Every year in August or September, Baja wineries collaborate on a 10-day winemaking festival in Ensenada and the Valle de Guadalupe that includes wine-tasting, paella cookoffs, culinary exhibitions, fireworks, music, dancing, and other bacchanalian activities.

Sponsored by the Asociación de Vinicultores de Ensenada (Ensenada Viniculturists Association), the festival offers a wonderful opportunity to taste wines not easily found in Baja restaurants and to sample dishes not normally seen in Ensenada restaurants (e.g., tuna chateaubriand and wonton stuffed with crab). On Saturday a panel of judges gathers for the Concurso Internacional, a blind tasting of wines from Mexico and abroad.

For information on upcoming festivals, contact Bodegas de Santo Tomás in Ensenada (tel. 646/178-3333).