Tierra de Agaves Tasting Notes

Lunazul Tequila Anejo 40%

A 100% agave añejo tequila from Tierra de Agaves. Lunazul is part-owned by bourbon-producer Heaven Hill. Aged in ex-11 year old Elijah Craig barrels for 12 to 18 months.

Tasted: Feb 2018

A pungent agave nose with plenty of pepper. The oak is very subtle and adds hints of vanilla and milk chocolate. With time it becomes very peppery and slightly mentholated.

The palate is pleasantly rounded and soft with pungent agave and pepper. Slightly mentholated with subtle Bourbon oak, coffee and milk chocolate on the middle. Long and peppery finish with a touch of wood smoke.

 

Villa Lobos Tasting Notes

Villa Lobos Tequila Blanco 40%

Small Batch/ Btl: Mar 2016/ Tasted: Jun 2017

Oily and dense with hints of sweet-ish agave and subtle vegetal notes. With time hints of vanilla and a light musky floral note.

The palate opens with the sweet-ish agave and vanilla, along with a touch of pepper. Lightly vegetal but creamy middle. Long and very peppery with a pleasant, mouth-watering spiciness. The finish is however, the best part!

La Alteña Distillery (Tapatio) Tequila Tasting Notes

Tapatio Tequila Blanco 40%

Tasted: Sept 2014

A pungent, coffee laced nose of green peppers, vanilla, cream soda and white pepper. The pulped agave can just about be discerned, but it’s taking a back seat here!

The palate however displays more of the pulped fruit with a touch of pepper and coffee’d spices. It gets a bit wild and vegetal on the middle. Seriously edgy now with a lovely intensity. Long with a slightly nutty and white pepper finish.

Tapatio Tequila Blanco 40%

Re-Tasted: May 2016

The nose is quite fresh and citric with gently peppered (white) pulped agave and hints of smoke, green pepper and an almost cereal-like sweetness.

The palate has a lovely intensity of peppered agave with hints of green pepper, citrus and coffee. Pleasantly edgy and lightly earthy with a very herbal middle and finish. Lightly salted after-taste with lingering citrus, agave and green pepper notes.

Tapatio Tequilla Blanco 110 55%

Tasted: May 2016

The aromas are subtler than the 40% bottling with hints of smoky vanilla. It settles down to show sugar coated agave and black pepper. Like the 40% bottling it displays and almost cereal-like sweetness along with a touch of dried fruit.

The palate is sweeter and shows more vanilla than the 40% bottling with edgy but brown sugar coated agave. Intensely citric and peppered middle and a seriously salty finish. The higher abv has really emphasised the citrus and salt. Quite a dry after-taste with lingering lightly smoked agave.

Tapatio Tequila Reposado 38%

Re-Tasted: May 2016

Wonderfully deep aromas of slightly toasty vanilla and pulped agave. Rounded and subtly peppery with a touch of salt.

The palate is fresher and more citric with subtle vanilla oak. Intense agave notes mingle with green pepper, earth, smoke and salt. Long and salty with the sweetness of the agave balancing.

Tapatio Tequila Reposado 38%

Aged for 8 months in American oak

Tasted: Sept 2014

Lovely aromas of soft, pulped agave and hints of pepper. Quite fresh with an almost salty minerality.

The palate is as freash as the nose suggests with pulped fruit, pepper and a subtle vanilla character. Very smoky on the middle – coal smoke and a dry, slightly austere, salty finish.

Tapatio Tequila Anejo 38%

Aged for 18 months in American oak

Tasted: Sept 2014

Complex, pungent and smoky aromas with hints of red pepper, citrus vanilla and a light balsamic note.

The palate is full and creamy, opening with a subtle pepperiness. Fleshy white fruits follow with a touch of citrus, oak and spice. Very long with the spices becoming a little floral and the pepper gaining in intensity.

Tapatio Tequilla Anejo 38%

Re-Tasted: May 2016

The nose displays a greater oak influence (obviously!) with creamy vanilla and subtly sweet pulped agave. Hints of black pepper, green pepper and citrus follow.

The palate is full and creamy, but not over oaked as the intense agave, lime, green pepper and salt power through. Fleshy and mellow with a lovely sugar/ salt balance. Long and spicy with the black pepper building in intensity finishing with a suggestion of red chilli pepper. Lovely stuff!

Tapatio Tequila Excelencia Gran Reserva 40%

Aged for 3 to 5 years

Tasted: Sept 2014

My god this is an agricole rum!?!?! Herbal, medicinal and very woody with green nuts, clove and pepper. Wow this is just so left field it’s untrue. Hendrix is playing in the background and it seems like an ideal match! Extremely woody (did I mention that!) with late camphor and burnt toast notes. However I can still detect plenty of pulped agave!

The palate is little subtler on the wood front and it opens quite peppery with clove and cinnamon notes. Good grief the pepper is beginning to build along with the wood notes. But just like the nose some agave fruit can be found at its heart. Incredibly complex with a mouth-wateringly spicy and peppery finish. This is stunning tequila!

Tapatio Tequilla Excelencia Gran Reserva 40%

Re-Tasted: May 2016

The nose opens with buckets of peppery dried fruit and bourbony, coffee’d oak. Very herbal and almost agricole-eque with an enormity of black pepper spices. Seriously complex with a touch of sweet agave coated in molasses and brown sugar. Superbly balanced rancio with late hints of burnt toast.

