Jorge Meraz: Today in "Crossing South" we visit the winery of a family who settled in the Valle way before it was popular, and we coincided with an international wine event hosted by Baja and it's coming to you now.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jorge: More and more you see in the Valle, infrastructure popping up where people are actually investing in really nice facilities and right now we're at this winery called Rondo del Valle, and the man right next to me, Albert, he's the man in charge.

How are you doing, Albert?

Alberto Cruz: How are you doing?

Jorge: How long have you been in the Valle, Albert, you know, getting this place set up?

Albert: Well, building Rondo del Valle, since 2012; in Valle, too long.

Jorge: Oh wow.

Albert: 1977.

Jorge: Oh my goodness, really?

Albert: Yes, I grew up here in the Valle.

Well, my parents built the house that we have.

We lived in the house from 1979 to 1994.

Jorge: That's where you grew up?

Albert: This is where I grew up.

The property is 168 acres, so 160 acres were planted of grapes back in the days.

Jorge: You have your acreage, your wines, you obviously have [speaking foreign language] those guys have been here forever.

How many wineries were there?

Albert: The most, two big wineries was Chatom and Domecq but then boutique wineries started emerging.

Jorge: Right.

Albert: Monte Xanic doing spectacular things, I mean, beautiful things, and then-- Jorge: Would you say that's the first ever?

Albert: Boutique winery?

That's the pretty much winery that a lot of people would say that put us up in the map, up in the map where, "Whoa, this is a Mexican wine?"

Jorge: So tell me about Rondo del Valle, like, it's a home.

How do you turn it into, like, now a place where you have your own wine and so on?

Albert: Okay, so we started doing the house, Rancho Perron, as a hotel, as a small hotel, bed and breakfast.

But in 2009, my wife and I, Olivia and I, started, you know, she says, "You know what, Albert?

Wineries are emerging, we should start doing something and I just put it this way.

I'm not a surfer.

I love to see the surfers and watch them, but it's like surfing.

Everybody's out there, trying to--waiting for that wave, and if you don't catch that wave, you're gonna fall back and you're out.

Jorge: How do you become a winemaker?

Well, like, when you decided to take that wave, what did you have to go through to learn, you know, this whole thing?

Albert: That's a good question and I like to answer very honest.

So I'm not a winemaker.

I did a little course.

Jorge: Just to have a basic idea.

Albert: Just basic idea.

I'm an engineer.

I like to have things done correctly, so I have two winemakers.

One is from Argentina which is the winemaker, Sergio Heras.

He's on top of everything.

And Jesu Soto, which is our winemaker, and he's been with us 12 years in the company, since he was a little kid, and he knows everything, you know, the--everything about our winery or bodega.

Jorge: So after Alberto's efforts came to fruition, an actual winery emerged.

He got into it with a full heart.

He was eager to show us the fruits of his labor.

He has a cool blindfold wine tasting experience that includes his wines paired up with chocolate truffles.

female: The idea here is totally blindfold to the concentration and the potential we see for the wines is ready.

Just take it and smell.

And now, be careful.

Move your glass and smell again.

Jorge: Wow, it went from fruity to a little bit of woods and smoky.

female: Fruity and spicy.

Jorge: Yeah, a little bit of spice too.

Why did the fruitiness disappear?

female: Disappear?

Because there appear another grapes.

Albert: As we swirl our glass, the oak's gonna say, "You know what?

Don't forget me.

I'm here as well."

Jorge: I'm always seeing people, you know, shake the glass before they drink it, and I've done it too.

I just never knew why I was doing it.

Now I'm gonna look for different aromas when I-- Albert: We're aerating the wine so it can start expressing itself and tell you what is inside that bottle.

We're gonna take a little bit of--a sip of it, so we can put it around our mouth.

You just wanna, like, you know, sip it all around or pass it all through your mouth, so we can get the first taste of it.

female: You perceive all the--again, the story, a little astringent, a little acidy?

Jorge: Yes, yes, I was gonna say it but I was afraid to say it, 'cause I'm like, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Albert: It is a good thing.

