{"id":3163,"date":"2019-03-04T08:37:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T16:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=3163"},"modified":"2019-03-04T08:47:21","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T16:47:21","slug":"the-ruta-del-vino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/03\/04\/the-ruta-del-vino\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ruta del Vino"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Ruta del Vino, heading south out of Tecate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This post will wrap up our Tecate visit, and the focus of today’s blog is the road south out of Tecate.\u00a0 The Ruta del Vino<\/em> is a magnificent road that runs through the northern Baja countryside to Ensenada, passing directly through one of Baja’s wine growing regions.<\/p>\n

If you missed the earlier Tecate posts, here are the links:<\/p>\n

Tecate<\/a>
\nMalinalli Sabores Aut\u00f3ctonos!<\/a>
\nA Tecate Sunrise<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting to the Ruta del Vino<\/em> is easy.\u00a0 After entering Baja through Tecate, just continue south. \u00a0 You’ll pass under the Tecate sign shown in yesterday’s blog, hang a left on Avenida Revoluci\u00f3n<\/em>, and then turn right on Boulevard Universidad<\/em> (which becomes the Ruta del Vino<\/i> and Mexico Highway 3).<\/p>\n

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Welcome to Tecate!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You’ll pass through the center of Tecate and climb a hill as you leave Tecate.\u00a0 You’ll see a bunch of pottery stories selling clay bowls of all kinds.\u00a0 A little further south is a monastery on your left, and a little beyond that is a sign over the road welcoming you to the Ruta del Vino<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Ruta del Vino<\/em> has several things to offer.\u00a0 The first is magnificent scenery through Mexican countryside. \u00a0 Then there are the vineyards.\u00a0 They are on both sides of the road.\u00a0 The third are the restaurants and hotels.\u00a0 And I guess the fourth is the destination, as the Ruta del Vino<\/em> runs all the way to El Sauzal, a tiny community on Ensenada’s northern edge. \u00a0 That’s where the Ruta del Vino<\/em> intersects with Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway.\u00a0 Turn left and the Transpeninsular Highway will take you through Ensenada and all the way to Cabo San Lucas.\u00a0 Turn north and you’re on your way to Tijuana and San Diego.<\/p>\n

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Along the Ruta del Vino, which is Mexico’s Highway 3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another view along the Ruta del Vino.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northern Baja wines are surprisingly good.\u00a0 I’m not a wine connoisseur; I just think they are good and they are certainly reasonably priced.\u00a0 My favorite vineyard is the L.A. Cetto vineyard, which is roughly 45 miles or so south of Tecate.\u00a0 As you’re traveling south on the Ruta del Vino, the L.A. Cetto vineyard is on your left.\u00a0 The road to it used to be dirt, but it was recently paved and it’s an easy ride now.\u00a0 The L.A. Cetto vineyard usually has a fair crowd and on our last visit, there was a general feeling of excitement in anticipation of a visit by senior members of the Catholic clergy.\u00a0 As we were leaving, an entourage of several priests and the region’s Cardinal were arriving.<\/p>\n

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The now-paved road leading to the L.A. Cetto Vineyard. \u00a0 That’s my Subie Outback, which is a grand automobile for these kinds of tours.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Mexican motorcyclist on the road to the L.A. Cetto vineyard. All the gear, all the time.\u00a0 The motorcycle is a Zongshen, marketed in Mexico under the Italika name.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The L.A. Cetto grapes. This is a composite photo showing a 180-degree view from the south (on the left) to the north (on the right).\u00a0 It’s stitched together from three photos. Photoshop does a great job at these kinds of things.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The L.A. Cetto vineyard offers wine tasting, and they sell wines, vinegars, olive oil, olives, cheeses, nuts, and more. \u00a0 When I’m on the motorcycle, my friends and I will usually stop to buy some cheese and olives for a snack. \u00a0 The vineyard has outdoor tables in front of the wine tasting areas. \u00a0 The vineyard also offers factory tours, but they were only in Spanish on the day of my most recent visit. \u00a0 You can buy and get back across the border with any amount of olives and olive oil you wish to take, but there’s a one bottle limit on wine.\u00a0 I picked up an L.A. Cetto Malbec on this visit, which I’ll try later this month.\u00a0 If you’d like to read more about the L.A. Cetto vineyard, here’s an excellent article<\/a> in the BajaBound.com<\/a> newsletter.<\/p>\n

