BAJA WINE : Tracking Baja’s Wine Pioneers

Here’s a guide to the six Ensenada-area wineries. Those located in the Guadalupe Valley have addresses and phone numbers in Ensenada or Tijuana. Phone numbers are given as dialed from the United States. The accompanying map indicates winery locations. With Ensenada as a base, the region could be toured in a day.

BODEGAS DE SANTO TOMAS

Founded in 1888, Santo Tomas is the oldest Mexican winery still in production. It was first located amidst vineyards that once supplied wine grapes to Mission Santo Tomas, which was established in 1791.

In 1900, the winery moved to Ensenada, and in 1934 to its present location in the heart of town. The imposing structure has a unique feature. It is divided by a street, and winemaking follows suit. White wines are produced on one side, red wines on the other. All grapes come from the winery’s own vineyards.

Hugo d’Acosta, winemaker and director general, trained at Montpellier in southern France. D’Acosta joined the company in 1988. One of his predecessors was Dmitri Tchelistcheff, son of legendary California winemaker and consultant Andre Tchelistcheff. Some of Dmitri’s wines are still on hand, stored in a cave built into a hill.

In 1992, Santo Tomas produced 100,000 cases of wine, using grapes from three valleys: Santo Tomas, where the winery originated; San Vicente, which is just south of Ensenada; and San Antonio de Las Minas, located at the end of the Guadalupe Valley that is closest to the Pacific Ocean.

The biggest sellers are Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc and Grenache Rose. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc were made for the first time in 1989. Other new wines are the unreleased Tempranillo and the 1991 Merlot. The company plans to distribute wine in California by April, starting in San Diego.

Santo Tomas welcomes visitors daily. Facilities include a tasting room and a shop stocked with logo glasses, T-shirts, caps and other souvenirs. A wine bar and a restaurant serving Mediterranean food are scheduled to open March 18.

Tours are given daily at 11 a.m. and at 1 and 3 p.m., or by appointment. The charge is $2 and includes tasting of 14 wines. Picnic sites in the San Vicente Valley and San Antonio de Las Minas can be reserved.

Bodegas de Santo Tomas, Ave. Miramar 666, Ensenada. Telephone: 01152 (667) 83333. Open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

BODEGAS SAN ANTONIO

This 5-year-old winery would be the first stop on a drive into the Guadalupe Valley from Ensenada. An unpaved road leads up a hill to the rock-walled winery building and small structure that contains the office, laboratory and tasting room.

The tiny tasting room looks almost medicinal with its white formica table, but the dump “bucket” for unwanted wine is handblown Mexican glass and the floor is Mexican tile. Outside, a bougainvillea vine decorates a terracotta-colored wall with cerise blossoms. Rocks are strewn everywhere, and a giant boulder that resembles an Indian beehive oven stands near the office entrance. Olive and fruit trees thrive on this picturesque site, and there’s a view of the vineyards below.

Raul Borquez, an insurance man, is the owner. Wines are made by Octavio Jimenez, formerly of Bodegas de Santo Tomas. They include Chenin Blanc, Grenache Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon and vino tinto , a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with the Italian grapes Alicante, Nebbiolo and Dolcetto. The first white Zinfandel will be released this month.

The winery is not yet open for visits, but the wines are available in Ensenada markets. Construction of a tasting room is planned this year.

Bodegas San Antonio, Calle 2a, 364, Ensenada. Telephone: 01152 (667) 83939.

CASA PEDRO DOMECQ

The Spanish wine firm Casa Pedro Domecq has a daughter company in Mexico that produces 1.5 million cases of wine annually. Casa Pedro Domecq Mexico also dominates the Mexican brandy market, puts out a line of wine coolers and ships table wines overseas. Bulk containers of Nebbiolo, Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon go to Japan, but the leading export market for red wine is France. The big seller there is a moderately priced red called Los Reyes Vino Tinto. In Mexico, the company’s best-selling red is Chateau Domecq, which blends Cabernet Sauvignon with about 15% Merlot. Gold net wrapped around the bottle indicates its stature.

Domecq opened its Guadalupe Valley winery in 1972 but refers to the site as the Calafia Valley, not Guadalupe. Vineyards there yield Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, a white blend called Blanc de Blancs, vinto tinto (generic red wine) and vino blanco (generic white) . The top of the line red is Cabernet Sauvignon Domecq XA, made 100% from Cabernet grapes. Sweet, pasteurized Padre Kino wines are popular. They contain less alcohol (8.9%) than the average California table wine.

Although large, the winery building has the rustic charm of an early-day hacienda. It is jammed with guests at the annual fiesta celebrating the vendimia (grape harvest). In contrast, there’s eerie quiet in the vast, cool cave where red wines slumber. Mounted high in one of the passages is an illuminated figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint. Look also for the enormous tinajas , earthen jars dating from the 16th Century. These were used in Spain to store wine and olive oil.