Acidity in our wine is there, so that means this wine could be kept for a little more years, so actually, right now, the acidity is high, the astringentness is there.

As it settles in bottle, those are not gonna disappear.

They'll start, you know, being less and less, until they fall and then the wine starts going, you know, not bad but it starts--the longevity will-- it's like a human.

So the longevity of this wine is not 20 years, 15 years.

Four or five years, this is gonna be like a perfect wine.

From there it's gonna start going down.

Jorge: I have always been under the impression that the older the wine is, the better the quality.

But during this wine tasting, I learned that's not always the case.

Some wines are designed to be young, like the first one I tasted.

But other wines are specifically designed to become better after 20 years or more.

female: Now, the pairing.

But it's important you want to check the chocolate you have in your left side, wanna taste a little chocolate.

Jorge: It's flowery.

Albert: It's a flowery thing, yeah.

Jorge: Yeah, it tastes flowery.

female: Now, how is the correct way to do a pairing?

Again, a little tiny bit in chocolate and when you have a chocolate in your mouth, introduce the wine.

Jorge: It took on the acidity of the wine and it brought down the sweetness of the chocolate, of the truffle.

Jorge: Before continuing with the wine tasting, Alberto's son, who is also called Alberto, showed me around his father's childhood home.

The place is now converted into a lovely bed and breakfast.

Alberto Cruz: So this house was built, like, in the late '70s.

It was my grandparents' house.

My dad lived here when he was young, and since, like, 10 years ago we started-- we make it a hotel and we rent it for guests.

Jorge: Wow, it's like a little bed and breakfast out of the ranch your dad grew up in.

Alberto: Yeah.

Jorge: This home's design is very reminiscent of the décor for ranch homes in the '70s and '80s.

I know that because when I was growing up, I visited many such like places.

It hearkens back to a time when things were simpler.

This is the vestige of a family who had a vacation home in the countryside, the equivalent of such for Ensenada people.

Jorge: Well, it's part of the, you know, boutique experience that's available in Valle.

Valle doesn't have, like, a whole lot of accommodations, right?

So like, you guys probably have a lot of business or no?

Alberto: Yeah, yeah.

Jorge: 'Cause Valle weekends are always full, booked.

Alberto: Always.

Jorge: Weekends are booked, okay.

Yeah, 'cause Valle needs accommodations, right?

Alberto: Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because there's a lot of small places but still it's not enough.

It's not enough.

Jorge: So let me guess, you're probably a city kid and you hated coming over here when you were a kid?

Alberto: Yeah, I did.

Never knowing how it was gonna get, right?

I'd cry and when he started building, I was, like, "No, don't make me go, don't make me go," because there was nothing, nothing.

Jorge: You know what?

You know how I know?

My dad used to have a ranch too.

I'm a city kid too, and I hated it.

But what I learned, you know, going to that ranch is something that I took with me forever, so.

And look at now, what you got here, right?

Alberto: Yeah.

Jorge: So cool.

female: This is Captiva with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Jorge: This one doesn't have that fruity-- Albert: Yeah, it doesn't jump off.

It's not a young kid, you know, saying, "Hey, I'm here, you know?"

Jorge: It's a more mature one, yeah?

Albert: A little more mature, you know, saying, "You gotta agitate me in order to smell me," right?

Jorge: Yeah, the thought that came to mind was mint but it's not mint, but it's like just the eucalyptus, the leaves.

Albert: Like licorice.

Jorge: The leaves.

Albert: Eucalyptus is in there.

Jorge: Is there?

Albert: What we do is we'll plant eucalyptus trees as a barrier for the wind.

When the wind comes in, obviously we will take or transmit the wind-- Jorge: I'm ahead of you already.

Albert: --with a little bit of the aromas onto the grapes.

It'll take it into the wine.

Jorge, on this wine, different than the other one, when you introduce it, this will make you salivate, right?

And just made you--the saliva will just pop up.

It just invites you to, you know, for a steak or something-- Jorge: You will read my mind.

I promise I was gonna interrupt you: "Would you have a steak with this?"

And you said it.

Albert: Yeah, so this really invites you for something with grease on it.

