While the transformation of beer in the last three decades to a craft product that is respectable in the finest restaurants is impressive, the shift taking place around Tequila is nothing short of amazing.
Tequila has left the frat house and taken a place among top-shelf liquors.
It has been a long and strange path to respectability. Mexico has a distilling heritage that predates bourbon by about 250 years. In fact, distilling in Mexico can be traced back almost as far as scotch. But tequila had a mixed reputation, and the lore of the worm—a marketing ploy among some mescal makers—took the category to low respectability.
Tradition and heritage are just one measure of tequila's place in the hierarchy of drinks.
Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico in the early 1500s and found the Aztecs gathering agave to make pulque, a fermented beverage used for ceremonies and made from juice taken from the maguey agave shoots. Pulque—also called octli—had been a part of the native culture for more than 1,000 years. Before long the Spaniards starting distilling pulque, and the early forms of tequila emerged.
Tradition and heritage are just one measure of tequila’s place in the hierarchy of drinks. Like cognac and Champagne, tequila also has strict geographic boundaries. To qualify as tequila, it must be made in the state of Jalisco around the town of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara. Like brandy is to cognac, there are other drinks made in different areas of Mexico or from different types of agave—mescal, sotol and bacanora. But tequila is unique and desirable.
Now tequila is something more than a punch line. When you mention the spirit to most people, they automatically reach for the blender, or perhaps they have a distant memory of a night with one too many shooters. But the reality is that tequila’s reputation is changing.
“I think people have changed the way they enjoy Tequila. More consumers sip and enjoy 100 percent agave tequila brands,” says Jacques Bezuidenhout, bartender ambassador for Partida tequila. “I like to enjoy it in many ways. In a quality fresh cocktail, with a beer or food. Many times just neat. Depends on the mood, but most of all you should always have fun while having tequila.”
New tequila brands continue to pop up and, even during the economic downturn of the last few years, many of these are aged. Reposado tequilas are “rested” for two to 11 months. These tequilas spend time in American or French oak barrels, which often previously held bourbon, cognac, wine or other beverages.
Añejo means the tequila has been aged between a year and three years in oak barrels that are under 600 liters. In 2006, the designation extra añejo was added for tequilas left to rest for more than three years.
