2019 Aldo Cesar Palafox Pionero Red Blend Cosecha Selecta Baja California 750 ml

Rugged hillsides. Ocean breezes. Abundant sunlight. Low rainfall. When they converge, you’ve got conditions for world-class winegrowing. You’ve got complex, concentrated fruit. You’ve got Baja California, Mexico—one of the West Coast’s most exciting wine regions, and the home of Aldo Cesar Palafox’s estate-grown 2019 Pionero Red.

With this wine, Lulu Martinez Ojeda, an alum of Margaux icon Château Brane-Cantenac, has harnessed the maritime energy of one of Baja’s coolest microclimates to deliver New World vibrancy with a refinement that nods to her Bordeaux training. Each swirl of the Tempranillo-based wine launches aromas of pomegranate, cranberry, lilacs, and crème de cassis, while splashes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot bring silky tannins and lush fruit.

This wine came from Aldo Cesar Palafox’s estate vineyards in Valle de la Grulla, where Pacific winds rifle through an opening in the coastal mountain range, injecting a pocket of cool air into an otherwise warm region. Temperatures here swing up to 50 degrees between day and night, letting the grapes ripen slowly while maintaining acidic freshness.

Lulu seems especially attuned to her native climate and soils, picking early to balance the naturally concentrated fruit with freshness, then aging the wine for six months in French oak to polish the tannins.

The family-run Aldo Cesar Palafox is one of the only wineries in La Grulla, and the Palafox family’s winemaking roots date back over a century. Yet Baja’s winemaking history goes back even further. In fact, the wines coming out of Mexico—and Baja specifically—in the 17th century were so good, the Spanish government banned their production, fearing a threat to their homegrown products.

If we sent this dynamic red back in time, it’d absolutely ruffle some feathers.