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The L.A. Cetto tasting room and store.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had a great lunch at Los Naranjos<\/i>, which is just a short jaunt further south on the Ruta del Vino<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s about a half mile down the road on the right.\u00a0 The cuisine there is impressive, and nothing wraps up a great meal at Los Naranjos<\/em> better than their apple pie.\u00a0 Make sure you try a glass of their namesake orange juice, too.\u00a0 They grow their own oranges and squeeze their own juice.\u00a0 It’s superb.\u00a0 One more thing:\u00a0 The salsas at Los Naranjos are the best I’ve ever had.\u00a0 One in particular was a darker salsa with crushed almonds.\u00a0 I asked if I could buy a bottle of it, but Los Naranjos doesn’t sell this one other than as a serving with each meal. \u00a0 They saw how much I liked this particular salsa, though, and the chef made up a couple of plastic containers for me to take home.<\/p>\n

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Inside Los Naranjos. It’s rare to see it this empty. On Sundays, it’s a favored destination for Mexican riders and it’s packed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Susie and I split a shrimp omelet for lunch.\u00a0 This was just half of the normal serving.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Naranjos is part of a larger country estate.\u00a0 You can walk around the grounds and take in the interesting sculptures, birds, tilework, and more.\u00a0 I also found out that there’s a 30-room hotel on the premises, something I did not know before this trip.\u00a0 I think a stay there will find its way into a future Baja itinerary.<\/p>\n

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The grounds around Los Naranjos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Los Naranjos turkey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Los Naranjos wall sculpture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To put all this in perspective, all the recent blog posts about Tecate and the Ruta del Vino<\/em> described what Susie and I did in less than 24 hours.\u00a0 We rode down from the Los Angeles area in the afternoon on a Thursday, crossed the border into Tecate around 4:00 p.m, had our great dinner at Amores<\/em> that night, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in Malinalli Sabores Aut\u00f3ctonos<\/em> the next morning, we explored downtown Tecate later that morning, and did our trip along the Ruta del Vino<\/em> in the afternoon.\u00a0 Then it was back up to the border to get back into the US that afternoon.<\/p>\n

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Waiting in line to cross the border. The Wall already exists. That’s the US on the other side. It would have been a lot quicker getting through on the motorcycles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Wall art as we waited to cross the border. Photo by Susie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Getting back to the border is not too hard to do, and the lines to get back into the US are generally better than they would be in Tijuana. \u00a0 Just follow the Ruta del Vino<\/em> back into Tecate, and as you near the center of town, watch for the Garita<\/em> (border) signs.\u00a0 You have to turn off to the right and parallel the US border for a mile or so, and then make a U-turn to get in line.\u00a0 On this last visit, because we were in the Subie, we had to get in the car line, and our wait was about an hour (you’ll want to take a restroom break before you get in line). \u00a0\u00a0 If you’re on a motorcycle, though, you can get through a lot easier.\u00a0 Just find your way through Tecate to the point where the line of cars approaches the US border crossing, squirt through an opening in the K-barriers, and cut the line.\u00a0 We do this all the time on the bikes.<\/p>\n

And folks, that was our whirlwind one-day Tecate junket.\u00a0 I liked this approach where instead of zooming up and down the peninsula, we selected a particular place and explored it in some detail.\u00a0 I’d like to do that in the San Quintin area on a future trip…there are some cool things down there.\u00a0 Anyway, Joe G and I are headed to Baja later this month on the motorcycles.\u00a0 Stay tuned; it’s going to be another grand trip!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post will wrap up our Tecate visit, and the focus of today’s blog is the road south out of Tecate.\u00a0 The Ruta del Vino is a magnificent road that runs through the northern Baja countryside to Ensenada, passing directly through one of Baja’s wine growing regions. If you missed the earlier Tecate posts, here … Continue reading “The Ruta del Vino”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,63,57,66,369],"tags":[593,592,591,435,594],"class_list":["post-3163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazon","category-baja","category-baja-cuisine","category-joe-gresh","category-zongshen","tag-l-a-cetto","tag-los-naranjos","tag-ruta-del-vino","tag-tecate","tag-us-border-crossing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3163"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions\/3184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}