Rancho Tequila: Agave Newbie?

Monday, January 30, 2012

Agave Newbie?

Best entry-level tequila for the rookie: Familia Camarena Reposado. It's real easy and smooth on the palette, with that Highland sweetness and spice. Sip it neat or use it as an excellent mixer. And the price, she is nice...

Best first tequila for the whiskey-lover: Don Julio 70. The more I drink this, the more I appreciate it's "whiskey-ness." I do love the taste of American Oak. It will remind one of a nice aged bourbon but without bourbon's overly sweet taste or it's burn.

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My Tequila Discovery, 1992

My agave quest began a relatively long time ago -- long before the more recent Patron-driven 100% agave revolution began in the USA. It was October of 1992. My band was playing the prestigious CMJ (College Media Journal) Music Conference in NYC. We had the great fortune to be placed at Rodeo Bar, one of the convention's official venues. This was appropriate because then, as now, we played a twangy Texas-style music. The big thing about playing the Rodeo was that 1) they paid the bands and 2) they fed the bands for free and 3) they even provided free drinks! Great place! See, they were the ONLY place that paid the bands. At all the other venues the bands played these "SHOWCASES" for free, and it was really pay-to-play because of the expense of doing it. So like I said, we were lucky as hell.
So we played and had a good gig and enjoyed the other bands on the bill and ate at the adjoining (excellent) Tex-Mex restaurant, then called "Albuquerque". The bar itself was a converted actual cattle car, and this very nice bartender named Erin took a liking to us. The night wore on, and before you knew it, only my bass-player and myself remained at the cattle-bar with Erin. We had been drinking beers and were now in the mood for a tequila shot. Erin then says, "Guys, you need to try some REAL tequila!" She pointed up to the top of the bar to some dusty bottles hidden in the shadow above the bar-lights. "Our Mexican cooks bring this stuff up from Mexico when they come back from visiting home. It's their private stash," Erin said. Our eyes got big. Would there be worms? Scorpions?
But without further ado and at no charge she lined us up three shots from three different bottles and we tasted them.
Damn dude!
The lights went on in technicolor. Flavor! Spice! Smoothness! Wood! Baby!

Then the lights went out.

We literally fell off our bar-stools and staggered our way out to the NY streets at about 3 am. I still have NO memory of getting back to the hotel.
I had no idea what labels were on those bottles, so I couldn't tell you what I drank that night. But for the rest of the 90's and up until now I have sought out the best tequila available. And in the mid '90s there was not much available. At first it was stuff like Hornitos and Conmemorativo. Then I think, yes, it was Don Julio that a Mexican buddy of mine brought back from Mexico. It was not yet available in the US, or at least around here. Then came Tradicional and Herradura and El Jimador and Cabo Wabo and El Tesoro and then Patron came along and the blue floodgates of agave opened.

Thank you Erin, wherever you are! This is all your fault!

www.ranchotequila.net

Monday, January 30, 2012

Agave Newbie?

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