jalisco

Don Valente Distillery Tour

The Ruta del Tequila in Jalisco, MX is an established UNESCO Cultural Site. With gorgeous blue agave as far as the eye can see, the tequila trail is a must-see for aficionados of the spirit. A hot air ballon trip covers the agave trails, the areas of el Arenal, Amatitán, Tequila, Magdalena y Teuchitlán. To really experience the Paisaje Agavero, or agave trail though, I recommend renting a car and grabbing a map to really experience the distilleries up close.

Just as important as the larger world-class distilleries in Jalisco are to the story of tequila, are the smaller, family-owned ones. I visited one such distillery, Don Valente, which is run completely by nine family members that each hold a different position in the company from designer to lawyer to sales.

The 15-year-old distillery does everything in-house, from cooking agave to hand-printing labels on aluminum, a process called repujado. When piñas, or hearts of the agave plant, are taken to Don Valente, they are placed face down in the brick oven in the shape of a pyramid to cook for 48 hours. In this formation, steam is more evenly distributed throughout the piñas. The family kindly passed around cooked piña to taste, part of which was tough like sugarcane and part of which was soft and insanely sweet like a sugar-saturated melon.

Click through the photo gallery to discover the Don Valente tequila process from piña roasting to pressing to distillation.

Gallery: Tequila Don Valente Distillery

My visit to Jalisco was sponsored by Tequila Cazadores, but the opinions expressed in the article are 100% my own.

Tags: agave, agave trail, jalisco, paisaje agavero, tequila

Is Your Tequila Authentic? Behind the scenes of the CRT

by Ariston Anderson (RSS feed) —

In 2009 136.4 million liters of tequila, made from 924.7 thousands tons of agave, were exported from Mexico, and those numbers are increasing every year. The U.S. is the largest importer of tequila, followed by Germany and Spain. How do you know what you're drinking is the real thing?

Just like Champagne or Cognac, Tequila is protected by state of appellation. Jalisco is one of only five Mexican states that are allowed by law to produce tequila, and takes the majority of the industry, as it serves as home to 95% of the world's agave plantations. The entire industry is regulated by the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, which tests samples from the more than 1200 labels from 150 distilleries produced in Mexico to ensure that quality standards are met across the country. And, because agave can grow virtually anywhere, international offices track down falsely labeled tequila bottles in places as far as India or New Zealand. CRT teams pressure local governments to take the offending spirits off of the market. International groups also work to make sure that authentic tequilas that are exported remain of consistent quality.

Overall, there are two types of tequila, both made from the White Tequiliana Weber Blue agave plant. For premium tequila, spirits are made from 100% agave. The rest, which is still considered tequila, just a lesser quality, is made 51% from the sugar of agave. Among these two, there's young tequila (gold/silver), reposado (rested) which is aged two months or more, and añejo which is aged in oak for more than a year. The rare extra añejo tequilas are aged for more than three years. Mexico's Minister of Health regulates any sweeteners, flavors, or colors that may be added to a blend.

So before you think sampling tequila 24/7 might be one of the world's greatest jobs, let's take a peak behind the scenes of the 15-year-old Consejo Regulador del Tequila, a watchdog group housed in a gorgeous modern building in Guadalajara, with walls filled with fine examples of agave art. The Mexican government's Ministry of Economy sets the standards for tequila across the industry, and the CRT ensures that these standards are met for its 150 members.

Gallery: Behind the Scenes of the CRT

Tags: consejo regulador del tequila, jalisco, tequila

Continue reading “Is Your Tequila Authentic? Behind the scenes of the CRT”

Touring the Tequila Cazadores Distillery: Does Listening To Mozart Make For Better Tequila?

by Ariston Anderson (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

To understand the story of Mexico, one must look at Tequila, a beverage that earned its roots from the Aztec goddess of agave Mayahuel, all the way to the early 1900s when Mexican revolutionaries took the drink as a sign of rebellion and strength. After thousands of years of growth and development, today, tequila represents the modernization of Mexico.I journeyed to Arandas in the highlands of Jalisco with a group of journalists to see the process of one of Mexico's finer brands, Cazadores.

Indeed, Tequila Cazadores' three labels together constitute the #1 selling premium tequila brand in the world. We began in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, already, 5,000 ft above sea level, and drove two and a half hours further up into the mountains. The farther out of the city we drove, the greater abundance of blue agave fields we saw, entering into the Agave Trail, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And the farther up we drove, the redder the soil became, each mile out achieving a greater and deeper shade, revealing the high concentration of iron and minerals in the soil, resulting in a sweeter and less fibrous agave plant. Tequilas from the highlands tend to contain more fruit notes such as citrus, pear and orange, while tequilas from the lowlands tend to have more herbal flavors such as mint and grass.

A unique tequila undoubtedly is made through a unique process. At Cazadores, after the agave cores are cooked under 24 hot waterfalls, they are sent to the mill where they are cut, shredded and squeezed. The agave juice is fermented for four days with yeast in steel vats, without any chemicals or preservatives. And in the tradition of Cazadores creator Jose Maria Bañuelos, the fermenting juice must listen to classical music. A firm believer in the Mozart effect, aimed to create harmonious vibrations in the fermenting juice. Indeed, yeast is very sensitive to sound. Talk or shout into a vat and the yeast moves. With Mozart playing around the clock, the music had a soothing effect on the yeast to create the most desirable must, or agave juice.

Gallery: Cazadores in Arandas

Tags: jalisco, mexico, mozart effect, tequila, tequila cazadores

Continue reading “Touring the Tequila Cazadores Distillery: Does Listening To Mozart Make For Better Tequila?”

Tasting the Tequila Cazadores Trio

by Ariston Anderson (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Tequila, the favored spirit of spring breakers far and wide, is often given a bad rap for being an amateur's liquor. A longtime fan of agave, I was thrilled to be a part of a trip to the tequila trail of Mexico in Jalisco, to learn more about this mysterious spirit. Although you'll find tequila aficionados experimenting with ultra-aged blends, for the masses there are three well-known types of tequila: silver, reposado and añejo. Extra añejo (for the ultra-aged) is gaining popularity among those who like their spirits saturated in oak,tequila purists would argue that too much aging overwhelms the delicate agave taste. And while I'm the first to say keep it in the barrel for most spirits, tequila is one of those rare liquids that has such an intense flavor and body all to its own (all credit due to the agave plant) that I'm the first to admit that anything aged over a year might negatively detract from the flavor of the tequila.

And beyond the tequila trinity, what about all this gold tequila we see everyone? As a devote to all things gold, these blends were most likely the bottles I was most drawn toward purchasing before being properly educated. But after learning the basics, say it ain't so, gold tequila is in most cases a lesser quality than silver tequila. Gold tequilas are more often than not silver tequilas with coloring or sugar additives. Fortunately for us, there wasn't a gold tequila in sight at the Cazadores distillery, except for the naturally aged reposados and añejos that naturally gain a slight coloring from oak barrel aging.

The story of Cazadores starts with Jose Maria Bañuelos, who created the recipe in 1922 and kept it in the family for three generations like all famly secrets deserve. It wasn't until his grandson Don Felix perfected the recipe and opened up a factory in 1973 that the special recipe was released to the public. He named the blend Cazadores, "hunters," in honor of his grandfather to signify a man hunting down his dream, and marked it with the symbol of a deer, the favorite animal of his grandfather, which he often watched at night mingling with the gorgeous blue agave plants in the field.

Gallery: Cazadores Distillery Bar