Tequila Week: The Añejos

Añejo or aged tequilas are aged more than a year. I only have two of these to try, both brands I sampled at other ages earlier this week.

Con Alma de Mujer Añejo, 35% abv

I've never found this one in the US so it may only be available in Mexico. The nose is floral with some citrus notes on it. I found the reposado version of this brand to be a bit bland, but this one has a bit more flavor to it. There is some acid with this agave that gives it a nice flavor, and it has a nice vanilla finish.

Los Tres Toños Añejo, 40% abv ($35)

The blanco version of this was one of my favorites of the tasting so far, so I was excited to try the aged version. The nose is very new makey. It's strong and a bit alcoholy but not in an unpleasant way. The palate has pine and some medicinal notes along with some of those earthy qualities I've found in so many of these tequilas. The finish is wild mushrooms sauteed in soy sauce. This is definitely the most complex of the tequilas I've sampled and my favorite of the bunch.


Concluding Thoughts

My two favorites in the tasting were both of the Los Tres Toños, the añejo and blanco. They stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of flavor and complexity. Overall, I still think tequila tends to be a bit mild for my taste compared to the flavor explosion of mezcal, but I'll be on the look out for Los Tres Toños.

Tequila Week: Reposados Part 2

Today I continue tasting reposado tequilas.

Herencia de Plata Reposado, 38% abv ($39)

The nose has a very pure agave note. The palate, though, has an artificial sweetness too it. It comes on almost like egg nog with a boozy vanilla then picks up some bitterness that lasts into the finish.

Aha Toro Reposado, 40% abv ($50)

The nose is floral and earthy. The palate on this one starts with guryere (I kid you not) and just gets funkier as you go. The finish is umami with mushrooms in damp soil and a touch of salt. This is a very unique flavor profile and one I'm not sure what to make of but it's a good break from some of the overly smooth reposados I've had.

Don Eduardo Reposado, 38% abv ($40)

This is one of the few repeated brands in the tasting. I tried the blanco version and didn't find it very interesting. The reposado is quite sweet and floral on the nose. The palate is a bit spicy with some ginger beer and clove. This is quite nice. Clearly, time in the barrel has a positive impact on the Don Eduardo spirit.

Con Alma de Mujer Reposado, 35% abv ($28)

The nose is very pure with a nice balance of all the tequila notes, floral, earthy, sweet. The palate though is quite diluted, very watery tequila flavor. The notes on the nose are there but very muted at 35%. I wish, as with many of these, that this were stronger and some of those flavors could really sing. It's fine but not all that interesting at this level.

Tomorrow: the añejos.

Tequila Week: The Reposados Part I

Reposados, or rested tequilas are aged from six months to a year. I'll be sample a variety so I'm diving them into a few posts and sampling them in no particular order.

Tequila Chamucos Reposado, 38% abv ($55)

This tequila has a devil/vampire character on it with the slogan si amanece nos vamos or "at dawn we go." It has a nice sweet agave nose with some magic marker notes. The palate is quite sweet and a bit salty but lacks any real depth. The finish is pretty short. I'd say this one starts well but doesn't follow through.

Tequila Don Tacho Reposado, 38% abv.($53)

This one has a fascinating nose with wood chips and pine. It's very earthy. The palate, though, is bizarre. It drinks almost like water with just a vague earthiness like water from a nasty, unrefrigerated drinking fountain at an old school or park. This really has almost no flavor to it and certainly no finish. Strange stuff.

Arette Reposado, 38% abv. ($44)

The Arrette brand is one of the few I'm trying that seems fairly popular among US enthusiasts. This has a lovely nose of wild flowers and hay. The palate starts as a traditional tequila but then has a bit of anise/absinthe type notes which last into the finish.

I enjoyed the Arette most of all from these three, but I didn't find any of these three to be particularly noteworthy.

Bienvenido a Tequila Week: The Blancos

Sure this is a whiskey blog, but every once in a while I like to try a little something different. Years ago, I did a series of mezcal reviews, but I've never done much with tequila which I tend to think of as mezcal's flavorless cousin, though technically, tequila is a type of mezcal.

From a relative's recent trip to Mexico, I find myself with a number of samples of obscure (to me anyway) tequilas, some which appear to be very difficult to find north of the border, and all of which are, naturally, 100% agave. What better excuse for a massive tequila tasting.

I don't know tequila like I know whiskey. Tequila geeks speak of NOMs and extraction methods, but I don't know what those are, and I'm not about to attempt to become a ten minute expert. There's a certain freedom that comes with trying a spirit I don't know anything about. I can free myself of all of the externalities and just taste the liquid and give my impressions. I don't know anything about the distilleries, bottlers, sources or production methods. I'm just drinking and writing, blissful in my ignorance.

