Slow Baja - A Valle de Guadalupe Update With Tru Miller Adobe Guadalupe Vineyards and Inn

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

In our second conversation with Tru Miller, we discuss how her Adobe Guadalupe Vinyard and Inn has fared during the pandemic and what's ahead for 2022. Joining us are Claudia, who handles reservations and operations, and Mara, Tru's assistant and leader of vineyard tours. Enjoy this comfortable chat about one of my favorite spots in the Valle de Guadalupe. Check out Adobe Guadalupe Vineyards and Inn Follow Adobe Guadalupe on Instagram. Follow Adobe Guadalupe on Facebook. Book: [e-mail]

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page, large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmark Maps.com. We should go around and just say hello so I can hear everybody's microphones. Okay.

Hello. Hello. One of, mas, maas. Hello. My name is, tell me your name. Tell me that you're married. I mean, the whole thing, that you came back from the United States to marry the man of your life.

To get married. My life. The love of my life. They need to hear you, not me. Yes, I know. Hello. This is Claudia? And when your last name, you don't need to lay hands, just relax.

Claudia. Tranquilla. Tranquila, tranquilla, tranquil. Okay, so that's your voice, Claudia. Claudia Cardenas. Cardenas. Okay. Mara, say hello.

Hi, this is Mara, Bello, Bello. Bello. Bello. From Los Cabos. And Trumiller's assistant, personal assistant. Bien, bien. True, say hello. Beautiful. Good morning, everybody. My name is True Miller, and I live in Adobe Guadalupe, and I am here with two of my best workers ever.

Fabulous. Hey, it's Michael Emery. It's Slow Baja on a beautiful Monday in the Valle, Guadalupe, and we're having a travel talk update on how my dear friend, True Miller and Adobe Guadalupe, are here of beautiful vineyard and inn, how it survived this crazy. last year, how you are. We've had a lovely night. She's hosted us after 500 miles of bouncing dirt roads in Baja. We needed a good meal and a warm hug and we got both last night. Had a really lovely dinner. A couple joined us. Shout out to Robert and Angela from, as they say, Tuscondido, our new friends from Escondito who are here having a lovely dinner and drinking some fabulous wine. And so we're just going to

talk. We've got some guests, Claudia and Mara, and we're going to talk about the Valle and how you can experience this magnificent place that I just experienced with my good buddy, Ted, the Baja visitor. So Claudia, say hello. Hi, yes, Michael. I work in the reception office. I run here at the reservations of Daube, Guadalupe. And, well, I would like to invite people from all the world. to come and visit us. So you're the first point of contact when people want to come. Yes.

And we have our website and also by mail or by phone. They can come and make a reservation. People actually answer the phone here. Yes. It's amazing. It's old-fashioned. There's some beautiful old-fashionedness here that, you know, people do answer the phone. True said it this morning at breakfast.

Okay, make sure you're ready to, you're on the phones, or you're on the phones, So you're on the phone. So Mara, you are in the wine side. Yes. I've been working here for Adobe for almost four years. I know the brand and the wines very well. I know Mrs. Minters, of course. And right now we do all these VIP wine tastings.

We take care of the special groups that come and visit us. Well, you don't need to be special to come and drink a good wine here. So life is too short for bad wine. Exactly. Exactly. So if you like to ever experience to be in our beautiful kava and a beautiful wine cellar, please give us a call. And you can, let's just jump into it. You can handle from a couple just driving down to a group of True said 40.

40, yeah. That's an amazing, an amazing array of offerings. I mean, that's 40 people in this space would be, you'd have to be on your game. Yeah, I mean, Mara's smiling. There's very few people who can do, I've been in this business a long time, there are very few people who can do this, keep it interesting for 40 people, and you have to realize in those 40 people, there might be a few that have no idea about wine, to somebody who really knows a lot.

So you need to be very versatile and she is, and I'm just amazed because I certainly couldn't do it, and to keep 40 people happy on different levels is very difficult, and I'm very proud of you. Well, true. That's beautifully spoken. Let's get right into, it's been a tough year. It's been a tough year all over the world. All over the world. The Baye still looks beautiful. The sun is still shining. The birds are still chirping. Your stunning horses are still in the field. It's harvest time. Dinner was beautiful. breakfast was beautiful, you're beautiful, so let's get into it. How have you fared? You know, times were tough.

