Lake Chapala’s mild climate, elevation and volcanic soil combine to make it an ideal place to grow grapes. At present, there are seven vineyards along the lake shore and many more in the early stages of development.
One of the most visited viñedos in the Chapala area is Finca La Estramancia, a pioneering, family-run boutique vineyard famed for its popular tapas pairings, and easily reachable by boat from the north shore.
‘A dream come true’
According to Estramancia’s owner, Gerardo Torres González, the development of vineyards around Lake Chapala is literally a dream come true.
“It all began when I turned 50,” Torres told me. “I had had a successful career as a lawyer, and now I was ready to do something completely different. Because my wife, Ana María, and I had met and fallen in love in Chapala, we decided to move out of Guadalajara and live near the lake.”
According to Torres, an influx of foreigners had driven up prices on the north shore, so he and his wife turned their attention to the south side.
“There we found a small tract of land for sale, but full of thorny huisache trees, which are in the acacia family,” Torres said. “So we cleared the land and started constructing our home.”
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Hills covered in vineyards
Around this same time, Torres and his wife vacationed in Germany, where they ended up on a small boat on the Rhine River.
“There on the boat one morning, I suddenly woke up from a dream, in which I had been standing on the shore of Lake Chapala, looking up at the hills,” Torres said. “But in my dream, those hills were completely covered in vineyards, just like you see all along the Rhine River — and there I was, walking among them. That was my dream, and it made me feel completely at peace.”
When he returned to Chapala and told people his dream of vineyards along the lake shore, everyone said, “Estás loco” – you are crazy. Torres, however, decided he simply had to try growing grapes on his land and managed to acquire 100 Tempranillo vines.
Winemaking the YouTube way
Torres said that despite his neighbors’ misgivings, “for a crazy project, this turned out to be a big success.” Before long, the vineyard had “lots and lots of beautiful grapes.”
However, growing the grapes was only half the battle. Now, Torres and his wife had to figure out winemaking.
“I had no experience in this line whatsoever,” Torres said. “So, of course, we went to YouTube and asked how to make wine.”
Not unlike the iconic scene from “I Love Lucy,” Torres and Ana María “grabbed all the grapes and put them into a big pozole pot, got in, and stepped on them.”
They then added sugar, covered the pot and waited three months.
“At the end, we had a kind of Port-style wine, very sweet and very good,” Torres said. “Now, 15 years later, we have two gallons left, and it still tastes fine.”
The couple had visited Oporto, Portugal, where they fell in love with Port, a fortified wine variety. According to Torres, it was originally made to preserve wine that was shipped from Portugal to Brazil.
Armed with a batch of their product, Torres went to the Freixenet winery in Querétaro and arranged for them to process his future grape harvests.
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Today, La Estramancia has 10,000 plants, including Tempranillo, Syrah, Malbec, Grenache, and Pinot Meunier. The most recent addition was an Albariño plant for making white wine.
And as a call back to all those naysayers who doubted the vineyard’s potential, he named his operation Estramancia, which means something like “one big, crazy idea.”
Savory pairings
When it comes to wine tasting, expect something special from Finca la Estramancia. Their signature pairings center around high-end, estate-curated “grazing boards” and savory montaditos (small tapas atop homemade bread). You’ll try cold meats, sharp cheeses, a “walnut medley” sourced from the old walnut orchards that circle the vineyard, lavender honey and grape jams.
“Ana María is in charge of all this, and she is incredibly good at what she does,” Torres said. “Those grape jams, for example – She makes them herself, 2,000 or 3,000 bottles every year.”
After visiting La Estramancia, visitors to the area may want to check out Viñedos el Tejón, only three kilometers to the southwest, owned by Serapio Ruiz, an expert in grapevine grafting who once worked in California’s Napa Valley.
Other south-shore winegrowers include Rafael Vargas of Cava Chalupo, Brenda Campos and Víctor Castañeda, owners of Crotalvs, and Cristina Castañeda of Viñedo Ritualista, all of which are located near San Luis Soyatlán. Sommelier Sylvia Penski, instead, produces her minimum-intervention wines at Cava Post Data near the town of Tuxcueca, also on the south shore.
Waterfalls with a view
To work off all that rich food and alcohol after your visit, you may want to take a 2.4-kilometer walk from San Luis Soyatlán to Mirador El Salto, a lookout point offering a great view of San Luis and the lake, which are embellished with two pretty little waterfalls in the rainy season.
John Pint has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.