Category: tequila

Tequila Distillery Visit: Don Julio
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to the Don Julio distillery in the town of Atotonilco.

(Cutting up the pinas before baking.)

(Now when I see pinas, I get thirsty.)

(Fermenting agave.)

(Stainless steel pot stills.)

(We had a cocktail contest after the distillery visit. My team of writers won, of course.)
- Don Julio uses all estate-grown agaves
- Has a widerspacing between agaves than average
- They have 18 furnaces, each of which holds 25 tons
- Fermentation takes 24-30 hours
- Their agave is larger than industry standards, with a higher sugar content
- Inside the stainless steel stills is a copper coil
January 7, 2011
Tequila Distillery Visit: Sauza
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to the Sauza distillery in the town of Tequila.

(First we visited the agave nursery. Sauza is unique in that they propagate their agave not by using baby plants but by… fancier scientific means.)

(This is what an agave looks like if allowed to propagate.)

(You can see close-up that instead of producing seeds, the mother plant produces little baby plants.)

(We had a lecture about plant propagation.)

(I just like this picture from the distillery.)

(This is the diffuser. Super clean at Sauza.)
- The blue color of agave comes from a wax on the plant. This wax covers the pores of the plant to protect it from drying out in the dry season.
- Unlike most tequila distilleries, at Sauza they shred agave and use the diffuser before they cook the agave juice in autoclaves.
- Then they only cook the juice for 3-4 hours.
- They ferment in covered fermentation tanks
- The first distillation is in a column still, second in a stainless steel pot still
- The Tres Generaciones line has a third distillation in a copper pot still
December 31, 2010
Tequila Distillery Visit: Herradura
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to theHerradura distillery in the town of Amatitan.

(Here they split the agave in two before baking.)

(The magic of Herradura is that it ferments naturally- no yeast is added.)

(Sleeping tequila.)
- Agave grows for 7-10 years before harvesting
- Jimadors work for 6 hours a day and harvest about 120 plants
- They use clay/brick ovens, each one holding about 48 tons
- Agave cooks for 26 hours then cools for 24
- They use a rollermill to shred the agave after cooking, then a diffuser to get out the last bits of sugar
- The fermentation takes about 4 days
- The first distillation takes 3 hours, the second 6
- They use stainless steel stills
- They don't move the barrels around, refill them where they are. Use same barrels for about 10 years before replacing
- Between Herradura, El Jimador, and Antiguo, all of which are 100% agave products, they say the only difference is the amount of aging and the percent of alcohol. [That's not quite true, here is a chart that spells out the differences.]
- They age in all new American oak barrels.
- The reposado is aged for 11 months
December 23, 2010
Tequila Distillery Visit: Jose Cuervo
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to the Jose Cuervo distillery in the town of Tequila.

(First we visited an agave field.)

(The jimador harvested the agave plant to get the pina, or pineapple, center.)

(I planted my own agave from the cuttings of a mother plant. I'll need to go back there in 7 or so years and drink that sucker.)

(After harvesting, they load the agave pinas into the ovens. I didn't notice at the time, but it appears they put the whole agaves into the ovens without chopping them into smaller pieces.)

(Copper pot stills.)

(We sampled some Reserva de la Famila out of the barrel.)
- April and May are the planting months for agave
- Agave is harvested year-round, though they usually avoid the rainiest month
- Cuervo irrigates their agave
- They prune the leaves of their agave plants for three reasons: Because they're sharp, to avoid insects laying eggs in them, and to help the heart grow faster
- For Reserva de la Familia, they cut out the cogollo, not for the mixto
- Cuervo owns 4 distilleries
- The distillery had 110,000 visitors last year
- They use only oven, no autoclaves
- The product of the first distillation, called ordinario, is cloudy
- Heads and tails are called vinasas. They are mixed with the agave fibers and made into fertilizer. This happens here and at most distilleries we visited.
- Reserva de la Familia agave is grown in special fields. It is aged in a combination of French and American oak barrels.
(I think it's a raven and not a crow, but hey look, I took a cool picture!)

(We had a horse and lasso show before dinner. )
December 17, 2010
Tequila Distillery Visit: Cazadores and Corzo
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to the Cazadores and Corzo distillery in the town of Arandas.

(Autoclaves cook agave much faster than traditional brick/clay ovens.)

(It's a huge operation here. The liquids travel in pipes through a tunnel beneath a road separating parts of the distillery.)

(Stainless steel stills.)
- In 1922 the recipe for Cazadores reposado was created
- They process 200 tons of agave per day in the distillery
- The autoclaves cook agave for 10 hours at 120 Celsius. Soon they're reducing the cooking time to 8 hours.
- After shredding the agave (after cooking it in autoclaves), they put it in a diffuser; a relatively recent technology that gets the last bits of the sugar out of the agave
- They allow the agave to ferment for about 4 days. The tequila undergoes an alcoholic then a malolactic fermentation
- The first distillation takes about 10 hours, the second takes about 24 hours
- The stills are stainless steel
- They do have a column still that they use "when demand is high"
- Corzo starts from Cazadores reposado. It is then redistilled and re-aged.
- They aged in new white American oak, with some French oak for Corzo
(After the tour, dinner and a dance show in the distillery.)
December 15, 2010
Hot Buttered Fun

Hot Buttered Fun would be a good party band name, right?

My latest post on FineCooking.com is up. It's a recipe for the Hot Buttered Anejo, which is a hot buttered tequila that I had one night when the brand Avion was pouring drinks at Elixir.

Check it out here.

December 14, 2010
Tequila Distillery Visit: Casa Pedro Domecq
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to Casa Pedro Domecq in the town of Arandas.

