbread.  

Makes 4 servings. 

Baja Wines--Now Coming into the USA

So sad, the annual harvest festival in Mexico's Valle de Guadalupe had to be canceled this year. The culprit, of course, was Covid.

Otherwise, this wine district just outside Ensenada in Baja California would have been bustling with tastings, lunches, dinners, concerts, a paella contest and much more, from July 30 to August 23. 

The annual festival, known as Fiestas de la Vendimia, was a great time to explore what is still a little known wine region. When I wrote about it for The Los Angeles Times in 1993, there were just six wineries, two of them in Ensenada. Now there are more than 200, accounting for 85% of the wine produced in Mexico. 

The two wineries in Ensenada then were Bodegas de Santo Tomás, which is the oldest winery still producing, and Cavas Valmar, now relocated to the Guadalupe Valley. Pioneers in the valley were Monte Xanic, Casa Pedro Domecq, Bodegas San Antonio and L.A. Cetto. Cetto's large facility houses the wine shop above.  

It was such fun to roam around during vendimia, meeting winemakers and chefs and joining other wine enthusiasts for al fresco lunches and dinners. 

This was the ideal time to stock up on local cheeses and artisanal products such as nopal preserves, honey and olive oil.   

You probably know the famous drinking song "Brindisi" from the opera "La Traviata." When I hear it now, I don't think of an opera stage but of Monte Xanic, where a highlight of the annual vendimia concert was a rousing performance of this duet by opera singers from Mexico. I still wave my glass to and fro as I did sitting under the stars, surrounded by dark hills and looking off toward scattered lights in the valley.  

I couldn't do that this year. But I can still drink plenty of Baja wine and at least dream of the beautiful places where I used to enjoy it, including the restaurant Corazón de Tierra, above.

On my trips I could only bring one bottle home, and it was difficult to find Baja wines in Los Angeles. But now I can have all I want, delivered right to my door. 

This is possible through La Mision Associates in San Diego, California, which imports and distributes more than 150 Baja wines. La Mision is owned by Yolanda Martain, daughter of Fernando Martain, who founded Cavas Valmar in 1983.

I couldn't have waded through La Mision's mind-boggling list without help from Stacie Hunt (above), sommelier and all around wine expert whose Baja knowledge runs deep.

Stacie recently gave an hour-long webinar on the Valle de Guadalupe for the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Assocation. She packed every minute with up-to-date information, so I learned that the incidence of Covid is low in the valley, and access is limited to keep it that way. Meanwhile, the virus is active in nearby Ensenada and Tijuana.

I sent Stacie a list of 16 wines, which she whittled down to 10, eliminating some of my choices and adding others that she thought I should try. I wound up with 11 bottles, because I wanted two of the 2017 Tempranillos from Cavas Valmar, above. 

Tempranillo does well in Baja, and I ordered another from Vena Cava, a winery constructed from salvaged boat parts (above).

Vena Cava winemaker Phil Gregory (above) and his wife Eileen also have a boutique hotel, La Villa del Valle, a beautiful place where I've been for tastings. 

One of the two white wines I bought was the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc from Viñedos Mina Penélope. This winery was founded in 2014 by Veronica Santiago, who is the winemaker, and her husband, Nathaniel Malagón. Malva, an outdoor restaurant in their vineyard, specializes in local ingredients grilled over oak or cooked in a wood-fired oven. 

The other white was the 2018 Duquesa, a blend from Viñedos de la Reina. The grapes for this wine were grown in the Valle de San Vicente, another vineyard site in the region, but the label doesn't say what they are. 

Here are the two white wines along with the 2019 Grenache Rosé from Vena Cava.

Nebbiolo has a long history in the Guadalupe Valley, and Stacie suggested trying the Trasiego Nebbiolo 2016. Camillo Magoni, who made this wine, left Italy for Baja and has lived there for decades, renowned for his work in developing the area. 

These four red wines from my new collection are blends.

The 2018 Canto de Luna from Finca La Carrodilla, shown here in the winery tasting room, blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Tempranillo.

The 2016 Dominó Tinto from Vinisterra combines Grenache, Tempranillo, Mourvedre and Syrah. There's a white Dominó too, composed of 82% Chenin Blanc and 18% Chardonnay and recommended for seafood. The winemaker at this beautiful place is Christoph Gaertner. 

