Cavas Sol y Barro

The house

Editorial review · reviewed on October 11, 2026

Here the architecture comes first. Aimé Desponds, who is Swiss, arrived in Guadalupe Valley (Valle de Guadalupe), took a course in natural building, and raised the cellars and the tasting room with his own hands from clay soil, sand, wheat straw, water, and stone, the technique known as cob.

The house dates its start to 2005. Desponds, who calls himself a designer and winemaker, signs a short production of no more than seven labels, made by hand and aged in oak barrels. He works with red Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Barbera, Nebbiolo, and Tempranillo, and one white grape, Malvasía.

The earthen buildings have been studied in an academic paper on vernacular architecture in Mexican wineries, and the Ensenada press has described them as a search for harmony with the landscape. The house recommends going during harvest season, when the grapes are picked.

In the glass, the house offers a Barbera and Nebbiolo red it describes as light and fruity, the Malvoisie, a dry white from Malvasía, and a Tempranillo it presents as a wine for cellaring, all short-run and handmade.

This is a human-scale winery, built and run by one person, that is quick to tour and easy to take in at a glance. It sits in El Porvenir on the Tecate to Ensenada highway, and the tasting brings the house wines together between earthen walls.