Jorge: I agree, I agree.

Jorge: So once again, we proceeded to pair the wine with chocolate truffles, and I was amazed at how the chocolate completely transformed the taste of the wine.

Jorge: It transforms, it becomes fruity.

female: Exactly, totally-- Jorge: It smoothes it out.

female: They have more time in your tongue, moving.

Jorge: Yeah, there's a lot of aftertaste.

You're enjoying it for a long time, wow.

How did we go from a steak wine to-- Albert: To a--to a red wine.

female: We did the serve wine.

Jorge: Almost like a mazapán, yeah.

Albert: Yeah, there you go.

Jorge: The last one of their wines we tried was called Morador, which was particularly difficult to understand.

Jorge: So this smell is not as strong as the other ones.

female: No.

Albert: No?

Jorge: I'm not smelling, like, either fruity nor woodsy.

I'm trying to perceive what it is.

Albert: So actually, this is a very, very integrated, for me, I think, a very correct wine because everything is it's integrated and nobody's saying, "I'm here."

No "Move to the side, it's me."

Jorge: Is that why I'm having trouble isolating that smell?

Albert: Right, so I think once we agitate this wine, then we'll start saying, "Oh my God."

Jorge: Yeah, 'cause I'm having trouble, you know, isolating one particular thing.

Jorge: It seemed like a wine that held its composure and did not unravel.

Stalwart in its integrity, I'll give it that.

Jorge: It's very proper, for sure.

It's solid, it's like-- Albert: It's a really good wine.

Jorge: Nothing's unraveled.

It's like direct.

But wouldn't you know it, chocolate became the decoder key to unlocking the flavors hidden in this story which now started to reveal its ingredients, its aromas, its flavors.

Jorge: For me, there's a burst, like the alcohol level spikes for a second and then it removes the coffee, you know, aspect of the truffle.

It's like a burst.

Jorge: So after this was done, Alberto wanted to know the answer to a very important question: Which one of these wines did I like best?

Jorge: I think Cautivo would be my favorite.

Albert: Huh?

The second one?

Jorge: Yeah, the second one.

Which one of your three-- Albert: Well, actually, I love Cautivo right now, the way it's expressing itself.

But my favorite is Morador at the end.

We've been working with Morador so many years and I've been happy the way it's been evolving, and wine is an entity and it's like having a kid.

One day, he's a beautiful kid, the next day he's been a bad boy, but at the end you've gotta love it.

The outcome is always positive.

Jorge: We top off this lovely day by having a delicious lunch together with Alberto's family.

The food was prepared by the same donnitas who do the cooking for the guests at the bed and breakfast.

Jorge: Yeah, we still have room for more wine.

As we head out, Alberto shares an amazing personal anecdote with me.

Albert: Travesi in Spanish, with an A at the end is travesia, which means journey.

On this label I explain the journey of my grammas, migrating from Mexico, my mom's mother from Chihuahua, my dad's mother from Ensenada.

Obviously, they didn't know each other.

My parents met in San José, California.

Obviously, got married.

My dad studied.

He graduated from Stanford, he was a mechanical engineer.

Jorge: Cardinal.

Albert: And at the end, he worked for Hewlett Packard, like, for 10 years, saved up money, came back to Ensenada, to mount a machine shop which still stands in the '70s.

So that's why and Rondo Travesi, Rondo journey, in the back on the label I say, "Life, a cycle of journeys where your passion and your work will bring you back to your origins."

Jorge: Imagine that.

Albert: So that's my father walking back to Ensenada from San José, California.

He saved up money, he believed in this town and his home town, that's where I say millions of people which I respect trying to jump that fence to go into United States to look for opportunity, and there's a man walking the opposite way.

People say, "You're going the wrong way, sir."

"No, I'm going back to my home town, and I'm gonna be successful."

Jorge: "Take my talents there."

Albert: So I thank my father for everything.

Jorge: Oh my goodness, what a good story.

Thank you, Alberto.

On that note-- Albert: Thank you.

Jorge: I don't think we can end on a better note.

It's "Crossing South," folks.