Emevé's Armonía de Tintos 2018 blends equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Shiraz. Emevé is the way the initials of the founder, Mario Villarreal, would be pronounced in Spanish. Above is the entrance to the tasting room on a hot day in 2009.

The remaining blend is the 2014 Valle de Tintos Tempranillo, which contains 22% Carignane (Carignan in Spanish). This young winery is located in El Sauzal, the first community on the highway leading from the Pacific coast into the Valle de Guadalupe.

The highway continues on to Tecate. It's a peaceful drive through vineyards, rock-strewn hills, a few roadside eating places, an occasional market, stands displaying local products and turn-offs to the wineries.

Beyond this entrance is the winery Las Nubes.

The winery building at Finca La Carrodilla (above) blends naturally into the landscape. 

During my early trips to the valley, I was lucky to spend time with industry pioneers, among them Hugo d'Acosta, who started at Santo Tomás, then opened his own winery, Casa de Piedra.

In 2004, d'Acosta founded a school for winemakers at what had been an olive oil factory. Known locally as La Escuelita, its formal name is Estación de Oficios el Porvenir (above). 

Another key person was Luis Agustín Cetto, whom I interviewed in his office at Cetto's location in Tijuana. Hans Backhoff, the oenologist instrumental in founding Monte Xanic in 1987, guided me through tastings there. After one late party inside the winery, I drove away through the valley in deep night, the only car on the road.

Traffic may be just as light now, because there are few tourists, but one day we'll all be back, tasting new wines, meeting new winemakers and celebrating the vendimia.

Despite the quarantine, it's still possible to visit the Valle de Guadalupe although options are limited. Stacie Hunt advises checking first to see if tasting rooms are open and if reservations are required. Restaurants are open by reservation and with outdoor seating only.

"Mexican wine is still very much a wild frontier of wine," she says. It's just a little wilder now, thanks to Covid.

The 1993 article that I wrote about the Valle de Guadalupe, titled "The Other California Wine Country," is available online through The Los Angeles Times. It has three parts, an overview of the wine region, profiles of the wineries and an article about local food with recipes from a cooking contest at Cavas Valmar and from Ensenada restaurants Punta Morro and El Rey Sol, which was the elite place to eat in those days and is still thriving after 73 years in business.   

Mexican Food and Mezcal at Maestro

What a glorious evening--great Mexican food under the stars--the moon to be exact, accompanied by three memorable mezcals.  

The place was Maestro Pasadena. Executive chef Elena Vega prepared the dinner. The mezcal came from Ulises Torrentera (above), mezcal curator and owner of In Situ Mezcalería, a bar in Oaxaca City that promotes traditional mezcal culture. 

Torrentera was on a US tour showing three mezcals from his brand, Farolito, which is a showcase for master Oaxacan mezcal makers. Each of the bottles he brought had the maker's name on the label as well as the details of fermentation and distillation and the place of origin. 

Such mezcal isn't destined for the mass market because it's produced in small batches. There are just 516 bottles of master distiller Virgilio Ramirez's papalometl mezcal, from Santa María Ixcatlán, Oaxaca (above).

To ferment the agave, Ramirez used "bovine leather" (cow skin) and then distilled the cooked, crushed agave in clay pots, according to generations-old ancestral techniques.

In the colonial era, indigenous people were banned from making and consuming alcoholic beverages, Torrentera said. When fleeing from the authorities, they could more easily carry a skinful of fermenting agave than a heavy stationary container. 

That makes this papalometl mezcal rich in history as well as flavor.

Smoky Horno (above) is from Alberto Montes of Nochixtlán, Oaxaca. This mezcal was fermented in wooden tubs and distilled in clay pots. There are just 806 bottles.

The name Horno (oven) was chosen because maguey (agave) leaves are traditionally used to cover meats cooking in a pit in the ground (barbacoa). 

Penca Verde, from Valentín Celis of Zimatlán, Oaxaca, is from the same family as espadín, a widely used agave that matures more rapidly than penca verde. This mezcal was fermented and distilled in clay pots. The batch consists of 702 bottles. It was the first agave that "touched my heart," Torrentera said. 

He's alarmed by attempts to industrialize mezcal to satisfy a growing demand. This means enlarging production by using non-agave components and chemicals. When you taste the beautiful Farolito mezcals, you would not want anything of lesser quality. 