Times were tough, but we knew it was only for a certain time, and we just believed that. And then when the authorities were telling us, oh, another six months, we kept thinking, okay, another six months, we can do this. And if we had known in the beginning that it was four months, six months, another six months, maybe we would have been very sad. But this way, we kept saying, we can do this, we got this. And now we're really open. And I don't know for how long, because we've been open before

where the government came in again and said, sorry. And then we have six rooms. Then we could start with three rooms, and then four, five, six, and then we had to close again. So it was a little bit difficult because we had to tell people. people who had reservations that they had to wait and to have to wait till maybe next year. But we did very well because nobody got sick.

We all had the masks on. We were taking care of our hands, I don't know, three, four, five, six, twenty times a day. Their hand sanitizing stations everywhere here. Everywhere, everywhere. And we did not have one person. who picked up the COVID here, and we were very proud about that. I think we did so well because everybody was with us. We had one woman from the food truck in charge of all of us, and she's very tough.

But most of all, it's our building. We have so many doors, and we're in the middle of nowhere. We can open this up in three minutes, and it's just the wind from the ocean coming in. And that with the distances. We have big rooms, and we have different tables for different activities. And I think all these little things together made it possible for us to not have one COVID person. And I think the approach that you took to this was obviously coming from your generous soul, but you kept your staff on.

You reduced them one day a week. you've worked with them to find a way for it to work for you as the employer. But, you know, if they, if they couldn't live without that day of pay, you know, found something for them to do. If they absolutely positively needed that level of income, you figured something out. They could work in the field. It may not be the same. It was pretty much working in the field.

And when they knew that, they'd rather not work that one day. But you kept them on. I kept them on. I kept everybody. We didn't lose anybody. And in the beginning, when we spoke about maybe you can give us one day, people were not that happy. But a month later, when they realized that people around us were being let go, they realized. And one by one came back and said, you know, Signora, we were not that happy with the solution that he had.

But now we're really very impressed with what you. did. So it worked well. And everything we went through with this COVID made us closer and made us, it made us stronger. Stronger. Stronger. Yeah, for sure. Pady, wish you had joined us on the Nora 500. Well, here is your chance. It's double the mileage, double the fun, double the parties, double the dirt. It is the Nora Mexican 1,000. We're going to drive by day. We're going to drive by day. going to party by night. I'm pouring shots of Fortaleez at tequila. April 30th through May 6th, 2022. We're driving the entire peninsula. You don't want to miss out on this one. Again, if I can do it in my 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser, totally stock, you can do it in any modern 4x4. The Nora Mexican

1000 is the happiest race on earth. Check it out at nora.com, n-r-r-r-a-com or on Slow Baja. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Well, back onto the task at hand here, sitting at a table full of ladies who know their business, back to now that the VIA is open and safe,

and you can be distant here but still social, I think, is the important message. It's beautiful. We had a beautiful dinner, but the couple we were talking with, we were six plus feet away from us at their table, and we were at our table, and it was quite safe and lovely. Back to you, Claudia. So, process of finding out about Adobe Guadalupe Vineyard and Yard. in is first step is on the internet and you're at Facebook, Instagram. And what's the website? The website is www. www. adobe wadalupe.com.

That's our website. And also in Facebook is Adobe Wadalepen. Instagram is the same. Yep. So it'll be on the show notes and your regular posters, so it's easy to find, up to six rooms. Yes, we have six rooms. All there is the same. They have a queen-sized bed. It includes taxes, also a bottle of wine, white wine in the room, and a breakfast is served 8 o'clock in the morning to 10 o'clock in the morning, and a VIP wine testing in the cellar. So the breakfast is, this is my second breakfast here. And the breakfast is so lovely.

I mean, even again, in the times that we're living in, you're in a beautiful, long table in a huge, warm, welcoming kitchen. And the ladies, tell me their names. I'm sorry, I'm blanking on them, but the ladies who are in the kitchen. In the kitchen. Are magnificent. Yes. Magnificent.

It is, you feel like you're in home. Yes. And everything is fresh. my day yes yeah and then back to the wines Mara what makes

Adobe Guadalupe special oh the story behind it the love yeah the love the warm the every time that you drink the wine and you can and if you hear what the people

is guiding you through the whole wine tasting then you can find yourself in a magical place so if you drink it elsewhere but here but in here then you can also feel the warm and the passion that's behind each of wine if each of the wines that you experience or if you take home or whatever so it's everything about love about passion about warm about being home yeah as well as a place so you guys you cannot see whatever in here, but you can actually feel because it's transmitted through.

