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Over the years this premium tequila has gotten extra advertising muscle behind it, so it’s simpler to seek out outdoors of Mexico as nicely, however the high quality has stayed constantly good.
Don Julio has been out as premium tequila since lengthy earlier than that was a classy factor, round since 1942. What’s additionally not fashionable is its singular focus. While the likes of Cuervo and Sauza produce a number of manufacturers in a single facility, “La Primavera” distillery solely produces this one. No crappy mass-market cocktail swill coming down the identical bottling line. They additionally keep away from the shortcuts some others take: the agave fruits are steam-cooked in conventional masonry ovens for 3 days to launch the candy agave juice slowly, with out speeding.
Don Julio Gonzales was an actual man too. He based the corporate on the age of 17 with a dream and a mortgage.
Production and Tasting Notes for Don Julio Tequila
Don Julio is taken into account a premium tequila model, even in the event you don’t splurge for the 1942 model, however many really feel that it’s extra agave-forward than a few of its oak-heavy opponents. Depending in your style choice, that might be a superb or dangerous factor.
The key distinction between the reposado and añejo variations is the time in white oak barrels. The easy highland reposado is aged for eight months. It emanates high quality from the primary whiff to the final end, a fancy and well-structured mixture of spice (particularly cinnamon), citrus, and agave sweetness. If you ask many specialists what the yardstick ought to be to measure different tequila manufacturers, Don Julio’s reposado comes up greater than most others mixed. It has develop into a sort of gold customary. Fittingly, it has gained a number of gold medals too in tasting competitions.
The añejo model is aged for 18 months, however you wouldn’t understand it from its seems to be. Coming out of its brown bottle, it’s surprisingly pale for one thing aged this lengthy. There’s a purpose for that although: the model bucks custom in one other approach through the use of the barrels they’ve already used somewhat than recent ones from the bourbon of us.
In different phrases, the barrels holding this model for a yr and a half have already hosted the reposado tequila for eight months no less than. This makes Don Julio radically completely different than most others within the sense there’s quite a bit much less affect from the wooden. There’s additionally no chance of residual bourbon from Kentucky influencing the style of a spirit constituted of 100% blue weber agave. This is an uncommon attribute within the tequila world since practically all different tequila manufacturers use reclaimed barrels which have mellowed out for 4 years or extra with Kentucky bourbon inside.
If you favor a heavy, oak-forward model to sip after dinner, Don Julio anejo shouldn’t be your greatest guess. It’s one of the attention-grabbing although, with extra butterscotch, honey, and spice notes up entrance than you often discover, with much less of the leathery, tobacco sort of notes you usually encounter with tequilas aged this lengthy. It’s an intensely pleasurable consuming expertise, however can throw folks for a loop at first pour. Bartenders have been identified to have an order despatched again, the patron considering they bought the fallacious model.
You can see that within the photograph above, which I shot after getting a pour of each whereas staying at The Towers at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica on the seaside in Los Cabos. You should look carefully to see that the one on the appropriate has been aged longer.
Luxury Tequila Brands From Don Julio
If you’re keen to drop $100+ on one thing fancier, there’s a Don Julio 1942 Tequila aged for no less than two and a half years. This ups the ante much more, and the second time I bought to attempt it I noticed the sunshine: that is clearly one of many prime bottles you should buy at any worth. If you’re at a high-end all-inclusive resort like La Casa de la Playa within the Riviera Maya, make the most of it and get a sipping glass of this one.
That’s nonetheless not the most costly selection from the model although. I doubt I’ll have an opportunity to attempt the Don Julio Real bottle anytime quickly: with among the fanciest packaging you’ll discover anyplace and a “If they’ll pay it, we’ll make it” perspective, this model lists for an eye-popping $399 at retail. Spring for this when you will have a very massive deal to have fun or a key shopper to impress and inform me the way it went.
For some purpose, that one shouldn’t be listed on the official web site anymore. Instead you’ll discover the unusual however widespread 70 Cristalino that has all its coloration artificially stripped out and some premium gadgets just like the Rosada aged in port barrels. Then there’s what could also be the most costly tequila I’ve seen at retail: the Don Julio Ultima Reserva, a restricted version model that may go for $699. Maybe in the event you’re celebrating a home sale or one thing equally high-dollar…
For extra on a regular basis purchases to fill out the house bar, the common reposado and anejo variations will make you and your company blissful they usually gained’t price greater than your month-to-month automotive cost, however it pays to buy round. I’ve seen the reposado on the market for as little as $28 in Mexico and as a lot as $70 in an unbiased U.S. liquor retailer. It’s often within the $45-$60 vary on the massive liquor retailer chains. The añejo is commonly lower than 10 {dollars} extra, making it a relative discount in the event you’re in search of a sipping tequila with some further getting old.
If you’re coming to Mexico on trip, Don Julio is likely one of the best premium manufacturers you’ll discover, even at locations that aren’t very fancy in any other case. I’ve seen it in comfort shops and at swinging-door cantinas. If you go to a high-end all-inclusive resort on the coast someplace, there’s an excellent probability they’ll have this model. Set up your individual tasting and test it out.
(If all that is an excessive amount of and also you’re simply in search of a bottle to deliver to a party for mixing or pictures, a dependable guess with Mexicans is Cazadores Tequila, which is likely one of the greatest values on the shelf. Or see our different tequila opinions right here.)
Article by Timothy
Timothy Scott is the founder and editor of Luxury Latin America and has been masking the area as a journey journalist because the mid-2000s. He has visited every nation we cowl a number of occasions and relies in a UNESCO World Heritage metropolis in central Mexico, the place he owns a house. See contact data right here.