A serious scholar, Torrentera wrote a book about the history of distillation and the artisanal production of mezcal. Published in Oaxaca in 2,000, it's called "Mezcalaría" and is in Spanish only. Amazon has a Kindle edition but not the print version.

Which means you'll have to go to Oaxaca to get it. To facilitate that, Torrentera is organizing a tour, Mezcanautic, which will visit mezcal palenques and include food prepared by the wives of mezcal makers. This tour will take place March 29 to April 2, 2020. 

In January, Maestro sent a team to Oaxaca to study how mezcal is made. The food there is just as serious. Tortillas are handmade from organic nixtamal. Mole is made from scratch. And you won't find chips and salsa on the tables. "We don't give in on the stereotypical," said founder Sergio Martinez (above, with Chef Vega).

Martinez, here with Torrentera, is co-owner of the restaurant with Emmanuel Gonzalez and Paul Gonzalez. They're all from Jalostotitlán in the state of Jalisco, and some of the food is what they remember from their childhood.

Chef Vega was born in Tijuana of parents from Nayarit and is skilled in the seafood dishes from that state as well as what she learns while traveling in Mexico.

The first dish for the mezcal dinner was hiramasa sashimi aguachile (above) with yellowtail, cucumber and pear slices--nice on a hot evening.

Then came rolled pork belly (above) with grilled pineapple, gooseberries and chicharrón.

The third dish was a vibrant mole (above) with chicken confit and pineapple, Mexican crema and fingerling potatoes. Vega makes the mole sauce with ancho, guajillo and negro chiles and a dash of chile de árbol, no chocolate or peanuts.

The tortillas were big and pliable, perfect for scooping up the rich mole sauce. They were also excellent turned into crisp chips (above) to accompany the aguachile.

The three mezcals were poured into small glasses for savoring and discussion, but there was Mexican beer too.

How pretty beer can look when presented like this. 

Maestro's small bar seats just 9 to 12. Every spirit is hand-picked and has a story, Martinez said. Mezcal cocktails are made with agave espadín, because the more rarefied mezcals are too special to dilute into fruity or spicy concoctions. 

Open for a couple of years, the restaurant looks small but can seat 95 with the patio. Although the menu is imaginative, Maestro doesn't forego all stereotypes. In other words, it honors taco Tuesday, with a special menu each week. 

Maestro Pasadena, 101 E. Union St., Pasadena, CA 91733. (626)  787-1512. Open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday, from 4 to 11 pm Friday and Saturday, to 10 p.m. other days. Saturday and Sunday brunch is 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Laurel Hardware Opens a Mezcal Bar

There's a tiny bit of mezcal heaven in West Hollywood.

It's the brand new mezcal bar attached to the restaurant Laurel Hardware.

"Tiny" may be exaggerating, but the bar is definitely small, a dark, cozy place to hang out in while getting to know this Oaxacan spirit better.

Restaurant owners Phil Howard and Dean McKillen are so enthusiastic about mezcal that they have bought into La Niña del Mezcal, a brand produced in Santiago Matatlán. La Niña's founder is Cecilia Rios Murrieta. Read about her by clicking here. 


In the photo is La Niña's pechuga mezcal, from the 2015 limited edition. (Pechuga means breast and refers to the Oaxacan practice of steaming a chicken breast over mezcal to add flavor.)

This is bottle 31 of only 200 from a triple-distilled single pot still batch. The alcohol content is 47.98%, but in Oaxaca, alcohol can soar much higher.

La Niña is bright, fresh and fruity, far more charming than sipping straight tequila. At the preview party, I also tasted La Niña's tobalá mezcal, produced from agave growing wild in the mountains, and a Del Real pechuga, with a deeper, heavier flavor than that of La Niña. It's on the left in the photo above. The tobalá is on the right. 

Bartender Dustin Shaw (above) has created a line of mezcal cocktails, although it seems a shame to mask the flavor of such fine spirits.

Here is the Rufino Tamayo, named for the artist whose museum is a must stop in Oaxaca City. The Ingredients are La Niña espadin mezcal (espadin is the type of agave used), Bols Genever (Dutch gin), Amaro Alpino, which is an Italian bitter spirit infused with mountain herbs, and Carpano Antica, a red vermouth. These add up to a pretty pink drink with a bitter edge.

This cocktail is the Lila Downs, named for the singer. It combines La Niña mezcal with Casamigos blanco tequila. Absinthe is sprayed into the glass, and rosemary mint foam goes on top.

