As I’ve talked about earlier than on this web site, if you wish to convey a present to impress to a Mexican who drinks, the most secure guess you can also make is Don Julio tequila. You can spend extra on Clase Azul and create a much bigger impression due to the hand-made porcelain bottle, however Don Julio Reposado or Anejo prices a very good bit much less, is straightforward to search out in any retailer that sells liquor, and garners immediate respect.
Through the years this premium tequila has gotten extra advertising and marketing muscle behind it, so it’s simpler to search out exterior of Mexico as properly, however the high quality has stayed persistently 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 stylish is its singular focus. Whereas 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. In addition they 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.
Manufacturing and Tasting Notes for Don Julio Tequila
Don Julio is taken into account a premium tequila model, even should 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 rivals. Relying in your style desire, that might be a very good or unhealthy factor.
The important thing distinction between the reposado and añejo variations is the time in white oak barrels. The sleek 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. When you ask many consultants what the yardstick must be to measure different tequila manufacturers, Don Julio’s reposado comes up greater than most others mixed. It has develop into a form of gold commonplace. Fittingly, it has gained plenty of gold medals too in tasting competitions.
The añejo model is aged for 18 months, however you wouldn’t comprehend it from its appears. Popping out of its brown bottle, it’s surprisingly pale for one thing aged this lengthy. There’s a cause for that although: the model bucks custom in one other approach through the use of the barrels they’ve already used quite than recent ones from the bourbon of us.
In different phrases, the barrels holding this model for a 12 months and a half have already hosted the reposado tequila for eight months at the least. This makes Don Julio radically completely different than most others within the sense there’s lots much less affect from the wooden. There’s additionally no risk of residual bourbon from Kentucky influencing the style of a spirit constructed from 100% blue weber agave. That 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.
When you want a heavy, oak-forward model to sip after dinner, Don Julio anejo isn’t your finest guess. It’s one of the fascinating although, with extra butterscotch, honey, and spice notes up entrance than you normally discover, with much less of the leathery, tobacco form of notes you usually encounter with tequilas aged this lengthy. It’s an intensely pleasurable consuming expertise, however can throw individuals for a loop at first pour. Bartenders have been recognized to have an order despatched again, the patron pondering they obtained the incorrect model.
You may see that within the picture 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 need to look intently to see that the one on the fitting has been aged longer.
Luxurious Tequila Manufacturers From Don Julio
When you’re prepared to drop $100+ on one thing fancier, there’s a Don Julio 1942 Tequila aged for at the least two and a half years. This ups the ante much more, and the second time I obtained to strive it I noticed the sunshine: that is clearly one of many high bottles you should purchase at any value. When 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 costliest alternative from the model although. I doubt I’ll have an opportunity to strive the Don Julio Actual bottle anytime quickly: with among the fanciest packaging you’ll discover wherever and a “In the event that they’ll pay it, we’ll make it” perspective, this model lists for an eye-popping $399 at retail. Spring for this when you have got a very large deal to have fun or a key shopper to impress and inform me the way it went.
For some cause, that one isn’t listed on the official web site anymore. As a substitute you’ll discover the unusual however fashionable 70 Cristalino that has all its colour artificially stripped out and some premium objects just like the Rosada aged in port barrels. Then there’s what could also be the costliest tequila I’ve seen at retail: the Don Julio Ultima Reserva, a restricted version model that may go for $699. Perhaps should 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 completely satisfied they usually gained’t value greater than your month-to-month automotive fee, but it surely 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 normally within the $45-$60 vary on the large liquor retailer chains. The añejo is usually lower than 10 {dollars} extra, making it a relative discount should you’re searching for a sipping tequila with some further growing old.
When you’re coming to Mexico on trip, Don Julio is among 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. When you go to a high-end all-inclusive resort on the coast someplace, there’s an excellent likelihood they’ll have this model. Arrange your personal tasting and test it out.
(If all that is an excessive amount of and also you’re simply searching for a bottle to convey to a celebration for mixing or pictures, a dependable guess with Mexicans is Cazadores Tequila, which is among the finest values on the shelf. Or see our different tequila opinions right here.)
Article by Timothy
Timothy Scott is the founder and editor of Luxurious Latin America and has been protecting the area as a journey journalist because the mid-2000s. He has visited every nation we cowl a number of instances and relies in a UNESCO World Heritage metropolis in central Mexico, the place he owns a house. See contact data right here.