In an effort to tackle these with some reason, I'm dividing these by age. I'll start with a couple of blancos today, move on to reposados over the next few days and close out with a few añejos.

Today I'll start with the blancos. This is unaged tequila, the equivalent of new make or white dog, though this used to be the way they all were made.

Tequila Los Tres Toños Blanco, 40% abv ($33)

The nose on this is actually more like mezcal than many tequilas I've had, with some ash and a sweet earthy note. On the palate it is decidedly smooth and a bit salty with some sweet notes. Smooth is not usually a quality I appreciate but this a really well balanced and pleasant drink.


Don Eduardo Blanco, 38% abv ($38)

The nose on this is very mild with some floral notes. The palate is also quite bland, watery with some vague agave notes, some lavender and some dirt. Not much to this one.

Well, of these two blancos, the Tres Toños (three tones) wins handily over the relatively flavorless Don Eduardo.

Stay tuned for more tequila fun.

Another Illinois Dusty: Hiram Walker's DeLuxe Bourbon

A few months ago I sampled Hiram Walker's Ten High from the old Hiram Walker distillery in Peoria, Illinois. Today's dusty is the higher end bourbon from the Walker distillery, also from around 1982: Walker's DeLuxe.

Walker's DeLuxe, 8 years old, 43% abv.

The nose on this has a nice, oaky, musty bourbon note trailing off to some buttered popcorn. It has much more oak on it than the four year old Ten High. The palate starts well with some of those oak notes as well as some nice toffee notes but ends on a very bitter note which lasts into the finish.

This is a better whiskey than the Walker's Ten High; it starts well but the bitterness really ruins it for me. So much for Illinois Bourbon.

The New Generation of Rye: Bulleit Rye

Rye whiskey is in a time of flux. It's probably more popular than it's been in a half century, but that popularity has positive and negative effects. On the plus side, there are new ryes coming out all the time. On the negative side, the stocks of aged rye are running low. Even standard expressions like Sazerac and Rittenhouse 100 go through periodic shortages and price increases. Meanwhile, Wild Turkey has announced that they are going to have shortages of their standard 101 proof rye for at least a year, which relates to their introduction of an 81 proof rye. Rye seems to be getting weaker, more expensive and harder to find.

To fill the rye gap, big companies have been coming out with new expressions. Beam recently released Knob Creek Rye, an extension of its popular Knob Creek line of bourbon, though it's not for sale in California yet.

Today, I'll sample another big rye. Bulleit Rye came out last year and seems to be seeing brisk sales. The Bulleit brand is owned by the drinks giant Diageo and the rye is distilled at Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI) using their 95% rye mashbill.

Based on what I see on shelves at both bars and homes, it seems that those who can't find their rye of choice are increasingly grabbing for Bulleit, a familiar brand to those who enjoy the bourbon of the same name.

Affordably priced at around $20 ($19.99 at Trader Joe's), Bulleit Rye carries no age statement. It's priced to compete directly with the other popular ryes and seems to be popular with the cocktail crowd as well.


Bulleit Rye, 45% abv ($20)

The nose is pure LDI with loads of pine and green wood. The palate comes on sweet and piney, like a sugar coated pine cone, or what I imagine one would taste like anyway, having never dipped a pine cone in sugar and started munching on it. That first flavor burst is nice, but it doesn't hold up; the palate goes flat midway through, ending on a bitter note. The finish is mostly bitter but there is a pleasant cooking spice in the background, and eventually the bitterness recedes and you are left with the pleasant spice and a happy feeling.

This is a big fat rye, and being a 95% LDI rye, it's quite different in character from the Kentucky ryes that are in short supply. It's imperfect, but it's bold and spicy, and for $20, it's hard to beat if you need a solid rye for sipping or mixing.

Whiskey Law: Barrels New & Used

Most American whiskey drinkers know that according to U.S. regulations, bourbon must be aged in new, charred oak containers. But did you know that American rye whiskey, wheat whiskey, malt whiskey and rye malt whiskey also must be aged in new charred oak? In addition, any whiskey labeled "straight," with the exception of straight corn whiskey, must be aged in new charred oak. (Want proof? See the US Code of Federal Regulations, 27 CFR § 5.22(b)(1)(i) and 5.22(b)(1)(iii)).

A distillery can make a whiskey and age it in used barrels but they cannot call it bourbon, rye whiskey, etc. Some such whiskeys are just labeled generically, such as Early Times' "Kentucky Whiskey." The TTB also recognizes the categories of whiskey distilled from bourbon mash, rye mash, wheat mash, etc. If you see that designation, it means that the whiskey was stored in used oak.

The new oak requirement presents a problem for American distilleries that want to make Scotch style single malt whiskey. Scotch single malts are almost always aged in used barrels (often bourbon barrels), but an American distillery can't call its spirit "malt whiskey" if it's aged in used oak.