The Spirit of Agave
A fine tequila can rise up to greet the nose with aromas of honey, rose petals or pepper; the body may be creamy, infused with oak or marked by a kind of grainy, vegetable depth. Traces of cinnamon, citrus or vanilla lace through a lingering finish.
The nuances multiply with every taste and deepen with each variable of production, from the altitude at which the spirit’s agave-plant source grew to the kind of barrel it matured in.
“It’s a pretty rich and complex spirit,” says Eric Rubin, managing partner of Tres Agaves Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Lounge in San Francisco. “With tequila, you’re looking at some really unique flavor sets.”
With the explosive growth of premium tequila in the U.S. starting in the 1990s, Mexico’s national spirit established itself as a more visible contender in the field of fine alcohols, competing with stalwarts like cognac and single-malt scotch for consumers’ attention, and commanding prices to match.
See our slideshow of Mexico’s most expensive tequilas.
Today, premium bottles sell for hundreds of dollars and, if the container is dressed up with precious metals or artisanal glasswork, that price tag can skyrocket. Last July, Mexican company Tequila Ley .925 garnered a Guinness Book record for “most expensive bottle” with the sale of a white-gold-and-platinum jug of its “Pasión Azteca” tequila. The buyer paid $225,000. Tequila Ley’s CEO, Fernando Altamirano, says he’s sold two more bottles since.
Porfidio Tequila, an early comer to the high-end export market, offers its highest-end sipping spirit, Barrique de Ponciano Porfidio (a product that founder Martin Grassl puts in the “esoteric” category) in a handcrafted glass bottle. The price tag? $2,000.
Containers aside, the highest-quality — and highest priced — products are almost universally made with 100 percent blue agave, a spiky desert succulent that’s usually harvested when it’s between seven and 12 years old, then slow-cooked, milled, fermented, and aged in wood barrels. The end result is categorized based on its time in the cask: blanco (unaged), reposado (aged between two and 11 months), añejo (aged one to three years), or extra-añejo (aged for more than three years).
These pure tequilas are a far cry from the part-agave and part-cane-sugar “mixtos” that are commonly downed with lime and salt, and which have contributed to less-than-refined experiences for the unsuspecting drinker.
“Tequila has been a little bit misunderstood,” says Valdemar Cantu, business and marketing manager for Tequila Herradura. “It’s often associated with hard partying, headaches and low-quality spirits.”
That association may be particularly strong for many in the U.S., where low-grade mixto still comprises the bulk of sales. But Cantu, who was raised in Monterrey, Mexico, says that even for a native it’s easy to miss the subtleties of the drink: “You grow up with the mystery and lore of tequila — it’s part of Mexican culture and pride, but until I got into the industry, I didn’t even understand some of the basics of fine tequila.” More...
See our slideshow of Mexico’s most expensive tequilas.
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See our slideshow of Mexico’s most expensive tequilas.
Those basics — like oak-barrel aging and the attendant, tiered system of classification — are essential to Herradura’s reputation. It was the first company to produce reposado and añejo tequilas for the commercial market, in the '60s and ’70s, respectively. Today, their extra-añejo brand, Seleccion Suprema, retails for $350 a bottle.
One sure way to gain some insight into this refined spirit is to visit its main source — the central-highlands state of Jalisco, home to the town of Tequila and many other small villages centered around the spirit’s production.
Herradura’s distillery, located in Amatitán, just outside Guadalajara, has been in operation since 1870, and is one of many in the region open to visitors. Cantu says Herradura’s Hacienda San Jose del Refugio is a picturesque “trip back in time.” Laborers live on the colonial hacienda, and an on-site chapel offers Mass.
See our slideshow of Mexio’s most expensive tequilas.
Gary Shansby, the CEO of Partida Tequila, a relative newcomer to the premium tequila realm, but one whose spirits have already garnered high praise from aficionados, is releasing an extra-añejo product, Elegante, this summer, which will retail at around $350 per bottle. He agrees that a trip to the source can enrich a tequila drinker’s understanding of such high-end spirits.
A tour of the Partida distillery in Amatitán, Shansby says, starts in the early morning in the agave fields, where visitors can walk among the jimadores, the workers who harvest the blue agave plants and strip them down to the piña, or core, to ready them for processing. In the fábrica, guests are led through the entire production process, from cooking to bottling. The tour, by appointment only, is limited to small groups and lasts about five hours.
Shansby and other frequent visitors to the small tequila-producing towns in Jalisco recommend that travelers seeking luxury accommodations and fine dining set up base in metropolitan Guadalajara, which is within easy driving range of the many distilleries and haciendas that dot the landscape.
And that trip between the big city and the outlying plantations is itself a rich experience. “Depending on the light of the sun,” said Herradura’s Cantu, “the agave plants will take on a bluish or greenish tint. The colors seem like they don’t belong there — the plants’ spikes shoot up out of the dark, volcanic soil.”
Like cognac or champagne, tequila is a denomination-of-origin product. And for the connoisseur or the curious, a pilgrimage to that place of origin can unlock some of the secrets of its richness.
Read on to see a selection of Mexico’s most expensive tequilas, along with luxury-travel tips for enjoying the spirits in their native environs.