Then there's the spectacular María Sabina, named after the legendary Oaxacan curandera whose rites involved Oaxaca's magic mushrooms. The ingredients are Los Nahuales reposado mezcal, Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky, a dash of Cherry Heering, blood orange juice, muddled fresh basil and sea salt, with lavender rosemary foam on top. Shaw finishes the drink by grating coffee and Mexican chocolate onto the foam.

Four more such drinks are on the menu as well as flights of mezcal and bar bites. Nice with fruity mezcals is tuna crudo with mango on a crunchy piece of chicharrón (above).

A dot of the famous Oaxacan black mole goes on top of tiny quesadillas filled with Oaxacan cheese (above).

Other choices are guacamole, a chilled lobster tostada, an al pastor taco with braised pork, grilled pineapple and green sauce, and skewers of spicily-seasoned wagyu beef (above).

If that's not enough, one can move on to dinner in the patio restaurant (above). On a midweek evening Laurel Hardware was jammed with diners and drinkers. It makes one wonder how the diminutive, clubby mezcal bar will accommodate such a mob when word gets out about its premium mezcals. 

Laurel Hardware, 7984 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046, (323) 656-6070.

A Taste of The Taste of México 2015

What a way to start a party, with son Jarocho, the wildly rhythmic music of Veracruz, turning downtown L.A. into the steamy tropics as dancers whirled and stomped to the beat.

This was Taste of México 2015 at the Plaza de Cultura y Artes, across from Olvera Street. With a VIP ticket, you had early access to as much Mexican food as anyone could possibly eat, plus cocktails, tequila, mezcal, beer and wine, without the lines that developed later.

Star Mexican chefs taking part included the guys from La Casita Mexicana and Mexicano. The sign on their booth simply said Jaime and Ramiro, and you knew at once who was there. (Jaime Martín del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu, if you haven't been indoctrinated).

The La Casita Mexicana side of the booth presented mole de rosa, an unusual light, sweet mole with chicken and almonds (above) and ceviche verde de pescado--green fish ceviche.

On the Mexicano side were spicy beef birria and a full-bodied flan (above) made with three cheeses--panela, cotija and queso fresco.

How often do you see the herb papalo served with tacos in Los Angeles? Not very often, but Aqui Es Texcoco added it to the condiments at its stand. The others were onions with cilantro, onions with habanero chiles, lime wedges and green (hot) and red (not so hot) salsas. 

Here is Aqui Es Texcoco's lamb barbacoa taco, with papalo at the side.

There were plain carne asada tacos and imaginative tacos with new flavors. Lotería Grill deconstructed chiles en nogada (pork, dried fruit picadillo, creamy walnut sauce, pomegranate seeds and cilantro) into taco filling. Guelaguetza elevated bean tacos to something special.  PettyCash Taquería (above) came up with oxtail mole tacos with purple sweet potato, almonds and pomegranate seeds. 

Just as unusual were duck panuchos from Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen in Orange. They were topped with orange and achiote-glazed Muscovy duck, onion escabeche, radish salpicón  and avocado-habanero salsa. 

There was plenty of ceviche, including Coni'Seafood's shrimp and octopus ceviche (above).

Artesana's paletas (popsicles) provided relief from the rich tastes. Flavors were arroz con leche (rice pudding), with a subtle taste of cinnamon; blackberry-pomegranate, grapefruit-hibiscus, avocado-coconut and Vietnamese coffee.

The Day of the Dead is approaching, so skull motifs and other tributes were on hand including these miniature versions of pan de muertos, from La Monarca Bakery.

It was nice to see Baja California wines, long poorly represented on this side of the border. Wines poured included Ácrata's Grenache-Petite Sirah blend and an Estación Porvenir Sauvignon Blanc.  

For the first time, Taste of México included a mercado, where you could shop for art work, books, T-shirts and artesanías.

If you didn't want to spend, there were giveaways so everyone could take something home. These included gift bags, if you were willing to stand in a long line to get them;  scarves from Northgate González Markets, Tampico Spice Company's oregano, and Kettle Brand potato chips--not very Mexican, but good with beer from a festival sponsor, Victoria. 

A Place to Learn Wine-Making in Baja

Want to make wine and vacation in Mexico? You can do both at the same time by enrolling in the annual wine-making course at Estación de Oficios el Porvenir (above) in the heart of Baja California wine country.

