At Costalegre Resorts, Mexican Wine Is Having a Moment

For most of the year, Jalisco’s tropical coastline is hot and sticky, with lush jungles that grow down to pristine sandy beaches, and miles of Mexican wilderness in between. About five hours south of Puerto Vallarta by car, most visitors fly into Colima’s Manzanillo Airport instead of PVR, for a 45-minute drive to pristine beaches. Costalegre’s 200-kilometer coastline, known as the “happy coast,” is growing rapidly, attracting travelers who prioritize ecotourism and cultural immersion.

It’s right there The four seasons of TamarindoThe Mesoamerican inspired building is built directly on a cliff overlooking the ocean, surrounded by more than 3,000 acres of nature reserve, protected wildlife, and six miles of beaches. Three and a half years since the resort opened, the hotel’s pre-Hispanic design, built entirely by a team of Mexican architects, has already won several awards, including a place in the area. The World’s 50 Best Hotels.

Tamarindo’s position on Costalegre offers impressive sea views and privacy, but for visitors with an eye on the wine list, the most impressive view comes as the first glass of pale pink wine appears. Bruma you hit the table at mealtime. A top producer from Mexico’s leading wine region, Valle de Guadalupe, the brand serves the winemaker is recommended Lourdes Martinez Ojedawho trained for ten years in Bordeaux. Nevertheless, Mexican wine faces all the same stereotypes as all regions of the new world, and many others: Domestic taxes are impossibly high, tequila and mezcal have dominated alcohol consumption for many years, and most wine drinkers gravitate to what they already know.

The Four Seasons is among a number of hotels and restaurants in the country leading the way in supporting Mexico’s indigenous winemakers. Over in Cabo, for example, Rosewood’s Las Ventanas al Paraiso embrace traditional wines and their old world counterparts. At Tamarindo, a partnership with an award-winning Mexican chef Elena Reygadas because the Coyul restaurant allowed the resort to continue its patronage.

In Coyul’s prix fixe tasting menu, which is an option that accompanies à la carte dining, not a single old world wine is included in the wine pairing. Instead, the menu focuses solely on traditional Mexican wines, featuring additional Guadalupe producers such as This meter again Montefiori, plus a shiraz by Anexlina label from the Encinillas Valley in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. This is by design—a choice that reflects the preference for ingredients and Indigenous methods that have long defined Reygadas cooking, but also the willingness to respect local producers at all times.

“Working with Mexican wines is part of a broader goal to highlight their richness,” Reygadas told the Observer. “Many Mexican wines today have a certain lightness and generosity shaped by the sun. That balance works naturally in our cooking.” The feeling is growing. A latest story on Bon Appétit asked why the local food campaign did not include local wine. Traditional restaurants and hotels in Mexico have already begun to highlight traditional wines, and Tamarindo’s decision speaks to a growing trend.

It’s just over a thousand miles as the crow flies between this beach and the Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico’s premier wine-making region. Although the regions do not share the same soil or geography, they do share the influence of the Pacific Ocean, which means that the cool, high-acid grapes from Guadalupe are better suited to the food and atmosphere of their sister region than wines from California, Oregon or France. Teresa Ramos Perez, director of Tamarindo’s restaurants, who guides visitors through tastings in Coyul, noted that the recent growth of Mexican viticulture has given confidence to producers to pursue their methods, grapes and expressions.

That exploration has, for the most part, led directly to higher quality and greater individuality. “Mexican wine is having a very exciting time,” Perez said. “There is a new generation of winemakers pushing the boundaries and embracing more precise expressions, driven by terroir. At the same time, there is more confidence, less need to imitate old world styles, and more focus on authenticity. The impulse feels natural but strong. Both locally and internationally, curiosity and respect are growing.”

The presence of Mexican wine at the hotel is not limited to high-end dining pairings. During a taco tasting at a restaurant near the beach, Nacho, a glass of sauvignon blanc appears. Monte Xanicone of Guadalupe’s classic wineries, paired with a lobster tempura taco topped with wasabi and chipotle aioli. Down on the beach, where laidback ceviches and quesadillas are served, drafts 2021 Lágrimas San Vicente VerdejoSpanish grapes grown in the Valle de San Vicente, were bright yellow and tasted of oranges and white fruit. A perfect beach wine, it was another varietal I may never have come across if it hadn’t been prepared for me.

Guests who prefer a formal wine tasting experience—or want to dig deeper into Mexico’s history—can book a private tasting called Road to Tierra Adentro. In every four or so glasses of traditional wine, this tasting traces the journey of how Spanish vines were originally planted in Mexico during the colonial period, and tells the story of how almost all of these vines were destroyed after Spain worried that Mexico’s wine production would surpass its own. The oldest winery in the country, Casa Maderoit was the only Mexican producer allowed to keep their vines, a stipulation if they agreed to make wine for religious purposes only.

Jose Luis Martinez, assistant director of food and beverage at the property, designed the hotel’s wine experience to add different layers to the stay. The place focuses on Mexican creatives across the board, in fields like architecture and design—the wine selection was no different. “Since before we opened, the team wanted to have Mexican wines be part of the culinary experience,” Martinez told the Observer. “Of the foreign visitors who experience Mexican wine, most know only a few labels, and they usually come from Baja California—our program focuses on Mexico as a whole region.”

It turns out it’s too hot and sticky to grow grapes in Costalegre, a humid, tropical region in the southern part of the country, but elsewhere in Jalisco, the wine region is slowly growing. Martinez and his team have chosen not to include these local wines in their program yet; the production is quite new, and he thinks that the winemakers need more time to learn their terroir and what works best in the area. But on the other side, Martinez brought wines from Guadalupe, Chihuahua—an area he considered the next wine-growing region in Mexico—Coahuila, and Guanajuato, well known to American travelers for the city of San Miguel de Allende.

“Most of our wine list is Mexican wines, and we’ve also included international wines, but it’s all based on the flavor profile we want to express: refinement, acidity and saltiness,” Martinez said. “We built our wine list around sparkling, whites and rosés in particular, and of course, we added reds. Although many guests are already familiar with wine, we hope that Mexican wine is something they can discover during their stay.”

One of my personal favorites from Valle de Guadalupe is this one Come Cavaa pioneering winery in the region where British-born winemaker Phil Gregory and his wife, Eileen, have worked to develop small, terroir-driven grapes for more than 20 years.

Vena Cava’s extra brut rosé was one of the pairings offered during the price adjustment at Coyul, and several other vintages are on the wine list at Sal, the hotel’s beachfront restaurant with a focus on seafood and a barefoot luxury feel. A bottle of orange wine Vena Cava or sauvignon blanc would go well with Sal’s specialty, a fish charcuterie plate of raw, salt-cured pieces, similar in texture to sashimi. Usually, I would pair this plate with a dry German riesling, or my forever go-to, a glass of Sancerre. But that night, looking out to sea as the golden hour waned, Mexican wine equaled that moment.

As the country’s wine production continues to grow in stature and technique, there will likely be more opportunities for travelers to access vintages, and they are already more readily available in Los Angeles than in many other cities. If you happen to see a glass of Bruma on the wine list next time, maybe opt for a glass of that rosé instead of the label to go for Provençal? And the next time you’re in Mexico, consider pairing your favorite local food with a wine made from grapes from the same terroir. It may seem like a small thing at the moment, but wineries all over the world are built on small things.