Lonely Planet

Vines stretch to the northernhills of Valle de Guadalupe,on the road to Decantos VínícolaAS THE SUN SETS BEHINDtowering pine trees, castinglong shadows across theMogor-Badan vineyard,Paulina Deckman isreminiscing about the first time she camehere to eat. It was six years ago, and dinnerwas so good she married the chef.Drew, her Michelin-starred now-husband,had just opened Deckman’s en el Mogor asan open-air venue to showcase the best ofthe ranch’s fresh meat, fruit and vegetablesalongside the plentiful seafood from thenearby port of Ensenada. ‘For my husbandand me, this is the Disneyland of theingredient,’ says Paulina. ‘We serve in ourrestaurant the bounty of the Baja.’Baja California’s Valle de Guadalupe is aspecial place for food and wine. Cooled bythe Pacific Ocean, its microclimate is similarto that of the Mediterranean. And it’s aclimate that makes it easy to grow things.The weather is temperate and the hills aregreen. Squint and you might be in Tuscany.Knock back too much local wine and youmay think you’ve woken up in Napa Valley.Then there’s the seafood. Every morningin Ensenada, oysters, shrimp, marlin, crab,tuna and more are piled high onto the stallsat the Mercado de Mariscos. Serving up aplate of pearly white scallops, Paulinaremarks: ‘These are a signature from BajaCalifornia. They’re so fresh they would havebeen in the water this morning.’Deckman’s takes the ‘farm-to-table’philosophy pioneered by Alice Waters’Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California in the’70s and goes one step further. Rather thanbringing the farm to its diners’ plates, itbrings its diners to the farm. Everyone eats1. Valle de GuadalupeEat, drink and be merry amid the rolling hills of Baja California’s wine countryoutdoors, beneath the shade of the pinetrees, with the scent of the kitchen’s wood-fired stoves in their nostrils. ‘Sometimespeople complain about the flies, but we areon the farm and we have to understand thecontext,’ says Paulina, deftly shooing oneaway from a tray of oysters. ‘We may servefancy food, but this is not a fancy place.’Drew and Paulina are vocal supportersof Waters’ ‘slow food’ movement, thatnecessary corrective to an obsession withfast-food restaurants. ‘Here, our food chainsare as short as possible,’ says Paulina. ‘Wetry to be a zero-km restaurant. Everythingthe ranch produces, we serve.’And it’s not just Deckman’s. Otherrestaurants in the valley are following theirlead. Nearby TrasLomita also has its ownfarmyard and vegetable patch growingingredients at their sister vineyard, Finca LaCarrodilla. Chef Sheyla Alvarado’s signaturedish, tostadas de ceviche verde, combinesfinely cubed jícama (Mexican turnip) andyellowtail from the fish market with theirown home-grown coriander. At the recentlyopened Fauna at boutique hotel Bruma, chefDavid Castro Hussong offers a modernreimagining of Mexican comfort food.The valley’s climate also makes it anespecially good place to make wine. Thepotential of Valle de Guadalupe was spottedearly on, with the conquistador HernánCortés requesting vines from Spain as earlyas 1521. However, it’s only in the last decadethat wineries have begun to flourish. Thatleaves plenty of space for innovation. AtDecantos Vínícola, Alonso Granados hasdevised the world’s first winery withouta single electronic pump. Believing theycan spoil the taste by treating the wine too``````roughly, his system relies simply on aprocess of decanting.While he’s evangelical about hisinnovation, his other mission is todemystify the winemaking process for theemerging class of Mexicans who want tohave a bottle of red alongside their cerveza,tequila and mezcal. ‘It’s not only productionthat we do here,’ he says. ‘We want people tovisit and have fun. In the old days, wine wasonly for kings. These days, it’s for everyone.’48 Lonely Planet Traveller October 2017Take Highway 3 to Ensenada and then Highway 1south for three hours until the turn off on your leftfor San Pedro Mártir National Park.``````Cabañas Cuatro Cuatros is made up of 14cabañas set in vineyards. The cotton tents comewith air-conditioning, a minibar and a walkie-talkie so you can call reception (from £150 percabaña; cabanascuatrocuatros.com.mx).Deckman’s en el Mogor is on the Ensenada–Tecate Highway (mains from £10; deckmans.com).Decantos Vínícola is on Rancho San MiguelFraccion, at the north end of Guadalupe’s Calle 7(bottles of wine from £12; decantosvinicola.com).Essentials