Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/230154
to the winery in Tijuana, or another 60 miles south, to the estate in Valle de Guadalupe. "I've made wine from my family's vineyard in the Napa Valley my whole life," Corley said. "The opportunity to make wine in a different region was very appealing to me." He's not alone. The Valle de Guadalupe has been attracting outsiders interested in making wine there for centuries, though their reasons have varied widely. HISTORY AND PROGRESS Casa Baloyán in Tijuana includes a sophisticated wine bar offering food-and-wine pairings. Casa Baloyán produces approximately 8,000 cases a year of cabernet sauvignon, malbec, pinot noir, merlot, muscat and chardonnay, growing the grapes on seven vineyard sites on its sprawling ranch estate; petit verdot, cabernet franc and syrah are also planted. The winery sells most of its production in Mexico, via its sophisti- 82 V I N E YA R D & WINE RY MANAGEM ENT | cated wine bar in Tijuana, where wines are paired with small bites, and at many of Tijuana's finest restaurants. Corley, who remains the winemaker for Monticello, has earned thousands of frequent-flyer miles while jetting regularly between San Francisco and San Diego; from there, he drives across the border Jan - Feb 2014 Named for the last mission to be founded in the region, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, in 1834, Valle de Guadalupe is close to the Pacific Ocean, between the towns of Tecate and Ensenada. The valley runs almost perpendicular to the ocean, inland about 16 miles, and has a wealth of soil types, from sandy with high levels of gravel and pebbles, to fertile muddy-clay. The hills and benchlands are rich in granite with red or brown clay. Marked by a Mediterranean climate and cooling marine currents, the valley's wine production goes back to 1834, though the first largescale winery was not established until 1888. Russian immigrants came along in the early 1900s, w w w. v wm m e d i a . c o m