To come back to you, True, you and your late husband, Donald, you looked at a lot of places around the world before you decided this was going to be the place for your winery. It was very obvious, though, when we came here, there was no doubt, and there was nothing here. There was nothing here. There was one watermelon somewhere. in the middle of nothing. And I knew.

I knew it was here. And my husband looked at me and he said, well, and I said, it's here. And he says, yes, it's here. It was very, very nice that he did. And of course, he was very, very pleased later that we decided. And it probably was the first place that they showed us in the valley that was for sale. And we bought it. And how many years ago was that?

By 22. Yeah, it was in 1996. Okay. So in those days, of course, there's only, you were, what, the sixth winery or something in the Valle? Yes, exactly, yes. It wasn't chocka block full. No, and, you know, I really did. I never thought ever, ever, ever that there would be more than 10 wineries.

And I think they're now almost 250. That's astonishing. Yeah, exactly. That's astonishing. Yes. So I'm really glad that we bought enough land because when you are here, as you were saying, you feel you could be at the end of the world or you could be, I don't know, France, Spain. And because you really don't feel that there are these 250 wineries around you and bothering you.

And so we were actually smart to buy enough hectares, as they say. Visionaries. Yes. Well, let's get on to a couple of the other parts of the vision. weddings are now available, billboard on the highway. Oh yes, yes. So you can have your wedding event reception here. You shared some beautiful tequila with us last night.

And I just want to get into your vision on that, I think, is lovely. So can you tell me a little bit about what's behind your idea on tequila? Yeah. On tequila, I thought it would be very interesting to have something else than just red and white wine. And so I love tequila. But you know, it's too strong for me. It's too, I can only have a little bit,

and I love from different places where tequila comes from. I really have tried it. And it is marvelous. It's something so typical for Mexico that I have no other words for that. But I also think it is, it's a little bit strong, in the throat and I thought it'd be a little rough that's what gives me this beautiful voice people dust and tequila so my friend from the the family in where is it in

Sousa family in Soussa family in Sosa family in Tequila and in tequila we became friends because of something and Jaime and I the owner and I I talked to him about this and this is a little bit hard for women blah, blah, blah. And then the whole women thing came about. And I think it was his idea or my idea to think of putting his tequila in our barrels, used barrels. We use our barrels for two years. And the wood is from France. We only use French oak. And then we sell the barrels to other people and usually for a good price so it's it's worth it and then I thought what if we put your tequila Jaime in my in in my barrels and maybe for how whatever long time you think for it to

get what we have and then shared up with you you said maybe 30 days would be good we tried it the his tequila got a little bit of a different color a beautiful light brown, and we tried it in bingo, that was it. And Tietula, there's a story there. There's a story there. We talked about it a little bit on our last visit, but Tietula is an interesting part of your heart. It had a lot to do around that time when Jaime and I decided to change his tequila a little bit.

It was the feeling at the time that women became more important. And so it all came together how this tequila was actually showing to the world and how women would get in and then how women really would pop up and maybe do something really interesting that men maybe had not thought about. I'm saying this in the nicest way. And so the color of his tequila then became that beautiful, beautiful color. And then we started trying friends, please try this. And it was a great success. And I love it. I think it's a little bit pink, frankly.

And I think that's a wonderful change for many, many reasons. And now you're on to Moscow. Yes. And then, of course. Where are you going to stop? I don't know. Should we making gin in the bathtub soon? What a great idea.

