Yesterday, I went to An Evening of Tequila at Mijita in San Francisco, hosted by Casa Noble and Imbibe Magazine.  It was a fun event with tequila tastings, cocktails, chips and guacamole, tacos and Mexican corn dogs, all for the price of the $6 toll to cross the Bay Bridge!

Co-Founder and CEO Jose ‘Pepe’ Hermosillo took us through the tastings.  The unaged Crystal had a pleasant herbal smell and was smooth in the mouth, not harsh like some other tequilas.  It had a pleasantly sweet and crisp taste, with some mild honey and nectar notes.  The citrus was definitely in the nose, not so much the taste.  Their tequila is triple-distilled, instead of the industry standard of 2 distillations (point of uniqueness #1).

The reposado is aged for 364 days (point of uniqueness #2), 1 day before it would cross over from being a reposado to an anejo.  The scent and taste of vanilla was dominant in this tequila; the agave flavor was still there, but muted in the background.  It was definitely creamier than the Crystal.  It was flavorful and pleasant, but not as complex because the vanilla flavor was so strong.

The anejo is aged for 2 years in new French White Oak barrels (point of uniqueness #3), as opposed to American bourbon barrels.  The anejo is put into the new barrels, then they are re-used to age the reposado.  This was definitely more complex than the reposado, introducing caramel, vanilla, cocoa, oak and dried fruit flavors.

Both the Crystal and the anejo have won double gold medals at the San Francisco Spirits Competition.  Casa Noble tequilas are also USDA certified organic, meaning they don’t use any pesticides or fertilizers when they grow their agave plants, one of only 4 tequila producers (out of 100+) who can claim that (point of uniqueness #4).  Their bottles are curiously shaped like Patron bottles, I wonder if that’s coincidental?

The best part?  You can pick it up at BevMo at what I think are very reasonable prices for what you’re getting:

Casa Noble Crystal, $39.99

Casa Noble Reposado, $49.99

Casa Noble Anejo, $59.99

If you enjoy whisky but haven’t tasted aged tequila, you should definitely give it a try.  The barrel aging definitely introduces a lot of the same types of flavors and complexity that you find in aged whisky.

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