La Casa de Doña Lupe a Winery-Boutique at Valle de Guadalupe
Tags: Doña Guadalupe, marmalades, oil, wine
By John Vogel
Casa de Doña Lupe is a wonderful little winery situated close to L.A. Cetto. It is on a back road in the heart of Valle de Guadalupe. To get to the winery you take a right off of Route 3 at KM 73.5. From here you take a pleasant ride down the dirt road past the grape fields of Vinos Sueños which will be present on your right. From here you will see signs for Casa de Doña Lupe. Follow them to the parking lot just past L.A. Cetto on your right side.
Walking in you will pass through the outdoor eating area where they serve homemade pizzas. I was unable to try the pizzas since I had already eaten at The Hacienda earlier that day. However I can say that she had a packed house of seemingly happy customers, and the pizzas looked and smelled delicious. From here you can enter into her country store.
Walking in you are overpowered by the wonderful smells of fresh cheese made from the local ranchers site, herbs, incense, honey, grapes, olives, marmalades, baked goods and salsas. The store is a great place to wander around and try out the many products listed that are awaiting you on a table in the back. The table had different spreads set up with bread to dip. There were all different types of marmalades which I had the joy of trying out. The weirdest one being a coconut and chocolate spread which was delightful and rich. There was also a goat cheese spread that was soft with the texture of whipped cream cheese. There were way too many products to list here unfortunately.
On the way out another product caught my eye. I love cooking with olive oil and have a tendency to always cook my garlic in the olive oil before adding other ingredients. Doña Lupe had her own olive oils for sale, and many of them had added ingredients. The one I purchased was olive oil with garlic and spices. I have since cooked with this olive oil 3-4 times a week. It makes all of my food taste incredible considering I am far from being a chef.
While in the store I had the honor of meeting Doña Lupe. She told me the story of how this winery was a dream of her husband who has since passed. That he was up in Washington sending money down to fund the process of converting the land into a now self sufficient winery. A winery that her family could be proud to own knowing that they had completed the husbands wishes. She also explained that this is a non pretentious winery that will always remain small scaled and that they have no intentions of growing their public market. All of the products that are made on site are organic. However they do not say on the label because she cannot guarantee the neighboring wineries are not using pesticides to protect their own crops.
After hearing her story and buying my products, she asked if we would like to taste the wines that they make on site. Normally there is a small fee for a tasting which I believe is about 5 dollars, however on this day she invited us to the treat. Her wine is much sweeter than most wines in Valle de Guadalupe. We were told that her grapes are very different from others, and are naturally sweeter which only occurs on her winery. Because of this I would recommend these wines as dessert wines. The one that I actually enjoyed because it was so different was honey wine or vino de miel. I found it interesting to have a red wine with a honey flavor to it. It was very smooth and something I would consider for an after dinner drink.
Please feel free to visit the website of Doña Lupe at www.donalupe.com. You can also email her for more information at info@donlupe.com. The phone number at the winery is (646) 155 2323 and the hours of operation are Monday thru Friday 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
