Oct 185 min read

Explore the World of Mexican Wines

Chaak Mexican Wine + Food Festival on Saturday will bring together 29 wines from seven states in Mexico and admission includes small bites from some of So Cal’s favorite Mexican restaurants.

Mexican wines will be served at the Chaak Wine + Food Festival in Tustin. Seen here, bottles from Adobe Guadalupe wines in Baja California. Photo courtesy of La Competencia Imports

You love wine but you don’t want to drink California cabernets and chardonnays all the time. So, the don’t-miss event for you this Saturday is the Chaak Mexican Wine + Food Festival.

Mexican wines? But doesn’t Mexican food go better with beer, mezcal and tequila? Think again. Restaurateurs Gabbi and Ed Patrick, founders of Chaak Kitchen in Tustin and Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen in Orange, have teamed up with wine distributor Tom Bracamontes to present a new festival intended to introduce locals to a different world of vinos. They will bring together 29 wines from seven states in Mexico including Baja California, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosí for the first Chaak Mexican Wine + Food Festival in Tustin.

Mexican wines are beginning to trend, with a unique, boutique spot in the market. “That's the great thing about them,” said Bracamontes, who imports, distributes and sells wines through his Napa-based company, La Competencia Imports. “Right now, the entire country produces somewhere between 6 to 8 million cases, more or less. Where the largest winery in Chile does more than 8 million cases. So, Mexico as a country, we're never going to be in every location or every store, or every restaurant. And you know what? We don't necessarily need to be.”

La Competencia Imports team, from left to right: Sofía D’Argence, Tomas Bracamontes, Paullete Navarrete, Rubén Peralta and Valeria Bojórquez. Photo courtesy of La Competencia Imports

Bracamontes, who grew up in Orange, where his family operated a store that morphed into the White Tortilla restaurant, explained that Mexican wines have gotten a foot in the door in the U.S. and that savvy consumers should be on the lookout for them to pop up soon in their favorite restaurants and retail shops. Bruma, Bodega los Cedros, Casa Magoni, Freixenet México, Pravada, Tres Raíces and Vinaltura are becoming recognizable brands.

“It's great to know that we could be in a Chaak or in a Gabbi's, we could be at a Tzuco in Chicago, we could be at a La Contenta in New York, we could be at Vecino in Detroit. And now we have a relationship with Whole Foods; we're working with them in four states.”

PHOTO 1: Chaak Mexican Wine + Food Festival will pour a variety of Mexican wines. PHOTO 2: Pies de Tierra from Vinisterra in Baja California. PHOTO 3: Vinaltura Sparkling wines in Querétaro. PHOTO 4: Exploración from Fincas MX in Baja California. PHOTO 5: Reds from Mexico, such as Pájaro Azul, from Bodegas Guanamé in Guanajuato, can be untraditional blends. Photos courtesy of La Competencia Imports. PHOTO 6: Sitara Monica Perez founded the Valle Girl Vino winery in Baja in 2012. Her wines will not be poured at the festival but she recommends attending for those who want to find out more about Mexican wines. Photo courtesy of Sitara Monica Perez.

Believe it or not, Mexico is home to the oldest winery in the Americas, according to retail website uncorkmexico.com. Casa Madera was founded in 1597 in Parras de la Fuente, a town in the northern state of Coahuila. It’s still operating today and is one of the country’s most familiar brands.

But it’s only since the 1980s that our Southern neighbor’s wine production has grown into a $2.4 billion industry. (Two bans by the Spanish crown on Mexican wine production in 1595 and 1699 slowed the growth of the industry, they were considered a threat to Spain’s wineries.) So, the number of wineries throughout Mexico has grown to more than 400 but it’s still fairly small, about the same number as the total wineries in a single California region such as Napa or Sonoma.

Sitara Monica Perez founded the Valle Girl Vino winery in Baja in 2012. Photo courtesy of Sitara Monica Perez

However, they’re drawing attention internationally because the quality of the wines has skyrocketed, says vintner Sitara Monica Perez, who was drawn to Baja to start her winery, Valle Girl Vino in 2012.

“I have to brag here because a lot of Mexican wines have been entered in international competitions in Europe and have taken top awards, many gold medals,” she said. “We were all just so proud to be able to enter wines on the world stage and have them fare so well.”

Eric Morley, a Baja wine enthusiast and co-founder of Blue C Creative Marketing Agency in Costa Mesa, says bottlings run the entire gamut at a typical tasting. “In Baja they'll have whites, rosés, reds and they'll do sparklings. Chenin blanc is on the far left and a very, very strong red would be at the far right. They're even doing ports.”

He says tastings in Baja are typically far less expensive ($10-$15) than at California wineries. But don’t think that Mexican vintners are going for the two-buck chuck market, says Bracamontes, “The majority are between $17 and $45 retail.”

Their prices compare favorably to California bottles. “Mexico as a whole, because of the economies of scale and the taxes, and the fluctuation of the dollar to the peso, et cetera, you won’t find, at least from what I've seen, really great wines under $15 U.S.,” Bracamontes says. “And then there's a few others that'll be in that $50 to $65 range.”

So, what are they like? “In the last 10 years it seemed like the younger generation of winemakers in Mexico wasn't interested in trying to make a California knockoff wine; they don't want to make a 50% alcohol wine. They don't want it to be two years in new French oak,” he said. “They wanted something that was maybe lower in alcohol, higher in acidity, fresher, brighter, maybe no barrel whatsoever. And I think all of that plays really well with the intricacies of Mexican cuisine.

The takeaway? They’re food friendly. And that part of this new festival has been carefully curated. A selection of restaurants serving small bites includes fine dining rooms such as Chaak in Tustin, Gema in San Clemente and Maizano in Costa Mesa. But more casual restaurants will also be represented: Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen in Orange, Alta Baja in Santa Ana and Socalo in Santa Monica (founded by award-winning chef/owners Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken).

The Chaak Mexican Wine + Food Festival will showcase cuisine from Mexican restaurants, such as Chaak Kitchen in Tustin, whose dishes are shown here. Photo courtesy of Chaak Kitchen

It's all designed to let tasters take their time and explore these bottles over the course of four hours. Bracamontes advises festival-goers to pace themselves and enjoy responsibly. A portion of the street will be closed down but there is also an art walk scheduled that day. “Parking will be brutal,” says Bracamontes. “So just be smart. Take an Uber or a Lyft, be safe.”

Safe rides and more time means tasters will have plenty of freedom to explore various brands.

“That way you get to sample a whole bunch of different wines,” Perez said. Her wines will not be served at the festival, but because she believes so passionately in the skills of Mexican vintners in general, she’s encouraging everyone to go.

Taste around and let yourself be dazzled but don’t feel overwhelmed, she said. Just start with something familiar. “If somebody has a particular varietal that they really love, like tempranillo or grenache or cabernet, then try the Mexican version,” she said.

Bracamontes is hoping that after this tasting, enthusiasm will be so high for Mexican wines that this event will continue. “There’s so much goodwill, there's so much energy. There are so many people who want this to become an annual event from the city of Tustin on down,” he said. “I want people to have a really good time. And I want the winemakers to feel like, ‘Wow, this is fantastic. Let's do this again next year!’”