Ensenada, Mexico - Last week, the government in Ensenada, Mexico ended months of uncertainty in the Valle de Guadalupe by beginning the process to cancel a concession which threatened to drastically transform Mexico's top wine region into a highly unsustainable model for touristic purposes.

The newly elected Legislative Council is putting a stop to the unpopular "Sectorial Program for the Urban Touristic Development of the Guadalupe Valley," which would allow developers to build in 48 percent of the wine lands. The luxury development project - with a spa, golf course, hotels, and a mall - would endanger the resources in the valley, which produces around 90 percent of Mexico's total wine fructification.

Por un Valle de Verdad, a home-grown movement consisting of winemakers, chefs, hoteliers, and farmers in the Valle de Guadalupe, has been fighting this land reuse proposal - which was passed into policy by the previous government in a closed door session - since the beginning. They even threatened to cancel Vendimias, the vally's annual wine harvest festival.

As a result of the group's press conferences, attendance at council meetings, and social media activism, they've managed to garner local support and attract international attention to their cause to recall the proposal by ex-governor, Enrique Pelayo Torres. So for now, it's hands off the Valle de Guadalupe, and a big win for Baja wine and food.

And yes, Vendimias is on!

The council further agreed not to publish the controversial legislation into the state ledger, which is the standard practice for putting a new piece of legislation into effect. The Síndico Procurador (Municipal attorney,) Iván Alonso Barbosa Ochoa, of Ensenada's XXI Ayuntamiento, or town council, reasoned that the land reuse was a serious violation of local autonomy in the Valle de Guadalupe.