Guatemala’s First Winery: Chateau DeFay

During our most recent trip to Guatemala I was doing some research on wines when I happened to discover a website for Guatemala’s first winery, Chateau DeFay. We just had to visit and so we did. We followed the directions on their website www.chateaudefayvineyards.com. Upon arriving in Santa Maria de Jesus we discovered that the road to Palin was badly damaged by tropical storm, Agatha. Before hearing this warning we had seen a painted sign on a rock Chateau DeFay 6km – so we thought what’s the problem it is only 6km away on ripio (gravel road) and we have a 4X4. So off we went – after a slow drive where we saw more painted signs at 5km, 3km etc. and finally we arrived at the entrance to Chateau DeFay.

We received a wonderful welcome by the owner, Jacques Defay and were treated to wine tasting. We were pleased to see and hear about the progress of a young winery. Establishing a winery in Guatemala is commendable given all the unique challenges.

Chateau DeFay has a pleasant dinning room where we enjoyed lunch. After the drive from Antigua we were most happy to be able to have lunch in such an awesome setting. If you get the chance it is worth a visit.


Sharon
Antigua, Guatemala
July 8, 2010