Jorge: We move now from Alberto's hospitality to the host site of an international event for everything that has to do with wine and winemaking.

Jorge: So, apparently, there is a world convention of Wine and Divine, it's called.

And the 43rd edition of this event, which is normally held, you know, in places like France and Italy, around the world, but mostly in, like, important hubs of wine in the old world, well, this year, 43rd edition, the country that hosted this event this year, is Mexico.

We're here in Rosarito right now at the Tijuana Baja Center and this is where the event is kicking off, that's happening at this moment.

We happen to be here, and we're showing it to you.

"Crossing South," folks.

Jorge: Before going on to the convention floor to discover the hidden world of the wine industry, I wanted to know the significance this wine festival has for Mexico and for Baja, California.

Jorge: Right now, kind of like, you know, representing winemakers in Baja, Mr. Fernando Perez Castro.

I wanted to talk to him because he can tell me what this event means for the region, why it's here, and you know, what do you guys wanna show to all these international delegates.

Fernando, could you talk to us about that a little bit?

Fernando Perez Castro: Yes, this is a very important event for Mexico.

The last time, it took place here was 30 years ago.

Back then, in Valle, we had not more than eight wine producers.

Now we have more than 120 producers, only in Valle de Guadalupe because hearing that the Ensenada Municipality has eight valleys, we are growing in a very, very fast way.

Jorge: There's room to grow more.

Fernando: Room is not the problem.

The problem is the natural resource which is water, but we are working on it.

Actually, we're working with the governor, Marina del Pilar, in order to bring treated water and nowadays it's wasted and it goes to the Pacific Ocean, all the way to San Diego, so we want to bring that water and to use it for agricultural purposes.

So this event for us is I will say one of the most important things that has ever happened.

There's people from all over the world and mostly scientists, talking about viticulture, talking about thana tourism, and we have to agree we have to be humble and to understand that Mexico is a developing country.

In terms of wine we are just making our first steps.

So to have people from the United States, from Italy, from France, from Spain, it's eye-opening for us.

Jorge: Okay, so now that I know a little bit more about this event, I want to walk the Convention floor and see what all the fuss is about.

Jorge: Okay, so this is, like, a convention, a true bona fide convention.

Look at it.

It's like a Comic-Con but for winemakers, worldwide winemakers, not just Baja.

Regarding winemaking, if you can imagine it, it's here, from bottling to labeling, from lab work to soil expertise, there are so many different showcases from companies surrounding the business.

I understand now why people in the craft of winemaking from around the world would want to come to this event.

Jorge: Do you think the knowledge that these delegates, these speakers, will bring, these experts, is this a knowledge that will be shared along with the region?

Fernando: One of the great things about viticulture in Baja is that we are all friends.

We are all part of a community.

So, what we're trying to do is bring that information, take advantage of it, and use it for the community, not only for my project, you know?

Jorge: Right, right, make it available?

Fernando: Also the other, I will say, important thing about this event is the networking.

Not everything is going to happen in a 3D--day span.

We have the opportunity also-- Jorge: To keep those contacts.

Fernando: Yeah, to keep those contacts and to make Mexico part of the international wine community.

I think that's the most important thing.

And that's where the networking comes.

Jorge: Last question.

Have you heard any expressions of these international delegates from all over the world, like, their first impression of Valle?

Have you heard anything yet?

Fernando: They are mesmerized.

When you arrive for the first time in Valle de Guadalupe, it's something else.

It's something else.

If you mix gastronomy, what is going on in Baja, and especially in Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada, in terms of gastronomy, combined with the decent wines that we're going to make, the experiences is top notch, I would say.

Jorge: Right, that's what it is, folks.

"Crossing South," don't go anywhere.

We're happy to have acquired this and we'll present it to you so you know what's going on with this event and with the Valle.

Jorge: The products being displayed at this event provide would-be winemakers and winemaking regions with all the tools necessary to grow and succeed in their endeavor to join this community.

Jorge: All, you know, from marketing to, you know, labeling solution, bottling, barrels, everything you can imagine that's related to winemaking, you can find it here, concentrating at this event.

