I was introduced to wines from Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California, Mexico in 2020 when I was studying abroad in Mexico City before the pandemic. My favorite restaurant in the Juarez neighborhood of CDMX which is now closed (RIP), Amaya, focused on natural wines and had an extensive list from Mexico. Many years later when a friend asked me if I wanted to take a weekend trip out there, I of course said yes.
Day 1 – Arrival in Valle de Guadalupe
Valle de Guadalupe is located ~2 hours south of San Diego by car. Since there are no east flights to Tijuana from the state that I work, I flew into San Diego then took a rideshare from the San Diego Airport in order to cross the US- Mexico border by foot. It was fairly easy, but the two employees at border control only spoke Spanish so I would recommend having some working knowledge of the language (especially if you are a woman crossing alone) . Also, make sure to bring your Global Entry card if you have one to make crossing back into the US easier. Upon crossing the border, my friend who lives in Mexico and flew into Tijuana picked me up and we started our drive to Valle!
We started off by checking into our AirBNB and then realized we were starving so drove over to Finca Altozano, an easy drive from most of the AirBnBs located in Guadalupe. It’s an open air restaurant that serves seafood, cheeses, as well as wines from the region. We had a cheese board and split some mariscos which were both delicious. We also split a bottle of a Viognier (IYKYK) from Bodega Santo Tomas which was the perfect combination of aromatics and stone fruit with a round body. The restaurant also has a lot of space with a separate coffee and ice cream shop – it’s a great area to spend a few hours eating and relaxing before or after a day of wine tasting!
Bonus stop: Bloodlust Wine Bar
If you’ve done any research on social media about Valle de Guadalupe you’ve surely seen the photos of the large garlic clove that is a restaurant/ wine bar. Bloodlust features a Mediterranean menu with hummus, pizzas, as well as some tacos, accompanied by a complete list of wines and cocktails. It was extremely busy in Bloodlust but the food was good and I enjoyed my cocktail. It was probably our most expensive meal of the trip (per item) but there was a fun DJ and they were setting up for live music as we were leaving. If you are even thinking about for a glass of wine, I’d highly recommend making a reservation as this place is extremely popular with groups from the USA.
Day 2 – Wine Tastings
My friend and I hired a private driver for the day so that we could safely taste wines. We used Calandria Experience, a woman-owned company that helped us to feel safe. The prices were transparent and the owner’s brother, Diego, took us around and was extremely entertaining! They were also very knowledgeable about the wineries around Valle and had great recommendations for us.
Adobe Guadalupe
Our first stop was Adobe Guadalupe. This winery came up repeatedly during my research and was praised for the high quality of their wines so I knew that we needed to go. We did the tasting in the cellar which came out to be ~$22 USD per person. We tasted five wines; one rose and four reds. My personal favorites were the Uriel – the rose that was a blend of Grenache Blanc, Grenache, Cinsaults, Tempranillo and Syrah (such a complex and delicious blend for a rosé) as well as the Kerubiel which is a Rhone style GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mouvedre) blend with a bit of Nebbiolo and Cinsault as well. It was really fun to compare the flavor profile of the Kerubiel to a Rhône GSM blend – the warmth and dryness of Baja California really increased the stewed fruit flavors of the wine (in a really positive way) and I found the tannins to be round – this was such a fun wine to consume. The sommelier who led us through the wine tasting was experienced and able to answer every question we had about the winemaking and conditions of that year’s harvest.
The icing on the top of Adobe is the food trucks – there are a handful of food trucks selling freshly made foods such as salads, papas bravas, and various meats. It’s the perfect snack to have before heading to the next winery and/or to enjoy a bottle of wine with after your tasting!
Shedeh
We headed to Shedeh for our next tasting. The tasting room was empty when we arrived right around the time of opening. There are two main options for tastings at Shedeh; three or four wines. Both tastings include their Sauvignon Blanc and Rosé, and then reds to finish at the end. While we enjoyed the tasting, if I were to do it over again, we would have come here later in the day for more of a wine bar vibe and split a bottle of either the Nebbiolo or Cabernet Sauvignon (we had small splashes of both and they were delicious)!
La Doble T
In full transparency, we were supposed to go somewhere else for lunch but it ended up being closed due to the owners being out of town. Let me just say that the universe wanted us to find La Doble T and I am eternally grateful! Andrea from Calandria Experience recommended it to us and made a reservation. Our meal there was exceptional – probably one of my favorite meals of 2025 which is saying a lot.
We started off with a tropical ceviche that packed a bit of spice, then moved on to a grilled vegetable and tomato salad that was plated on top of a yogurt base, we then split veggie tacos and finished off the meal with grilled fish that was caught fresh that day off of the coast of Ensenada. The chef was funny and so interactive with us throughout the meal, providing recommendations and making modifications for us as needed. Additionally, he gave us perfect wine pairings for the meal from local producers. 10/10, can’t wait to go back!
Vinos Cruz
We finished out the day at Vinos Cruz which was a recommendation from Andrea and Diego at Calandria as well. I am going to be 100% transparent with you all – I was sipping on wine all day by the time we arrived at Vinos Cruz so my tasting notes are MIA but I will say that it was the most fun vibe of the day. There were small bachelorette parties (not obnoxious), as well as people enjoying a glass of wine after work. We split two glasses: Cruz which is a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Syrah, and Merlot as well as the Vino Tinto Jr which is a 50/50 blend of Tempranillo and Grenache. Both wines had round tannins, delicious red and light black fruit flavors as well as a bit of spice from the barrels. I would definitely return back to Vinos Cruz to taste through all of their wines as I was impressed by the two we had.
We had enough food throughout the day that we didn’t need dinner, which is what I would recommend you do (or pick up some food on the way home because the roads in Valle are treacherous).
For my next trip out to Valle de Guadalupe I would probably stay on the property of a winery for easy access to wine and food at night, but I loved my first trip out to the area and would not make any major changes.
There are so many other wineries that I have on my list to visit in Valle, but our itinerary was a great starting point and I’d recommend going to at least one of the aforementioned places!
If you’ve been thinking about going to (a) Mexico wine region, this is your sign!
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