@bayareaspirits #handcrafted #imbibe

This Saturday, I went to the Liquor.com Grand Tequila Tasting at Tres (formerly Tres Agaves) that I talked about last week.  It was a unique event — it’s not often you get a chance to try so many different tequilas in one venue.  The event was set up in the backroom hosting area at Tres and was set up with booths around a big agave plant.

What’s your sign?  First of all, let me say that it’s definitely interesting to arrive an hour in to a tequila tasting.  Because of some transportation issues (thanks, MUNI), my friend and I got there closer to 5 pm (an hour after the official start).  There were already some people who were getting a little too happy.  One guy in particular was chatting up the female brand ambassadors with questions like “so….how do you get into this sort of thing?” (her response: uh, what kind of thing?  Oh, well I bartended for awhile, this opportunity came up…etc., etc.) and “you’re not drinking as much as I am, are you?” (“uh, I’m not drinking at all, actually…”).  Odds of that guy actually getting a telephone number are slightly lower than the odds of me trying every single pour they had at this event.  After my first or second pour, I understood how he had gotten to that point — my personal capacity meter would take quick jumps with every booth I went visited (33% faded….46%…62%…etc.) 

Planning is key.  On a similar note: wow, 16 tequila and mezcal brands were pouring, and most had the requisite range of blancos, reposados and anejos.  It became quickly apparent that I couldn’t responsibly do a thorough tasting of all the expressions offered, and by responsibly I mean “without losing my marbles”.  Without having done some pre-research, I resorted to randomly picking booths to visit, based on whims or the availability of the brand ambassadors.  That was too bad, because I missed some great tequilas that would have been amazing to try — like Herradura (particularly the anejo), Partida (blanco and resposado) and Cabo Wabo (reposado) — had I been better prepared.

Feed me!  I showed up hungry and got hungrier as the night went on.  The caterers with trays of finger food would only come out every 20-30 minutes or so, and even then, you’d be lucky to nab something before the tequila-loving piranhas devoured the offerings.  Don’t get me wrong, the event was still top-notch and very reasonable (a steal, even) at $45.  But I’d be willing to pay an extra $10 to double or triple the amount of food that came through.

Schools of Thought.  I find it very interesting how there seems to be at least 2 different schools of thought on tequila-aging.  One seems to be “I don’t want to cover up the taste of the agave” or “we want the agave characteristics to shine through”.  They’ll rest their blancos in barrels for just a few months (required to be 2 months to <1 year) to make their reposado, and just over a year (required to be aged 1 to 3 years) to make their anejo.  Tequila Ocho, a tequila brand that started in 2007, ages their tequilas for 2 months and 8 days (reposado) and 1 year and 1 day (anejo).  

The other school of thought is “I want to get as many flavors developing as I can.”  Most of these producers will age their reposado for 9-10 months (364 days for Casa Noble).  There was one producer, the name escapes me right now, who ages their tequila long enough to be an anejo, but bottles it as a reposado.  As a whisky drinker, I tend to enjoy anejos more than reposados for their complexity, but at the same time I agree that tequila is tequila and the blue agave should shine.

Artificial Intelligence.  I found out that I could quickly endear myself from the scourge of party-people types by asking semi-intelligent questions like “Is your tequila from the Lowlands or the Highlands?” or “How long is your reposado aged for?”.  That would sometimes score me some pours of extra anejo that was often kept tucked away, and some extra tidbits of information and friendliness.

“Tequila’s a’ight…I prefer a finely aged mezcal…”  This was my friend’s more-than-slightly sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek report on the event.  I think he may be on to something though.  There was only 1 mezcal booth there (Los Nahuales Mezcal by Craft Distillers), and I’m glad that I found it because I’d never tried mezcal before.  Mezcal differs from tequila in 3 ways: 1) It’s typically made in Oaxaca State, as opposed to Jalisco; 2) it’s made from varieties of agave (Los Nahuales is made from agave espadin) other than the blue agave; and 3) it’s usually cooked in big, underground, mesquite-fired ovens, as opposed to auto-claves or ‘hornos’ (ovens), which imparts a smokier flavor.  The blanco I tried was SMOKEY and smelled of uncooked charcoal…but the reposado, aged for 9 months in French oak, was very dark and still smoky, but a lot more refined.  The real treat was another blanco, Mezcalero Mezcal, which had a bold-but-balanced flavors of smoke, sweetness and pepper, followed by a light smoky aftertaste.  Mezcalero is apparently made from a blend of tobala and tepeztate agaves.  I enjoyed it a lot.

I’ll definitely be checking out tastings like this from Liquor.com in the near future.  If you haven’t already, you should sign up for their newsletter so you can be informed of events around SF.  I’m off to another Liquor.com event, The Balvenie Rare Craft Roadshow at Epic Roadhouse in San Francisco.  Hoping to stop by Cask on my way to see if they carry the Mezcalero!