TIJUANA – Even though Baja California consumes less than a bottle of wine per capita, the state leads at the national level in production and Valle de Guadalupe's brands are positioning themselves on an international level in terms of quality. Baja wines Syrah, Mourvedre, Cirio and Cardón from winery Casta de Vinos, were awarded with gold and silver medals by the 12th International Wines & Spirits Contest (CINVE) and on the 14th Bacchus Wine International Competition in Madrid Spain this year.

Producer Sergio Castañeda, state tourism spokesperson Shadia Wehbe and sommelier Claudia Horta during a Casta de Vinos press conference at Baja Terra. Photo by: Miranda García

The gold medal was awarded to Mourvedre, with 94 out of 100 points, which surprised the winery who received notification from CINVE two days after being awarded the gold and silver medal for Syrah (93 points) and Cirio (89 points) respectively, on the competition that was held on February 8th - 10th in Huelva, Spain.

The Mourvedre wine bottle is made with 100% Mourvedre grape. Photo by: Miranda García

The Casta de Vinos sommelier, Claudia Horta, assured that CINVE didn't think that they would be making high quality Mourvedre in Mexico.

"We are really proud that all of a sudden we are being compared to a French wine, because it's French grape that was planted here 17 years ago"

This is the third year that CINVE awards Casta wines: Back in 2014, they won the silver medal with Syrah and in 2015, gold medal with Cardón: "We get criticized a lot, all of the Mexican wines do, for not having consistency, but here we are proving them that Mexican wines are just as good as other international brands, having consistency for three consecutive years", assured Horta.

Additionally, on March 23 they received the silver medal for Cardón (93 points) at the Bacchus, held in Madrid. The winery expects Mexican wine consumption to soar with these awards.

Casta de Vinos is a family project that started in 2008 at the Ejido Porvenir located in Valle de Guadalupe, where they receive more than 600,000 tourists, which allows the port of Ensenada to compete for the Mexican wine capital title.

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viviana.gomez@sandiegored.com

Translated by: edgar.martinez@sandiegored.com