The Napa of Baja

THERE is nothing of the faux Bordeaux chateau about the Torres Alegre winery. It blends so delicately into the dusty Baja Californian landscape, amid vineyards, olive groves and dirt roads, that your correspondent at first drove straight past it. Its chief winemaker, Victor Torres Alegre, was trained 30 years ago in Bordeaux and has an engaging oenologist’s intensity. But it is the likes of his goatee-sporting son Leonardo who are carving a new niche for Mexican wine. With smooth labels and prices high enough to carry a hint of snob value, a new crop of young winemakers is planning to provide something hip to Mexico’s young, upwardly mobile middle class.