The Valle Seco Estate
- The Valle Seco Estate was founded in 2009 by Federico Lencioni & Francisco Sarabia who decided in that year to put to vine a small plot of land from their vast highland ranch. They had noted for years that this parcel was consistently covered in fog in the morning and breezy throughout the morning, two traits that made it ideally suited for growing grapes. Since then it has been a bit of a fairytale success story for these ranchers turned winemakers whose grapes have been sold since the beginning to wines that have consistently won top awards in every competition they entered. Selling grapes was never their plan A, and in 2018, when the vineyards had reached a level of maturity that they felt confident in, they started making their own wine. They teamed up with the well-known winemaker/enologist Sergio Heras, (originally from Argentina) who has been making wine Northern Baja for a decade and is one of its most well-respected winemakers, and stage two of the dream began. Today they make 4 wines: A natural Cabernet Sauvignon, a traditional red blend, a rosé of Mourvedre and another blend called K3 that is not exported. While the rosé and red blend are not made with native yeast, the yeast used is certified organic and throughout the rest of the process of making the wine they maintain a very low intervention approach. Here are some of the details about their estate and vineyards:
- Their southeastern facing vineyard site is located 18 miles from the Pacific in Valle Seco at an elevation of 1,800 ft. Soil is composed of decomposed granite, sand, and some clay.
- Their vineyards are completely isolated from any other wineries and farmed organically and sustainably.
- The vast highland plain where the winery is located has better water reserves that most of the viticultural regions of Northern Baja, and it is accessed by a pump powered by the wind. That’s right, the windmill that appears on their logo is an image of the windmill that was erected nearly 100 years ago and still serves to pump up the water from the underground aquifer for use in the winery.
Total production: 29 acres under vine, 4 wines, 1,200 cases
2020 Mi Prima Vera - Valle Seco
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
A small batch natural wine that shows you the naked expression of Cabernet Sauvignon from a single vineyard high in the Baja Norte mountains. Full bodied and delivering a zesty energy that showcases the livelier side of the grape. Packed with a raw energy that wants to be consumed in the vibrancy of youth, this is an absolutely crushable wine.
Drinking window: Upon release - 4 to 6 years
only 150 cases made
Vintage:
2020
Blend:
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Producer:
Valle Seco
Winemaker:
Sergio Heras - Mexican (lives in Valle de Guadalupe)
Vineyards:
Valle Seco – From the only vineyard in a high elevation valley which lies up above Valle de Guadalupe where the Guadalupe river originates. Elevation is 1,800 ft, and the soil is largely granite with some clay. Vines planted in 2010 and 2016. All estate owned.
Winemaking:
Grapes are picked and final selected by hand in the night to maintain acidity, and then cold soaked before pressing. Fermentation was carried out on ambient yeast with skins and seeds in a stainless steel tank at low temperature for a period of 3 weeks. Some whole clusters were added to take advantage of some carbonic maceration. After fermentation, the wine was racked off the sediments and held for an additional 4 months in stainless tanks before bottling.
No sulfites are added at any point during the process.
Farming:
Organic, sustainable
Alcohol:
13.5%
