Friday 15 July 2016

Very Old and Rare Tequilas

Very old and rare tequilas


Sergio Mendoza at the distillery ‘Tequileña’



On a recent trip to Tequila town, I had the grand experience to try some very old, rare tequilas at my friend’s family’s distillery. Sergio Mendoza works with his family on the brand Fuenteseca. This is made at their distillery, ‘Tequileña’, [NOM 1146] in the town of Tequila. The family have been running the distillery since 1980 and have been ‘agaveros’, agave farmers for 5 generations. Enrique Fonseca, Sergio’s uncle is the Master Distiller and Blender.

The barrels used for ageing are French Limousin, Nevers, Slovak (primarily used barrels from Burgundy, Cognac/Armagnac, and other varieties of wines) and small percentages of White American Oak.

I began my tasting with their tequila just off the still at 55% abv:  

Nose: tropical yellow fruits, acetone [this is good by the way],cereal [agave?] = wood fibers?, green papaya, alcohol, lily flower, gardenia

Palate: the same as the nose with the flowers coming at the end


Next I tried their 9 year, 43% tequila:

Nose: sherry, old wood, red stewed fruit, nutmeg, caramel, ripe tropical fruit

Palate: wood, fruit, dry


The next was their 12 year, 45%:

Nose: vanilla, creme caramel, dried coconut

Palate: creamy, sharp, bright fruits, finishes dry with spice [pepper], fruit at end is deeper


Next was an 18 year, 45%:

Lighter in color than the 12 year old

Nose: lower, more closed than the 12 year old, water like minerality, cedar, vegetable perfume

Palate: light, fine, surprisingly fresh for its age, good integration of alcohol, burnt orange zest


The following are comments from Sergio to me.

Fuenteseca is the root word from where our last name, Fonseca, originates. The tequilas you tasted are the oldest tequilas ever to be bottled. Some of them predate the CRT regulation for ageing. Each batch is unique in the sense that they come from a single harvest/vintage, that is, they are not blended from different vintages, but everything in each bottle comes from a single harvest. That said, there might always be new batches of the Fuenteseca 9 Year, but they will come from other harvests, so the actual year of harvest, more so than the age, is the most important information on the label.

The tequilas you tried are 
- 9 year - Cosecha 2003
- 12 year - Cosecha 2001
- 18 Year - Cosecha 1995 

Additionally we have a 
- 7 year - Cosecha 2005
- 15 year - Cosecha 1998 (my favorite)
- 21 year - Cosecha 1993


Thank you my friend Sergio. Anybody interested in these tequilas can contact Sergio directly at:


smg@donfulano.com

A Fun Story I Heard at Ocho's 8th Birthday Party in London

A Fun Story I Heard at Ocho's 8th Birthday Party in London


Mario, Victoria and Tomas at Ocho's 8th Birthday Party in London


'The event was amazing, all the drinks were beautiful, my personal favourite was Jesse's drink, my beautiful girlfriend Victoria (I have found a tequila loving woman at last) loved Andrea's cocktail but we had fun all night.


You asked me to send you a picture of us three and include the story about my first Ocho experience I told you about, so here it is:

My friend Louis who knows how much I love good tequila bought me my first bottle of Ocho blanco for my 27th bday (it will have been 4 years in July). Because it was a great gift, I decided to keep it for a special occasion. Nearly a year later, at the end of May I was facing my final criminal law exam at the university. Because of my bad planning, I was completely unprepared the day before the exam and I made a decision not to go. My uni mates were trying to convince me all day to change my mind and give it a go, since it was the last exam and my summer could start in less than 24 hours, but every time I tried to open the book and study, nothing was going in since I was too stressed and tired. Around midnight, I was very disappointed with myself, feeling down about the fact that I'll have to wait another two months for the retakes so I decided to open my Ocho. I had a few drinks in my bed, feeling sorry for myself when the drink (which was beautiful by the way) kicked in and I started feeling a lot more relaxed. I decided to open the book again and it didn't feel so difficult anymore. So after I posted a few selfies of me doing shots of tequila whilst studying, I continued to read and drink until 8am. Some 300 pages later and nearly a whole bottle of tequila later, I took a shower and sat the 3 hour exam (needless to say very drunk, with the rest of the tequila in my bag). I got pretty lucky with the topics that came up (including the topic of "intoxication" - how ironic) and a few weeks later not only I learned that I passed but I got the highest possible mark and my summer could start properly. So thank you for saving my life and thank you for the most enjoyable revision session of my life.'

- Mario Konkol