I’m pretty excited about the latest Eat Mexico tour Jesica and I are working on. It’s a preview of some of Mexico’s best-known alcoholic beverages: mescal, pulque, tequila and Mexican wine.
Sounds fun, no? I mean, I know I’m biased because I helped come up with the idea. But even if I wasn’t involved in this, I would be all over this tour like tomato sauce on Mexican rice.
A few weeks ago, we went on a test-run, dragging along some interested friends and two Danish students (friends of friends) who were visiting here on holiday. Our first stop was El Encrucijada, a cute wine bar in Condesa.
We only planned to spend an hour there, so the idea was to offer a short introduction to Mexican wine with some history and tasting notes. This wasn’t for the advanced wine-consumer, but rather someone who enjoys drinking a glass of wine with dinner and is curious about the little-known world of Mexican wine.
When we arrived, the owner of El Encrucijada, Juan, had set up a tasting of three Mexican varietals, along with a gorgeous plate of cured ham and Oaxacan cheese.
He guided us through the three varietals: an Entretanto Carignan Syrah from Aguascalientes, a Miguel Tempranillo Cabernet from Adobe Guadalupe outside Ensenada, and an award-winning Santo Tomás Merlot, also from Ensenada.
As everyone sipped — well, everyone except Jesica, because she was driving, and me, because I was taking notes and photos — Juan chatted about the long history of wine-making in Mexico and where wine is principally grown here. He also discussed how the different regions’ soil and weather can affect taste.
I won’t get into too much further detail (we humbly ask you to book the tour or set up a private tasting with us if you want to know more), but suffice to say that the group really enjoyed it. Afterward we moved on the pulquería, which was a blast, and about as far away on the drinking-spectrum from a wine bar that you could get. I’ll get to that visit in another post.
While we loved El Encrucijada — personally, it’s one of my favorite wine bars in the city — we’re exploring other venues to host the wine tasting in the future. If you know of a great spot that might host a group of six or fewer people, please let me know.
A few more photos from the wine tasting:
I love this place! We found it by accident when we ducked in from the rain last summer and were delighted with the whole place. They had a beautiful jamon jabugo on the counter and they sliced straight off the ham when we ordered it. Special knife and everything!
I know, isn’t it great? It’s my favorite spot to hang out during the week and sip a glass of wine, and nibble on a few bites. Love their salads too.
You must try raicilla, from the cabo corrientes area in jalisco!
Thanks for the suggestion June. We actually did try raicilla on the mescal part of the tour. (Well, everyone but me and Jesica, actually, since we were too busy leading the tour, and talking and writing notes.) I’ve got pictures and will post them soon!
Leslie,
You have managed to carve out a perfect job niche, and this post only proves that! Felicidades!
Kathleen
Thanks Kathleen! Appreciate the kind words.
Lesley,I follow your blog since the first post a let me say that your your improvement in the art of the food/restaurant photography is remarkable. That really helps to makes more atractive the place.
What did everyone think of the wines? Also what is pulque?
They loved the wines. It was just a short tasting, only about an hour long. But everyone enjoyed it. Nobody in the group knew much about the wine-growing regions in Mexico, so I think they learned a lot. Pulque is the fermented juice of the maguey plant.
What is raicilla??