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Video has been up for awhile now, but not many views.

Enjoy!

On this day we are visiting Destileria La Fortaleza and Casa Noble.
I already know I like Casa Noble and am excited to see the distillery, but Fortaleza is new to me.

Fortaleza turns out to be my favorite distillery. It is very small, full of tradition, and they produce amazing tequila.
Everything is done by hand here – blowing the glass bottle, carving the cork tops, and bottling the tequila.
Here is a link that breaks down the history of the distillery:

http://www.tequilasource.com/losabuelos/

Our tastings didn’t include anything outside of the standard line of products, but that was okay with me.
I brought back one of each – blanco (#8), reposado (#11), and anejo (#12)

Later that day we visit Casa Noble, one of my favorite tequila brands out there.
Our tour was given by David Yan, who treated us like family.
We spent most the afternoon there going through all aspects of the distillery.

Casa Noble is certified 100% organic and we spent some time in their fields learning how all the elements get used and recycled back into the ground for future use.

The best part was the tastings.

David sat with us and taught us how to drink tequila and how to find specific notes with each style.  I personally had a small breakthrough during these tastings.  I was able to pick out and start to appreciate the agave taste in a blanco.

We sat there discussing tequila and the business into the evening.
Thank you for the time David.

Once again, here is a link to some pictures by Nathan Goins:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agfox18/sets/72157628408796845/

Centinela, Tequila Alquimia, and Siete Leguas

This is the highlands area of tequila making.

Centinela was the largest distillery we visited.  Their production is all automated and I believe they are ninth on the production list at around 60 hectoliters a year.

We were given tastings of their regular line and we leaned toward the reposado until we were given a taste of a 7 year bottle.

All in all a very nice distillery, but I still favor the small boutique brands.

Next we visited the agave fields of Tequila Alquimia.

This is a certified organic tequila. The field was in great health and looked amazing.  They explained to us that they take extra time to plant their fields with a specific amount of space between each agave. They believe this allows the agave better growing.  When you looked at the corporate fields that surrounded Alquimia the fields looked worn out and tired.  I’m not sure I require a tequila to be certified organic, but Alquimia’s agaves looked healthy and big compared to the others.

We got to spend time tasting the blanco and anejo.  Really enjoyed the blanco.

Thanks to Alquimia for giving us a bottle as a gift.

Last visit today is Seite Leguas.

This was my second favorite distillery on the tour.  They blend the old with the new very well.

Here is a picture of the tahona extraction.  The stone is crushing the cooked agave’s to extract the liquid.  The next step is to ferment the liquid. Siete Leguas ferments the liquid with the agave solids.  I found this different then most other places.

One of the best parts of this tour was that the owner, Fernando, was with us the during the tour.  He was willing to answer all of our questions and I believe enjoyed showing us his work.  During our tastings we were allowed to taste some special things that they are working on for future release.

Fernando – Thanks for taking the time and giving us a special trip into your family business.  I’m am a fan and will support and drink your product always.

Here is a link with more pictures from our tequila tour.
These photos are from Nathan Goins who was on the tour with me.  His photos are from the whole tour and I will include this link on all my posts, because his photos are much better then mine.
Thanks for sharing Nathan.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agfox18/sets/72157628408796845/

Salud!

We are staying at Hotel Morales in the Centro Historico District.
Great location to see the historical district, nice old building with great architecture.
The hotel was where all the bull fighters would stay back their hay day.
We spent today taking in the sites with a walking tour.

José Orozco is the theme of the day.

Palacio de Gobierno – Go here to see the mural by Jose Orozco.
Cathedral Metropolitana
Plaza de Armas
Museo Regional de Guadalajara
Instituto Cultural Cabañas – More murals by Jose Orozco, plus other art.

No tequila today, just art and architecture.

I have met Mark twice, both times at his restaurant – Sayulita Fish Taco – and he has always been very nice and took time to talk about tequila and music with me. I highly recommend stopping in if you are in Sayulita.

The two videos here are from 2010 when Mark toured Casa Noble.
Casa Noble is one of my favorite tequilas and I believe I will be going through this distillery on my trip.

Salud!

©2011 Thiefen

I’m real excited to be touring distilleries throughout Tequila’s valley and highlands.

I have proven that I do not update this site very often,
but I am going to try and do daily updates about the trip and the tequila we are sampling.

Here are the details of the trip, I am taking:

http://www.experiencetequila.com/wwd/tours/5-day/highlands/

http://www.experiencetequila.com/

Has anyone taking these trips before?
Any reviews?