Wine Tour In Ensenada

    Today was last day of the cruise with a stop in Ensenada Mexico. It is a city of 500,000 people that has growing with the tourist industry. They have a cruise ship here “every” day and today beside the Emerald a Carnival ship was also in port.

First Stop

Wine Press

We opted for a half day tour to 2 different wineries. There is a very large wine growing area that seems to have ideal grape growing areas. The wineries were L.A. Cetto and Casa Dona Lupe. One is very old small operation and the other the largest of the 98 wineries in the area. At both wineries we were treated to wine tasting. At the old winery, we were able to taste 4 wines, had pizza, olive oil to spread on fresh bread, olives and cheese. It was simply a stop with tasting the only thing that we did.

    The second stop was at the largest one of 98 We were treated to a full tour of the winery from where the grapes come in to the final product. The stainless steel tanks were huge! There was a large warehouse with the barrels filled with wine being aged. We had never been on a wine tour where they did such a good job of explaining the entire process. Afterwards, we were treated to 4 more glasses (tasters) of wine; 2 white and 2 red. Again fresh bread and cheese! It was a wonderful tour. When we returned to the bus every person received a full bottle of wine as a souvenir! It was a very nice gift! The guide was a very jovial fellow. He spoke excellent English but never learned it at school. He said he started by finding out what the instructions were to play Nintendo. Once they had cable T.V. He watched all American sit com. Quite interesting. It reminded us of a guide we had in China who learned English essentially the same way.

Wine Vats

  We were dropped off in the downtown area and walked along the stores. It was Mexico. It was a short walk back to the ship. In a square there as an very interesting dance troupe “preforming”. We never did find out the background of the many dancers but they were dressed very colourful “outfits”.

Wine For Sale

Once back to the ship it was time for a light lunch and then packing time. That is always a bit of a downer! As we sailed, the captain announced that we were expecting rough seas and high winds again. The same system that has kept the temperature down and and the seas up will have one last shot at us before we get to L.A. Early tomorrow morning.

    It was a light night for activities. A short show before dinner, a final meal with our table friends and then the “voice” of the ocean show. They pick the best passenger singer on this cruise. An early turn in followed.