These guys take care of, like, for instance, somebody, you do your wine, you wanna know exactly, break it down, all the characteristics of your wine from wine type to age to, you know, acidity and so on, ingredients, alcohol level.

Like, you wanna put on your label and be accurate as to the alcohol content in all the description.

These guys analyze your wine, like, through and through.

So, it's a service that's necessary, you know, if you're out here to do winemaking commercially, and it's here, right?

You come to this event, you fly abroad to this event, wherever you're from, and you hire companies like this to do that.

So it's a great venue, great source, right?

Jorge: Just so you get the idea of the scope of it, like, for instance, this booth right here, they're from Chile and they have a corporation in Sonoma in the US and they produce wine barrels.

They provide wine barrels for Napa and for Baja.

So, I guess they're networking here, finding new business and that's part of what's going on here.

It's pretty cool.

Jorge: Tell me, where are you from?

What do you do?

Why are you at this convention?

Bennett Caplan: So, I'm from Washington, D.C., but I head up a trade association called FIVS and it's an association of producers, primarily producers, and trade associations around the world in the alcohol beverage area with a focus on wine.

Jorge: On wine.

How important is an event like this?

Bennett: The OIV event, the World Congress, is one of the most significant events of the year.

And these events are held all over the world.

The host country puts a tremendous amount of work into making it a place where people wanna come.

I think you go to events for two reasons.

You go either for the contacts or the content.

When it comes to the contacts, virtually everyone in the wine world is here.

When it comes to content, these are the cutting edge issues that are dealt with at this conference and so you pick up so much.

Jorge: Well, Bennett, thank you very much for giving us a little bit of insight as to this event, 'cause we wanted to know what it was all about, so now our audience has a little bit of an idea.

And Baja being the site, the host, Mexico, pretty interesting for us as well.

Jorge: So we're at the event and we're meeting delegates from around the world, including my friend here, José.

How you doing, José?

José Ramón Úrbez-Torres: Good how are you?

Nice to meet you.

Jorge: Likewise, likewise.

Let's say, where are you from?

You're here from-- José: I'm originally from Spain, but I work in Canada, in the British Columbia.

Jorge: Okay, okay, so what do you do, like, well, tell me, I mean, how does this event relate to you?

What do you do?

José: I'm a plant doctor.

I'm a plant pathologist.

So I work on grape plant diseases, so I conduct research on trying to control and manage traditional grapevines.

Fungal diseases, bacteria, fungal diseases, viral diseases, et cetera, yeah.

Jorge: So, for you, what do you expect to find in an event like this?

Like, what are you gaining from this?

José: Well, for me, it's try to be the most up-to-date, you know, with the crop I work with, you know, I work with grape vines so to be up-to-date in everything happening from the, you know, marketing, production, my field which is, you know, crop protection.

So--you get the latest off all the findings, all the research.

Jorge: Now, all that networking and educational content, they're fine and dandy but no wine event is complete without some wine tasting.

Jorge: Okay, so imagine this.

They say you can literally run the gauntlet here and try all these wines from the region and from elsewhere.

There seem to be some that are not from the Valle but most of them are.

Jorge: So I was able to try some new wines, take some notes, you know, personal notes, and even taste a few that I had already tried and liked.

Jorge: So, apparently, in the local state university, the UABC in Baja, there's actually a degree in enology, which is so cool, right?

You actually have a degree in it.

All these wines are made by students, so, you know, you gotta put out your thesis, well, this is your thesis right here.

Can we try some of this student-made wine?

[speaking foreign language] Jorge: Let me do a little-- a little of the twirling.

Okay, oh wow.

That's good.

That's good.

Congratulations.

female: Thank you.

Jorge: It has to be a specific region to be able to pull this off, and Baja sure has it.

But you can see the humility in what they're trying to do in acquire knowledge, do things the right way, and the region is just growing organically and events like this are gonna be a boost for it.

So, we're glad to be here, for sure.

So after coinciding with this renowned international wine event, and getting to know some of Alberto's story at Rondo del Valle, we leave wondering what we shall discover the next time we get to cross south.

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