Baja California
"Valle de Guadalupe is 100 kilometers from San Diego and 1,000 kilometers from Mexican wine country as most people imagine it. The Mediterranean climate, the granite soils, and the chefs who came here for the land prices have made it Mexico's most creative food and wine destination."
Baja California (the northern state, not to be confused with the southern state Baja California Sur) occupies the top third of the Baja Peninsula — from Tijuana and Mexicali at the US border south to the 28th parallel. The state has the most porous US-Mexico border in the country (the San Diego–Tijuana crossing is the busiest land border in the world by volume), the most Mediterranean climate in Mexico, and the only wine region in Mexico with international recognition.
Tijuana is one of the most misread cities in the world — most of the 50 million annual US crossings are day-trippers coming for the Avenida Revolución tourist strip, cheap pharmacies, and dental clinics, which has obscured the fact that Tijuana has become, in the last 15 years, one of the most interesting food cities in the Americas. The Mercado Hidalgo, the seafood tostadas of the Zona Norte, and the restaurants that have developed from the cross-border taco and fish taco tradition have produced a cuisine that is genuinely its own — neither Mexican nor Californian, both and neither.
Valle de Guadalupe (covered separately) — 85 kilometers south of Tijuana, 30 kilometers northeast of Ensenada — is the Mexican wine region that has gone from marginal producer to destination in 15 years. The valley’s Mediterranean climate (hot dry summers, cool nights, Pacific fog in the mornings) produces grapes well; the soil is granite and clay. The wine is uneven but improving; the restaurants built among the vineyards — operating on the cocina de baja mediterránea philosophy of local ingredients and outdoor wood-fire cooking — have become the primary draw for visitors from both sides of the border.
Ensenada — the port city 85 kilometers south of Tijuana — is the most pleasant urban destination in the northern state: a working port and fish market, a seafood restaurant scene of genuine quality, and the departure point for the Bodegas Santo Tomás winery (the oldest in Baja) and the surf breaks south of town.
