2024 Towns Wine Co Mama Mama Chenin Blanc Vinedo Kompali Baja California 750 ml

Mexico’s Baja California is producing some of the most exciting wines in North America right now—and the 2024 Towns Wine Co Mama Mama Chenin Blanc from Vinedo Kompali is exactly the kind of bottle that makes the case. Sourced from a single high-elevation vineyard in Valle de Ojos Negros, this is a white wine of real ambition: pure, vivid, and layered in a way that puts it in conversation with the world's great Chenin Blancs, from the Loire to South Africa.

This is made by Bruma Vinícola, which is led by star winemaker Lulu Martinez Ojeda, who grew up in the area, but made her name at Margaux icon Brane-Cantenac—and who merges all of her classical training with the adventurous spirit of the region.

The wine is a collaboration with Towns Wine Co., the project founded by Alicia Towns Franken, who built her reputation as Wine Director at Boston's celebrated Grill 23 & Bar. Now she’s the Executive Director of Wine Unify, an organization dedicated to elevating underrepresented voices in wine. The partnership with Lulu and Bruma is a natural expression of that philosophy.

Wine has been made in Baja since the 17th century and was once so prized that the Spanish government had to ban its production to avoid competition. Now, young and talented winemakers are tapping into the immense natural potential of the region, which has the terroir to compete with the best of California.

With a climate that reminds us of a slightly warmer cross between Southern Rhône Valley and Tuscany, balanced by temperate Pacific breezes, and rocky soils that force vines to struggle, Valle de Ojos Negros has all the natural ingredients of a world-class winegrowing area.

Lulu seems especially attuned to the nature of her native climate and soils, picking early to balance the naturally concentrated fruit with freshness. She presses the Chenin Blanc in a press that’s saturated with nitrogen to prevent any oxidation and preserve bright fruit, then ferments the juice in stainless steel before aging the wine in a mixture of concrete eggs and large, 500L new French oak puncheons.