The course takes place on four consecutive Saturdays. You've missed it for this year, because applications had to be submitted in June. But keep it in mind for next time. The classes are in Spanish, so the delay gives you time to brush up. 

Meanwhile, drop by on your next trip through the Guadalupe Valley. If you've spent much time among wine people there, you've heard about La Escuelita--the school. This is the place.

It was founded by pioneering winemaker Hugo d'Acosta to help grape growers beset by falling prices to profit from their crops in another way--by turning them into wine. Thus vineyards were saved that might have been torn out.

Thomas Egli, who assists d'Acosta, shows here how grapes are manually punched down in open-fermentation concrete tanks. Some 200 tons of grapes are fermented in these tanks every year by valley wineries that use the facilities.   

There's also a still for distilling grappa and other products. It's from Oaxaca. 

The site was originally an olive oil factory, and olive oil is still made there. Above are the original grinding stones. 

Craft beer is another product. This bottle is sitting on the edge of a fermentation tank. The label is like a game: connect the letters to find out what's inside.  

When you're there, try the food and drink at Cooperativa, a super casual outdoor bar and cafe (above).

The menu is simple--beer, wine and, for this lunch, burritos de jaiba (crab burritos), with a salad of very fresh local greens.

Wines poured for my group started with Estación Porvenir Vino Blanco 2014 (above), a Sauvignon Blanc made by the Unión de Productores del Valle de Guadalupe.

That wine was not made on the premises, but the red wine shown here was. Its name, 5 Estrellas, stands for the five partners who made it, each of whom planted one of the five varietals in the wine--Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache and Cinsault. From 2009, it's light, fruity and easy to drink with anything.

We finished with Hugo d'Acosta's Acrata 2008, a blend of Grenache and Carignan with a touch of Durif (Petite Sirah). An unfiltered wine, it was not sweet but had a silky, almost syrupy mouth feel that made it very pleasant for the wine that ended lunch and our tour. 

Heavenly Help for Finca La Carrodilla

On the upper level of this winery building at Finca La Carrodilla is a roof garden that focuses on a shrine to the Virgin of La Carrodilla.

Here she is, facing the entrance. The protector of wineries in Mendoza, Argentina, she's a good choice to watch over this newbie, although it's in Baja's Guadalupe Valley, far from Mendoza.   

Finca La Carrodilla opened to the public in 2014. Its sister winery is Hacienda La Lomita, owned by the same family and also located in Ejido El Porvenir. In charge at La Carrodilla is Fernando Pérez Castro, who proudly says it is the only winery in the Guadalupe Valley to receive organic certification. 

"This is a project that tries to promote life," he said during my tour there. Cows, sheep, chickens and bees occupy the 20-acre property as well as grape vines. An extensive garden (above) supplies chefs as well as boxes of organic produce for residents of Ensenada. A carrot pulled from the ground tasted incredibly sweet. The scent of basil perfumed the breezes.

Shelves in the tasting room show off the wines (above), each type with its own label. A tasting for my group started with the strongly fruity 2014 Chenin Blanc from the first vintage of white wines. Only 800 bottles were made.

Next came Canto de Luna 2014, made from estate-grown Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo grapes. "With a young wine, we are trying to pay respect to what the wine is giving us," Pérez Castro said.  I noticed tannins and subtle sweet notes in this one. 

The 2012 Shiraz is completely dry yet has something sweet about it. Pérez Castro calls this a "lipstick kind of aroma." I think we make a spectacular kind of Shiraz," he said, "maybe not as strong as the ones we are accustomed to, but elegant, feminine." It got a lot of stars in my notes.

And so did the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, with its beautiful deep color, touch of spiciness and fresh red fruit flavors. "We are very proud of this wine, because we know how difficult it is to make," Pérez Castro said. Cabernet grapes are harvested late in the Guadalupe Valley, giving more chance of exposure to Santa Ana winds and hot days that can turn the grapes into raisins. It is the only La Carrodilla wine that goes into French oak. 

The consultant winemaker is Gustavo Gonzalez, known for his work with red wines in the Napa Valley and elsewhere and also winemaker for Hacienda La Lomita.

Although drought is a big concern, it isn't as bad this year as last, when only three inches of rain fell in the Guadalupe Valley. The total so far in 2015 is 12 inches, Pérez Castro said during my visit in mid July.  