(Agave being loaded into ovens. They use the same agave for treatment with rollermill as with tahona.)

This distillery makes Tezon tequila, Olmeca Altos, and a mixto tequila for the Mexican market. I believe Tezon is all tahona tequila. This was distributed by Pernod Ricard in the US, but it appears they've abandoned it and are pursuing sales of Olmeca Altos, which is about half the price, instead. This tequila, also 100% agave, is made by blending agave that has been processed with a roller mill with tahona agave.

(In the rollermill process, after the agave is baked to break up the complex into simpler, fermentable sugars, the agave is shredded using a rollermill.)

(The tahona method. After baking the agave, the chunks of agave are placed in this pit. The large volcanic stone wheel rotates around in it, crushing the agave to expose the sugars before distillation. In olden times, the tahona would have been pulled by a mule.)

(This is the post-tahona agave. Gross. The fibers actually reabsorb the liquids here. All of it is thrown into the fermentation tanks.)

(Fermenting agave juice.)

(These stills are for the tahona agave- the big opening is so they can put in the fibers.)

(In the warehouse, they cover the lids of some barrels with plastic to reduce evaporation.)
- Agave for Olmeca Altos is 7-8 years old before harvest.
- They cut out the cogollo (the interior of the plant where it would sprout to reproduce if it could) in the field.
- They heat the agave in ovens, though they own an autoclave that is sometimes used for the mixto.
- They use larger pot stills for the mixto.
- They ferment and distill the tahona agave with the agave fibers, not the rollermill agave.
- The reposado tequila is aged in ex-bourbon barrels for 6-8 months.
- They replace the barrels after 9-10 years. They tried recharring the barrels but didn't like the results.
- The last agave shortage was in 2000 and 2001. Some people predict another shortage in a year or two.
- Lowland soils are sandier, darker, and more volcanic
- 60-70% of agave for tequila is grown in the highlands
December 3, 2010
The Tequila-Sherry Connection

Every time I look for sherry I find tequila there too. What is it with the tequila people and the sherry people being the same people?

Steven Olson aka Wine Geek is both a tequila and mezcal ambassador and also a sherry ambassador.

Jacques Bezuidenhout, Partida tequila brand ambassador and sometimes sherry ambassador, also created of the La Perla cocktail with both tequila and sherry.

George Sandeman of the Sandeman sherry and port family is a huge tequila fan.

On a recent trip to Spain with Steve Olsen were Phil Ward and Katie Stipe of Mayahuel, the tequila-and-mezcal bar in New York.

Gitane restaurant in San Francisco has a drink with tequila, PX, lime, and ginger beer.

And just the other day I got a recipe pitch from Espolon tequila with this recipe from H. Ehrmann of Elixir:

Ashes to Ashes

1.5 oz. Espolón Tequila Reposado
.5 oz. Pedro Ximenez Sherry
1 oz. Lemon Juice
1 tsp. Sweetened Cocoa Mix
.25 oz. Agave Nectar
1 pinch Ground Cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a mixing glass, fill with ice, cover and shake well for 10 seconds. Strain up into a cocktail glass. Garnish with cinnamon dust.

I also love both sherry and tequila, but I don't know what they have to do with each other.

What gives?

October 12, 2010
Latin, Packing, Pisco: A Few Articles I’ve Written Lately

I've had several stories come out recently, so I thought I'd share them here. This blog is also my resume, after all.

Friday I wrote about my recent piece in the daily email Tasting Table San Francisco. This one is about Encanto Pisco, brought to us by a bartender, a sommelier, and a distiller.

Attention people attending Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this July: My story about what to pack for the week (for media, speakers, bartenders, PR, and brand reps) in the June issue of Tasting Panel Magazine is now online.

In the July issue of Executive Travel Magazine I have a story on the Latin libations that are hot and the ones that soon will be.

I have recently become a regular contributor to SilverKris, the in-flight magazine for Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately the magazine is not online. Recent stories have focused on new classic cocktails, the return of absinthe, and where to drink in Wellington, New Zealand.

June 27, 2010
Home Bar Recommendations: One of Each

When Jonny Raglin and Jeff Hollinger were looking to open Comstock Saloon (hopefully this month), they had a big limitation to work with: the size of the back bar. It only has room for one or two types of each base spirit. This is a challenge for Raglin in particular as between his former post as Bar Manager at Absinthe and his consultant gig at Dosa on Fillmore he was working with probably 30 different types of gin alone.

This inspired a story I wrote for the April edition of 7×7 magazine. I also spoke with Martin Cate of Forbidden Island who had the luxury of choosing over 200 rums for the bar, but that didn't leave room for much else. Before opening he sent out an email requesting advice on one of each tequila (blanco, reposado, anejo) for the bar. I also spoke with Marcovaldo Dionysos, who was very selective when choosing the bottles for Clock Bar. He said he had to balance familiar brands that consumers know with less-recognized spirits he'd prefer to work with.

In the story I asked each of Raglin, Cate, and Dionysos to pick one of
each- vodka, tequila, rum, whisky, and gin- that would work the best in
the most cocktails, while also being good enough for sipping. The
results should point home mixologists who may also not have room for 30 brands of gin toward the one bottle to buy.

The Ultimate Five-Bottle Bar, Perfect for Apartment Dwelling

by Camper English

What happens when the city’s top bartenders are forced to choose? Introducing the ultimate five-bottle bar, perfectly sized for apartment dwelling.

Click the link above to read the story. In the print edition there are also recommendations for one each of sweet and dry vermouth and an orange liqueur/triple sec.

April 1, 2010