These days you may find that ordering wine in Mexico is coming on strong to beer and tequila!

REAL MEN DRINK…MERLOT?

Originally Published in Western Outdoor News the Week of July 20, 2010

I saw an advertisement for a liquor company in an American magazine someone left lying around the pool a few months ago.   As I recall, the ad showed some young couples toasting each other in a bar with hi-ball glasses and the words:

“Few good stories start with the words, ‘We began the evening with a glass of white wine…'”

I’m paraphrasing the slogan but for those of you who have partied in Baja…or anywhere for that matter…good-time stories in Baja usually start with words like…

“And then Joe decided to buy a round of tequila shots for everyone…”

“The beer drinking started about 6 a.m. and by 10 a.m….”

“One tequila…two tequila…three tequila…floor…”

“It’s not my fault.  Someone bet us to see how many margaritas we could drink…”

“Someone’s brilliant idea to order doubles…”

“They told me I had to eat the little worm at the bottom of the bottle…”

As you might imagine, images and memories in Mexico often lean towards tequila and beer.  I mean, it’s the frontier, right? Hard living.  Hard partying.  Grit and hard liquor!

Old stereotypes die hard.

Yul Brynner and the Magnificent Seven didn’t bust into the pueblo sipping merlot with guns a-blazing.  General Santa Ana and Davey Crockett didn’t toast each other with fluted chablis glasses before the final morning at the Alamo.   Antonio Banderas didn’t pull a pate brunch and a bottle of  cabernet from his machine gun case  before blasting  the cantina to smithereens. Humphrey Bogart didn’t stash mini-splits of chardonnay in his saddle bags to celebrate finding the treasure of Sierra Madre.

Heck, imagine old hardline outdoor writers like  Papa Hemmingway or former Western Outdoor News writers Ray Cannon or Fred Hoctor in bars after a day of fishing holding wine spritzers in hand and dabbing the corners of their mouths with napkins.  NOT! (Does Pat McDonnel drink wine?)

 Mens’ men drank real drinks in one gulp then wiped their salty dusty lips with the back of their grimy hands or blood splattered fishing shirtsleeves…especially en la frontera de Baja!

To be sure, Mexico is not the Napa Valley.  It’s not even Orange County, California.  Wine and tequila still predominate.  In fact, according to Wikepedia, the average consumption of wine per capita in the country is only two glasses.  I would bet some regions of Italy or France measure consumption in LITERS daily…not yearly!

The European influence on wine in Mexico began strongly as the Spanish conquistadores along with the padre missionaries, brought wine and grape cultivation along with them in the 1500’s.  In fact, necessity being the mother-of-invention, one legend has it that Hernan’ Cortes and his merry conquerors quickly depleted the wine they brought from Spain after destroying the Aztecs . One of his first acts as governor was to order grapes planted and wine production started to keep the troops happy.

However, by 1699, prudish Spanish King Charles II put a stop to the party and declared that wine could only be used for religious purposes in Mexico.  You can imagine how that went over.

Interestingly an increase in religious “celebrations” and rituals suddenly rose!  Instead of toasting “to king and country,”  toasting to “God and health” (with a knowing wink) gave drinking a “religious” bend!  Ahhh..semantics!

Some of the padres…god bless ’em…kept right on growing grapes and producing wines for fun and profit despite the imperial edict from Spain. 

Until the Independence of Mexico, commercial wine production virtually stopped.  Then rose again in the 1800 and 1900’s but hit another snag during the revolution.  It’s hard to grow wine grapes when Pancho Villa and Blackjack Pershing are trampling down the vineyards.

However, since then, wine production and interest in viticulture has risen.  Especially in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, both the quantity and quality of Mexican wines has improved dramatically.

In fact, Baja is now responsible for about 90 percent of the wine production in Mexico. And, most of that wine-making comes from the valleys and hills around Ensenada.

Once snickered at being the type of wines with screw-off caps and plastic corks, Mexican wines are finding quite a niche. In fact, the mild winters, dry summers and sea breezes in Northern Baja are enabling vintners to grow many of the same varietals found in California prompting afficionados to dub it the “next Napa Valley.”

With more than 62,000 acres of vines now planted, the region is following the marketing strategies of their U.S. neighbors with wine festivals (August) and “taster-friendly” wineries as well as tours and tour groups through the area.  Wine bars are popping up in Tijuana, Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. 

White wines such as chardonnay, chenin blanc, and sauvignon blanc are very popular while red varieties such as sirah, Bordeaux varietals and Grenache are doing well and giving the imports a run-for-the-money.

So, next time you’re in Baja…beer for the boat…but don’t be surprised if you’re handed a wine list when you do out for dinner!

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Jonathan Roldan has been the Baja Editor/Columnist for Western Outdoor Publications since 2004.  He lives with his wife Jill and they run their fishing fleet in La Paz www.tailhunter-international.com as well as the Tailhunter Bar/Restaurant on the historic La Paz waterfront.  He can be contacted directly at riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com