This photo of the dirt road leading up to the winery (above) shows how dry the land is. At Finca La Carrodilla, irrigation takes place at night, and agricultural engineers are researching the minimum amount of water needed to keep the vines healthy. 

What impressed me was not just the promise of the young wines, but the intensity and passion evident as Pérez Castro (above) talked in his conference room, which includes a figure of the Virgin of La Carrodilla. 

He's self taught and dedicated, conscientious about every aspect of wine-making, from caring for the land to the reason for what he is doing. "Wine is not a luxury," he said, "but a necessity to share with people."  

Clos de Tres Cantos--It's Spectacular

What on earth is that cluster of giant boulders, a behemoth encampment high in the hills?

It is Clos de Tres Cantos as seen from the highway through the Guadalupe Valley. The sight is enough to stop traffic, if there were much of that on this road. 

Get closer, and you'll find one of the most architecturally astonishing wineries in the valley, a stunning composition of rocks and cement.

Clos de Tres Cantos opened in September, 2014. It was designed by architects Alejandro d'Acosta and Claudia Turrent, whose innovative work can be seen in other valley wineries. D'Acosta is the brother of Baja wine pioneer Hugo d'Acosta.

In the courtyard (at top) you could well be in a Mayan temple.

These concrete chairs look as if they were set out for some preternatural cocktail party or, more appropriately, wine tasting.  

The pyramid-shaped structures, made from local rock, harmonize with the hills of the valley. Interesting details include this wine bottle niche in a wall.

More wine bottles form an interior panel that glows in the light.  

Not everything is rock and concrete. Here is the tasting room, where visitors gather around a wooden communal table. Owners María Benítez and Joaquín Moya are second and third from the left.  

Grapes are purchased because the winery is so new. The wines have philosophical names such as Tu Mismo (yourself), which is a blend of four red grapes; Duda (doubt), a blend of Carignan and Mourvedre, and Nada (nothing), a Tempranillo-Petite Sirah blend.

Nada's label (above) matches its name. Why call it that? Because "nothing can be anything" is the answer.  

You couldn't have ordinary food in such a winery. And there was nothing ordinary about the appetizers prepared for my group by chefs Javier Suárez (above) and Francisco de Landero.

Seared tuna on rosemary stems served as dippers for a melted mixture of four cheeses in a bread bowl. The cheeses came from the Ramonetti cheese cellar in Real del Castillo in the Ojos Negros valley. A fig and tomato marmalade on the side lightened the rich taste of the cheeses.

Centolla (king crab) mixed with Dijon mustard and dill was spooned onto jicama slices (above).

And here is shrimp on crisp pork rinds (chicharrón) with green apple and peppers. 

Clos de Tres Cantos will open a restaurant in August. Then, you'll be able to sit outside and enjoy a view like this while you eat and try the wines.

It you order Duda (above with Joaquín Moya), read the back label. It tells you to taste it and then "doubt everything and find your own light." That saying, from the Buddha, may sound wise, except that there's nothing to doubt about Clos de Tres Cantos becoming a major stop on the Baja wine route. 

East LA Meets Napa--and Bordeaux

It might seemed odd, finding Bordeaux wines at East LA Meets Napa, where the focus has always been on Latino food and wine.

Nevertheless, a special tasting room was set aside for grands crus, a premier grand cru classé, a Bordeaux supérieur and the like, with a couple of women to pour the wines and comment on them (at top). 

But this wasn't really odd, considering how France has influenced Mexican cuisine. The bolillo came from the baguette. Flan is actually crème renversèe au caramel. And we wouldn't be celebrating Cinco de Mayo if the invading French hadn't been defeated by a Mexican army at Puebla on May 5, 1862.

So AltaMed, which stages the annual benefit to raise funds for its health care services, was right on track.

The tasting spread through the wide open spaces of the Union Station and Metropolitan Water District courtyards. Even there, the French connection continued.

One of Mexico's elite winemakers, Victor Torres Alegre (above), greeted tasters in the enclave devoted to wines produced in Mexico. Torres Alegre was the first in his country to earn a doctorate in enology. And guess where he got it? The University of Bordeaux. 

Previously winemaker for Château Camou, he now has his own winery, the Vinícola Torres Alegre y Familia in the Guadalupe Valley. Above are two of his wines. 

