Baja California Sur will host its first wine harvest festival on July 11 at Rancho El Chino in the small farming community of La Toba, Comondú municipality. The Primera Vendimia Del Cinco will bring together 25 restaurants, four oyster farms, and culinary producers from all five BCS municipalities for a daylong celebration built around Del Cinco, one of the southernmost commercial wineries on the Baja peninsula. Tickets cost 1,000 pesos (about $50 USD) and include a bottle of wine, a commemorative glass, food tastings, grape stomping, and live music.
Maribel Collins, head of SETUE (the state’s Secretary of Tourism and Economy), said the event is designed to diversify the state’s tourism beyond its beach resort circuit. But the festival also puts a spotlight on something most visitors to Los Cabos or La Paz never encounter: wine grapes growing in the desert lowlands of Comondú.
BCS Wine Production Defies the Peninsula’s Arid Climate
When people think of Mexican wine, they think of the Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California, the northern state that produces roughly 90% of Mexico’s wine. That region sits at elevation near the Pacific coast, benefiting from marine fog and cool nights. Baja California Sur, by contrast, is hotter, drier, and far less associated with viticulture.
Yet the Comondú municipality has a quiet agricultural tradition that predates modern tourism by centuries. Jesuit missionaries planted the first grapevines in Baja California Sur in the early 1700s at missions in Loreto and nearby communities. The inland valleys around Comondú, including La Toba and San Miguel de Comondú, still support small-scale farming fed by underground springs and seasonal runoff from the Sierra de la Giganta.
Del Cinco winery has carved out a niche in this terrain, producing four wine varieties from grapes grown in Comondú’s microclimate. The name “Del Cinco” references the five municipalities of BCS: La Paz, Los Cabos, Comondú, Mulegé, and Loreto. Commercial wine production this far south on the peninsula remains rare, and Del Cinco operates on a small scale compared to the hundreds of producers in the Valle de Guadalupe, roughly 1,000 kilometers to the north.
The festival format borrows from the vendimia tradition that has become a major tourism driver in northern Baja. The Valle de Guadalupe’s annual Fiestas de la Vendimia, running since the 1970s, now draws tens of thousands of visitors each August. BCS officials appear to be betting that a similar model can work here, pairing local wine with the state’s growing reputation for oyster farming and regional cuisine.
Four Oyster Farms and 25 Restaurants at Rancho El Chino
The oyster-and-wine pairing at the festival is not accidental. BCS has become one of Mexico’s leading oyster producers, with farms concentrated around the Bahía de La Paz, the Pacific coast near Mulegé, and the mangrove estuaries of Comondú. Four of those farms will be on-site at Rancho El Chino, offering tastings alongside Del Cinco’s wines.
The 25 participating restaurants will represent all five municipalities, and organizers say the menus will feature regional ingredients. BCS cuisine leans on seafood, goat cheese from ranch country, dried chiles, dates from the oasis towns, and damiana, a local herb used in liqueurs and traditional remedies.
La Toba sits along the highway between Ciudad Constitución and the Pacific coast, roughly 200 kilometers northwest of La Paz. The drive from La Paz takes about two and a half hours via Highway 1 north to Ciudad Constitución, then west toward Puerto San Carlos. From Todos Santos, the drive is closer to three hours. From Los Cabos, expect four hours or more depending on starting point. There is no commercial airport near La Toba, so driving is the only practical option.
Tickets are available for purchase in La Paz, Todos Santos, Los Cabos, Ciudad Constitución, La Toba, and Loreto. Organizers have not specified online sales, so buyers should check with SETUE or Del Cinco’s social media channels for pickup locations.
Collins said the state government hopes the vendimia will become an annual event and a reference point for wine and food tourism in BCS. The July 11 date falls during the slow summer season, when hotel rates in Los Cabos and La Paz drop and many restaurants reduce hours. A festival in rural Comondú during this period offers both a reason to travel inland and an economic boost for a municipality that rarely benefits from the state’s tourism revenue. The event was announced by the BCS state government through its official press office.