On wine tasting in Mexico

[Dinner]

Please note that if a car key is only half way in the trunk latch you should not try to turn it. If the key is not turning that does not mean to keep turning harder until the key breaks in two especially if you are in the middle of no where, in another country, and you have no spare key. You'd think that would be obvious but it turns out it wasn't for one of my drunken friends.

He was supposed to be the smart one since he's just finishing up his PHD, however, it seems that book smarts do not equal common sense especially after the 15th winery tour. Of course the nearest town was so small it didn't have a locksmith so we had to pay a locksmith $50 to travel 40 miles to come and make us a spare key. It all ended well and I'd recommend visiting the Guadaloupe Valley Wine Country but make sure you don't let anyone touch your car keys.

[Zkribbler]

Drinking and driving.
Drinking and driving in Mexico.

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Drinking and driving.
Drinking and driving in Mexico.

[Dinner]

I did not drink and drive. I was the designated driver and used the "spitoons" provided by the wineries for just such a purpose. My friends, however, were fairly tipsy and one of them asked for my keys to put some bottles he bought into the trunk. That's when he broke the key.

BTW drinking and driving is much more common in Mexico then in the US. Most of the cities I've visited in Mexico the thing to do on a friday night was to drink a lot of beer or liquor then cruise up and down the main street. In Enscenada I even had some 40 year old Mexican guy bump into my car while we were waiting in traffic. He had a can of tecate in his hand and it was pretty obvious he was tipsy. I've seen the same sort of stuff in Cancun, Maztlan, Tijuana, Enscenda, Cabo, etc...

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I did not drink and drive.

BTW drinking and driving is much more common in Mexico then in the US.

Yes, but it's not good to be an Americano in a Mexicano jail.

[Dinner]

Hell, even the rats don't want to be in a Mexican jail much less the humans. About the only things worse would be Turkish or Chinese prison.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Hell, even the rats don't want to be in a Mexican jail much less the humans.

Yes, but with the "food" they serve in Mexicano jails, the rats often do end up in the humans.

[Dinner]

Back to the topic of Mexican Wine. It seems Baja California is the only region of Mexico really suited for vineyards though the locals lack the expertise to make world class wines. The soils of places like the Gaudaloupe Valley are made from decomposed granite (such volcanic soils are best for wines) and the climate is certainly suitable for the warm weather varietals from places such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece though the lack of rain (Baja becomes a desert as you move further south) means the vines require irrigation most of the time and the Mexican vintners seem to over water the crop thus producing watery tasting wines.

In California it is normally only the low end grape vines of the central valley (whose wine is sold cheaply in bulk) who irrigate while virtually all of the upper and middle priced producers proudly say they don't irrigate because doing so intensifies the flavors of the wine. Sadly, the Mexican producers (even large international companies from Europe and America who run wineries in Mexico) view Mexican wine as something which cannot compete on quality and instead should be mass produced and sold cheaply. Most of them taste like cheap wines, they are runny & do not coat the glass like a cheap wine, and worst of all the companies do not even believe in their product and market them like they have something to hide. Often you will see them write Baja CALIFORNIA on the label (like that with California bolded and Baja in regular print) like they are hoping people will confuse them with a proper Californian wine.

This is a shame because they could be producing great wines here and indeed some of the artisanal places do indeed produce high quality wines at very low volumes. The single best wine I tasted in the whole Baja wine country was found at a little winery owned by a Mexican man and his Argentine wife which was located at the end of a very rutted dirt road more then a mile off of the highway. The road was so narrow I would have turned back if I could have found the room to turn my car (it was that rustic) when we came upon a wooden gate that had a sign posted above it saying "Artisanal wine: I am out trimming the vines please hook if you would like to taste the wine". The family had carved the wine cellor out of the hillside and inside everything was decorated in hand made tile mosaic which the wife had placed herself. They had a total of 15 oak barrels and that was it. The wine was aged for one year and then the barrels were emptied & the wine bottled once the barrels were needed for the next year's harvest. The winery was named Dicano and they just humblely marked their name and the year of the vintage on the bottle with a paint pen (there was no label) and that was it. Either you like their blend of tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and grenache or you didn't.

The wine was excellent.

[Zkribbler]

(There must be some way to turn this information into a vast fortune.)

[Dinner]

I'm currently drinking L.A. Cetto de Gaudaloupe's 2003 Petite Sirah. L.A. Cetto is the oldest and largest winery in Mexico so it is actually a step up from the other Mexican mass market wineries though it still concentrates on the lower end. For $5-$6 you can buy some good table wine. It isn't excellent but it is about the same as you'd get from a Californian vinter for around $12. Not a bad price to quality ratio.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I'm currently drinking L.A. Cetto de Gaudaloupe's 2003 Petite Sirah.

If I weren't still at work, I'd probably be drinking L.A. Getto.

[Ted Striker]

Chilean win pwnz all

[atomant]

Forgive, but can't resist.....

Oerdin: (walking into mexican winery) "A glass of your finest chardoney my good man"

Mexican Winemaker: "Si, one shot of tequilla coming up"

Oerdin: " No Senor, wine wine"

Mexican Winemaker: "Si Si, compredene, tequilla tequilla"

(repeat conversation until frustration is self evident)

[Dinner]

I would have to say Chile makes the best Wine in Latin America with Argentina second and Mexico third. Chile has a large lead in quality over it's Latin American competitors. California is in a league of its own with the Pacific Northwest (BC, Washington, & Oregon) taking up second place (they've got the capital and training which the Latin Americans have a hard time matching). Chile benefits from a long tradition of making wines and from having a low cost to produce those wines. That's what has made them a growing power in the wine world.

[Dinner]

I've finished the bottle og Petite Syrah and have now moved on to the bottle of Cavas Pedro Domecq's Blac De Blancs. It was grown in the Valle de Calafia (Valley of Calafia; she was the Amazon Queen, who Homer wrote about, for which the Californias were named after) which is a small off shoot of the Valle de Gaudaloupe (Gaudaloupe Valley). It is well worth the $5 price though it is simple table wine and not worth comparing to the world class wines of France or California proper.