I thought if we did. We'll be the first to tell about it, tell you about it on Slow Baja, when truth. starts making gin in the bathtub. You know, it really doesn't sound bad. Speak easy. Exactly. Speak easy. Back to Mescal. Yes. We digress. Please, tell me. Mescal, I thought that what we did with Jaime and we did with the family over there. And then it really took off very well. We're still not selling in the United States. We're waiting for one more signature. But I think it would do well in what United States do. then we thought it was a little bit too much towards the women

and then we thought we need somebody strong next to that the men after all still must feel like that let's do a mescal right and so we went to Hakka Luis and I and for one week and we tried a lot of mescal as you can imagine and we found very interesting people. And of course, it's a very interesting way how they make mescal and the smoke and the whole thing and the stories that go with it and the

stories that you think differently and all these ideas that we chose the best mescal that we could find. And we're buying it from these lovely people. And we call it Lucifer. Because

for many reasons. For me it is. I'll come right back to it. For me it is for sure. Mara, if you could share with the Slow Baja world a little bit about the names of the wines here and the representation behind them, the spirits. Please, I'd love to just bring that story back out. Well, the story of the wines goes back when Mrs. Miller came to Valle. There is, in Mexico, we have a lady of Guadalupe, and we are very, very into that. We believe strongly in the Lady of Guadalupe and we're very Catholic too.

So when she found out that there was a Valle de Guadalupe called after this lady, so she thought that this was the place. So when she started the first three labels of wine because there were three of them in 2000 was the first harvest, she thought that having names of the angels and the archangels. After these three wines was the best thing to do because she wanted to honor her late son memory by naming those because he was very into the Lady of Guadalupe as well. So that's the story behind it.

So going back to Lucifer, Lucifer as well, is an angel, the fallen angel, but still is an angel, and he goes too with this concept of angels. The first rewinds there were Miguel, Kerubiel, and Gabriel. Then Uriel is a rosé, it's a very beautiful rosé, and Serafiel, Rafael was the last one to us added to the whole collection of angels, and Lucifer finishes and closes it. everything. So that's the story of it. And you remember those are of course our top wines,

but then we realized very, very much so that that was wonderful and people loved it, but they were expensive. So I thought, wait a minute, we need to think of the young people, we need to think of people that have not that much money or people that have a lot of money but don't want to put that money into wine. So we thought, oops, so we have the angels, they're our top. Then we started making wines that are named after gardens. And the gardens,

now are actually more known and more popular than, especially through this time. I think it's less expensive. Yes, my garden. And so we came up with

the first gardens where maybe the Hardin Secretto, which means secret garden, a magical garden, we have a whatever garden. And then with the COVID, I thought we need to make a wine that's still less expensive because God knows where this world is going and people should have good wines. So I thought about maybe a Hardin de True. My name is True and I thought people believe me and so they will know that we came up with this wine during these difficult times.

This wine, Hardin de Trude, Trues Garden, has different varieties every year because this is the wine of the grapes that are kind of left over but fabulous and we put those together. So in the garden, it's like a regular garden. One day, this rose does better the next day, this other plant does better. And so we have a little, I think a little strip around Garnedin de True, and it says, you know, this is this special wine for this year. Because we don't know that the next year we'll still have a Trues garden, but it might taste a little bit different because we had more of this grape left over so we could use that. And people were saying to me, oh, we don't know if people will like that. But I think because of the COVID, people are appreciating that we can make a less expensive wine. And yes, it might just change a little bit from year to year.

And life changes a little bit and what we really have seen. So I thought I could put this all together and people understanding it. And now, of course, it's selling very well. Yeah. It was a great success. It's a great success. Right. Well, I appreciate my great success in being able to come back and see you.

It really's been terrific. Claudia Amara, thank you for joining us on the Slow Baja for a little update on the Valle, Aube, Guadalupe, and True. Always wonderful. Always wonderful. Thank you for the hospitality. And folks, get down here while you can. Get down here while True's still here, doing the opening her home and her heart and pouring

these beautiful wines and this beautiful tequila, and I can't warm. wait to have a short conversation with Lucifer, just a little taste. Not a scallon, I don't really get along very well. But it's been a delight. So thank you all. Thank you. We'll see you soon one more time. Thank you.

www. www. Dot com. It's on Adobe Guadalupeg. Also, we can reach us by phone [phone]. And that'll be in the show notes. All right. Thanks, ladies.

Beautiful. Did it. Thank you. Thank you. I feel like an artist. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you, her vineyard, Adobe Guadalupe Winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table

bookend into an intimate dinner at night, their house bred Azteca horses. Solomon, the horseman will get you on a ride that'll just change your life. The food, the setting, the pool, It's all spectacular. Adobe Guadalupe.com. For appearing on Slow Baja today,

our guests will receive the beautiful benchmark map 72-page Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. Do not go to Baja without this, folks. You never know when your GPS is going to crap out, and you're going to want a great map in your lap. Trust me.