The Valle Seco Estate
The Valle Seco Estate was founded in 2009 by Federico Lencioni & Francisco Sarabia who decided in that year to plant a vineyard in their vast highland ranch. They had noted for years that this parcel was consistently covered in fog and breezy throughout the morning, two traits that made it ideally suited for a vineyard site.
Since then it has been a bit of a fairytale success story for these ranchers turned winemakers whose grapes have been sold and used in 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.
In 18 they teamed up with the well-known winemaker/enologist Sergio Heras, 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. They use certified organic yeast to make the Rosé and Tinto and the MI prima Vera is fermented on ambient yeast. 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.
- 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
2024 Valle Seco Rosé - Valle Seco
Tasting Notes and Drinking Window:
Like the 2023 before it, this is another stunning rosé. A joyful as it is complex, there’s really nothing you might want a rosé to deliver that this doesn’t bring to the table. As the 2024 vintage was particularly good for the vineyards at higher elevations, you can expect the best for this estate in 2024, but it’s especially true in the rosé.
223 cases made
Drinking window: upon release - 4 yearsVintage:
2024
Blend:
100% Mourvedre
Producer:
Valle Seco
Winemaker:
Sergio Heras - Argentina (lives in Valle de Guadalupe)
Vineyards:
Estate vineyard in Valle Seco – Valle Seco is a high elevation valley which lies above Valle de Guadalupe and is where the Guadalupe river originates. Elevation is 1,800 ft, and the soil is largely granite with some clay. The oldest vines were planted in 2008.
Winemaking:
The grapes were harvested by hand on September 18th in the night to preserve maximum freshness. Clusters were destemmed and grapes sorted by hand before crushing. With the intention of making a very light beautiful Provencal style rosé, the juice was pulled away from the skins almost immediately to allow only a small amount of pigment in the wine. The wine was fermented in open top stainless steel tanks for 3 weeks at the lowest temperature possible to give the wine the maximum time to develop complexity of aroma and flavor. Once fermentation was complete, the wine was racked off the lees and left to rest in a stainless tank for 2 months before bottling.
Sulfites: 15 ppmFarming:
Organic, sustainable
Alcohol:
13.4%