Tequila Trip – Day 3

We are now in Tequila Mexico, the birthplace of tequila.  I went to Kyoto Japan a few years back to tour sake breweries, and Tequila Mexico is similar.  Here you have large distilleries next door to small distilleries lined up all the way down the street.

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/