The palate is subtly smoky with creamy, Bourbony oak and air dried fruit. Quite spicy and woody with cinnamon, cumin and pepper. Again the herbal notes display a sort of agricole rum-like character with plenty of camphor. The mature agave notes come through forcefully on the middle as the oak gives way and the finish is long, salty and peppery with the agave notes lingering. This is a stunningly great tequila and a very unique spirit.

Maracame Tequila Tasting Notes

Maracame Tequila Reposado 38%

Aged for 9 months in American oak

Tasted: Dec 2011

Quite a fleshy and oily nose, opening with some beautifully fragrant, pure vanilla oak which has a delightful creamy edge, followed by some woody/ pulpy notes and plenty of lime. Very complex and balanced. 

The palate is wonderfully soft, opening up with some toasted, fleshy, pulp, light oils, light honey and a delicate pepperiness. Again wonderfully balanced with the pepper building to a crescendo. Full flavoured , elegant and wonderfully pure. Good length with a herbal twist and just a slight bittering of the oak in the finish.

Herradura Tequila Tasting Notes

Herradura Tequila Blanco 40%

Tasted: Mar 2011

Rested in new uncharred oak casks for up to 60 days.

A very peppery nose. Warm, rounded and full with a slight creaminess. The aromas become more starchy and fibrous in character given some time with some hints of toasted nuts. The palate is like the nose soft and has a distinct toasted hazelnut flavour, along with a touch of almost clotted cream. It opens into a lovely petally and pure red/ black peppercorn mid palate. Lovely intensity with the pepper becoming increasingly complex. Soft and very smooth. 

Herradura Tequila Reposado 40%

Tasted: Mar 2011

Aged for around 11 months in new charred oak.

Softer and rounder than the Blanco. The oak ageing is definitely apparent, but the pepperiness of the spirit is undiminished. Still full and creamy with the subtle vanillins adding a little sweetness. The palate surprisingly shows a lot less oak influence (the sweet vanillins are somewhat absent) and it is still very full, nutty and peppery. Maybe it is a touch drier as the oak imparts some bitterness but then the pepper kicks in again and any bitterness is soon lost. Very long, less nutty and maybe a touch more floral. 

Herradura Tequila Anejo 40%

Tasted: Mar 2011

Aged for between 24 and 32 months in new charred oak.

The aromas are a lot more subtle than the Reposado, and the additional time in oak gives the spirit a more whisky like character. It’s very nutty now with plenty of toasty vanilla, but less pepper. However the floralness of the Reposado is joined by some citrus, sweet toffee and herbal notes. One gets the impression that the oak is beginning to dominate the spirit, however at the point in time it is finally balanced. The palate is lovely and soft. Full, nutty and toasty. The oak bitters the start but like before the pepper again powers through. This time the oak hangs in there and eventually dries out the finish. That finish is all about the pure wood notes and spice but the pepperiness never gives up the ghost. Interesting loamy/ mushroomy after taste.

Jose Cuervo Tequila Tasting Notes

Jose Cuervo Especial 38%

Tasted: Sept 2006

Hard, oily aromas of youthful cereal spirit and maybe some fruit. Oily, limpid palate. Quite bland and dominated by the youthful cereal. Slightly husky with some wood spices.

Don Fulano Tequila Tasting Notes

Don Fulano Tequila Blanco 40%

100% Blue Agave 

Tasted: Sept 2014

The nose is lightly citric and peppery with some sweet, perfumed pulped fruit and a late creamy spirit note. 

The palate is soft and elegant and displays a little more complexity of pulped agave with hints of straw and fragrant fruit. Plenty of edgy citrus notes on the middle along with coffee and camphor. Long, sweet black pepper and citrus finish. 

Don Frulano Tequila Reposado 40%

100% Blue Agave, Aged in French Limosin oak for 8 months 

Tasted: Sept 2014

The aromas are very creamy and vanilla’d wich are burying the pulped fruit and pepper notes. 

The palate is much like the nose, creamy and full with no shortage of oak vanillins, which again bury the agave fruit. Good peppery finish. 

Don Fulano Anejo 40%

100% Blue Agave, Aged in French Limosin oak for 3 years 

Tasted: Sept 2014

Now that’s a seriously peppery nose! Buckets of the stuff! Quite balsamic with an intense black coffee character. 

The palate is balsamic and mature with again plenty of black pepper and crushed agave fruit. There’s definitely no escaping the pepper! Good Length with lingering………er……. Pepper! 

Don Fulano Imperial 40%

100% Blue Agave, Aged in French Limosin oak for 5 years

Tasted: Sept 2014

The oak character is obvious from the word go. The aromas are quite oxidised and have a rum-like dried fruit quality. Very complex with hints of olive oil, smoke and spice mingling with the oak. Some pulped fruit and pepper come through with time but the emphasis is definitely on the oak. 

The palate opens with plenty of wood spices and vanilla. Again the rum-like dried fruits come through along with a touch of pulped fruit. Very full, robust and long with the peppery spirit eventually coming through the oak. Very complex and unique. And not cheap!

Alchemist Tequila Tasting Notes

Alchemist Tequilla Extra Anejo

Tasted May 2007

[Never Bottled]

Soft and incredibly complex nose with slightly oily citrus, apricot, honied fruit and sweet cinnamon wood spices along with a slight perfumed note which reminded me of lychee. Soft on the palate. Youthful citrus fruit mingles with cereal husk, clean wood and an intriguing perfume. Then in wades loads of peppery spices, a touch of liquorice and finishes with a cane/plant/cereal husk finish. Wow!