Casa Pedro Domecq Vides del Guadalupe winery, Mexico 3, Guadalupe Valley; offices on Calle Eusebio Kino, Garita de Otay, Tijuana. Telephone: 01152 (662) 38386. Open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

CAVAS VALMAR

Valmar, located on the outskirts of Ensenada, has a sunny new tasting room, hung with art for sale. It’s more attractive than many tasting rooms in California. In one corner stands the small hand press that was used for the first crush in 1983. Winemaker and part owner Fernando Martain recalls that it took 20 days to press six tons of grapes with this antiquated device. Visitors also can see the original manual corker; bottling is now automatic.

Martain is a chemical engineer, not an enologist. The name Valmar combines his surname with that of his wife, Yolanda Valentin, whose uncles, Hector and Gontran, are Martain’s partners.

The vineyard behind the winery is strictly experimental. Valmar currently buys grapes from the Guadalupe and San Vicente valleys. Production is limited to a Cabernet Sauvignon, a vino tinto composed of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache, a vino blanco that combines Chenin Blanc and Colombard, a Grenache Rose and a Riesling bottled for Hussong’s, the popular bar in Ensenada.

The first wines were released in 1985. In 1992, Valmar added the tasting room and its Cava de Anejamiento, a dirt-floored aging room for red wines.

Cavas Valmar, Ambar 810, Ensenada. Telephone: 01152 (667) 86405. Visits by appointment.

MONTE XANIC

This ambitious young winery, only 4 years old, won two medals at the 1992 Los Angeles County Fair--a gold for 1989 Cabernet Sauvignon and a silver in the Meritage class for 1989 Cabernet Merlot. The Monte Xanic label shows a peach-colored flower on a blue background; xanic is a Cora Indian word meaning the first flower that blooms after rain.

Wines are sold by direct mail or at the winery. Production is small--15,000 cases annually now, with a maximum capacity of 25,000 cases--and the Chardonnay sells out within a month. Monte Xanic wines often appear on the high end of Mexican restaurant wine lists.

Xanic’s sleek white building stands on a hillside in the Guadelupe Valley, like an isolated monastery. The lines are contemporary but suggest the arches of a Spanish hacienda. An artificial lake below holds rain runoff and is stocked with fish. Surrounding hills attract hikers, and a picnic table is available.

Inside, the winery sparkles with silver insulation and frosty stainless-steel tanks. French oak barrels for fermentation and aging are purchased new each year. Ensenada-born winemaker Hans Backhoff is a food scientist with a doctorate from Nottingham University in England.

Monte Xanic wines include Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and two blends, Cabernet Merlot and Chenin Colombard. There’s also a late-harvest ( cosecha tardia ) Chenin Colombard.

Visitors are welcome but must contact the winery in advance so that an English-speaking guide will be available. The guide might be Backhoff himself.

Monte Xanic, office at Ave. de la Marina, 10, Ensenada. Telephone: 01152 (667) 40028. Visits by appointment.

VINICOLA L.A. CETTO

L.A. Cetto’s Guadalupe Valley winery stands on flat ground baked by the sun but cooled by ocean breezes and shaded by giant Indian laurels. Olive trees line the road from Mexico 3 to the winery. The site is across from Domecq’s plant, and Luis A. Cetto is a partner with Domecq in that operation.

Cetto is a dynamic figure in the region. “He’s our Robert Mondavi,” says an industry colleague. Cetto gets about in a twin-engined Cessna 402. His country home is near the Guadalupe winery, and his office, plush as a jet-setter’s living room, is in Tijuana, where the wines are aged and bottled.

Cetto’s father emigrated from Trento in northern Italy and started the business in Tijuana in 1934. The Guadalupe plant opened in 1974. L.A. Cetto makes 400,000 cases of wine annually in addition to wine coolers, brandy, tequila and raisins, which are produced at a plant in Caborca, Sonora. Winemaker Camilo Magoni is from Valtellina, north of Milan.

L.A. Cetto (pronounce it Chetto) makes Nebbiolo, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Fume Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Riesling. Don Angel and Chauvenet are lines of lower-priced wines. Only the Nebbiolo is vintage-dated so far, but Cabernet Sauvignon will show a date starting this year.

Cetto’s Guadalupe winery has barbecue grills for small parties and a new hillside pavilion that can hold several hundred guests. Tours and tasting rooms are planned for both locations this year. The Tijuana tasting room and a restaurant for special events are scheduled to open in April. Visitors there can see a video of the Guadalupe Valley operation.

Vinicola L.A. Cetto, office at Ave. Canon, Johnson 208, Tijuana. Telephone: 01152 (668) 54450. Guadalupe Valley winery open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.