The Torres Alegre 2011 Del Viko white blend, composed of 70% French Colombard and 30% Chenin Blanc, is made according to French methods and without oak, he said, A charming wine, it easily stood up to a spicy ceviche tostada from El Coraloense (above).

The 2005 Guarda Especial La Llave, a Cabernet Franc and Merlot blend, spent 24 months in French oak. Selected grapes first underwent 15 days of skin contact at cold temperature, then went through an exceptionally long, slow fermentation of 45 to 60 days--so as not to extract hard tannins, Torres Alegre said.

During vinification, sweet tannins from inside the grapes were extracted naturally by the pressure of the grapes, not by mechanical means, he said. The wine was released in 2014.   

What would you eat with such a wine? Something with foie gras, possibly, and that was close at hand, slices of pan dulce with foie gras butter and piloncillo from Broken Spanish. The slices weren't as pink as in the photo, caused by the early evening light. 

ALXimia Winery from the Guadalupe Valley was also present. Its French connection is chef Martín San Roman, who opened La Terrasse San Roman at the winery last year.

From Mexico City, San Roman was graduated from l'École Lenôtre and worked at Fauchon and Le Meridien hotels in Paris. Returning to Mexico, he opened Tour de France in Tijuana and later Rincón San Roman on the coast.

Food at the new restaurant is Baja Provençale but includes classics such as pâté maison Terrasse, les escargots à la Bourguignonne and soupe à l'oignon. The signature dessert is a cake composed of crepes and white chocolate.

ALXimia wines to go with his food include the 2012 Magma, a blend of Carignan and Garnacha (Grenache). It's held by Alvaro Alvarez Parrilla, director general of the winery and winemaker. 

Not far from ALXimia's booth, chef John Sedlar, now at Eloisa restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico, served cannelés. This is "the significant dish of Bordeaux," said Sedlar, who went to Bordeaux to attend the Fête le Vin.

Crusty outside and custardy inside, the little cakes were served with tequila cream, tequila caramel sauce and a dab of candied green chiles--not classically French, but perfect for East LA Meets Napa.

Dream Away at Cuatrocuatros in Baja

If you dreamed up a place where you could get away from everything except glorious views, total peace and air so fresh it shocks city lungs, it might look like this.

Only this isn't a dream. It's the bar at Cuatrocuatros, a hotel, winery, real estate venture and event venue at El Tigre, near Ensenada.

Every seat is spectacular. Looking in this direction, Ensenada would be down the coast at the left. 

A landlubber? Then perch on tall wooden bar stools and look toward hills inhabited by bobcats, coyotes and wild deer.  

The bar is accessible only by a dirt road so rough and winding that no one who's had a drink or two could handle it. Therefore, Cuatrocuatros provides transportation.

Another spot even more isolated is on top of a hill lined with grape vines. This is the place for presenting engagement rings. The groom-to-be could hardly stage the presentation as a surprise.  Everyone involved has to be driven to the top in an off-road vehicle.  

If you have a cool few million, you could buy land from Cuatrocuatros and build a house, which will entitle you to a share in the winery. Wine production is only 700 cases, and the wines are sold only at Cuatrocuatros.

The first release was in 2009. Current releases include an appealing semi-sweet Grenache made from old vine grapes. It was blended from the 2013 and 2014 vintages, one year with oak age and one without.   

Although not far from the Guadalupe Valley, this area is a different microclimate, two miles from the ocean and cooler, says Andrés Blanco, who overseas the bar and other hospitality facilities.

Whereas harvest has already started at some vineyards in the valley, the harvest at Cuatrocuatros won't start until the end of August or early September.

Blanco himself is a winemaker. Above, he's pouring a blend of Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, a handsome red from 2011.

The 2013 Sauvignon Blanc, which spent some time in French oak, is typically peppery and vegetative. It's a stunning wine from a vineyard close to the ocean.

Cuatrocuatros wines have no labels. Instead, their identity is sandblasted onto the bottle (above). It's another elite aspect of this development, where you can rough it in  glamorous cabanas rigged up like tents--unless, that is, you prefer to build your own luxury ocean-view hideaway.

Meanwhile, you can stop buy and pick up a bottle of wine. The address is Carretera Libre (the free road from Tijuana to Ensenada), km. 89, in El Tigre. Call first if you want to buy wine or go to the bar, which is open only on weekends. The phone is (52) 646-174-6789.