A Lesson in "Tequila Yoga"

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 25, 2007 6:30PM

Asking for salt and lime with a premium tequila has long been a pet peeve of ours, but since we regularly found ourselves behind a bar, we bit our tongue. Not anymore — we're demanding you shed the "training wheels." It isn't as though we're talking about mixtos here, where nearly half of what's in the bottle is cane sugar. These days every major tequila brand seems to be launching a 100-percent, pure agave line. You need to be tasting that, not salt and lime.

Since 2002, sales of premium and super premium tequilas have grown by an average of 8.6 percent per year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, with sales last year projected to fall just short of ten million cases. The main reason for this is the ability of tequila distillers to provide consumers with a high-quality product, but savvy marketing is also a factor. Patron, the market leader in premium tequila sales, is known as much for its risqué advertising as the quality of its product. Gruppo Campari's May purchase of an eighty percent interest in Cabo Wabo tequila (for $80 million) gave Sammy Hagar some serious "f-you, Eddie" money.

One of our favorite new tequila brands on the market these days is Partida, a 5,000-acre, estate owned distillery that only uses agave that's been growing for at least ten years. Spirit Journal editor/publisher F. Paul Pacult gave Partida's blanco, reposado, and anejo selection his highest rating of five stars; Partida's blanco is one of the cleanest tequilas we've ever tasted. We had the opportunity last week to dine with Partida spokeswoman Sofia Partida (pictured, right) during a tequila dinner at Adobo Grill's Wicker Park location. Partida agreed that, because of increased consumer awareness in tequila distillation, today's tequilas are meant to be savored, not shot, similar to a cognac or rare spirit. The main obstacle towards achieving that is in educating the consumer on the nuances of tequila. To that end, Ms. Partida gave the assembled guests a lesson in what she calls "tequila yoga," which is just a cute saying for applying the five basic senses to drinking tequila as one would when drinking a wine.

In front of every place setting was a sample of the entire Partida line: the blanco sat ironically in a shot glass; reposado looked elegant in a cordial demitasse; the anejo tempted from a covered snifter, to keep air away until the time to taste it out. According to Ms. Partida, exposure to oxygen affects the overall flavor of tequila. Ms. Partida began the lesson by having guests hold up their serving of blanco. Partida is twice distilled. The first run removes impurities; the second clarifies the distillate. Ms. Partida said that a sign of a well-crafted blanco was in its “crystalline” appearance and its ability to slightly reflect light. Since we were sampling her family’s tequila, naturally Partida blanco did just that. The next step was to slowly pass the serving under our noses, in order to allow our sense of smell to fully register the aromas of the tequila. What we picked up were light notes of vanilla and some hints of the roasted agave plant. Once that was done, Ms. Partida then asked the guests to take a slow sip of the blanco while breathing through our noses. We picked up a bright peppery spice on the front of the palate, while the tequila began to cling to our mouth with a pleasant mouthfeel. Then, as we finished the sip, we exhaled, which put into sharper focus the vanilla we picked up on the nose.

The fun truly began when we switched to the reposado. Many estate-owned tequila distilleries make the mistake of thinking too much about the resting and aging process. An example: Cielo, which makes a blanco that compares favorably to Partida, separates their distillate batches for aging between bourbon, cognac, and sherry casks. The result is a reposado and anejo where the flavor of the agave becomes lost. Partida keeps it simple, using reclaimed Jack Daniels barrels for their rested and aged tequilas. “What we like about Jack Daniels barrels is their approach to quality control,” Ms. Partida explained. “They have the highest standards toward aging their product, using only the best oak. We want the same. We have a 75-year contract with Jack Daniels to purchase their barrels once they finish aging their whiskey.”

Since wood is a permeable substance, Partida tequila acquires not only the charred flavors and dark sugars from the oak barrels, but also traces of the sweetness from the Jack Daniels corn mash. Partida’s reposado, aged six months, has a rounded flavor. The bright pepper we picked up in the blanco softened considerably, complemented by hints of honey from the wood. By the time we reached the anejo we could see that the sugars of both the distillate and oak combined to produce legs on the snifter that we’ve only seen on wine. They clung and slowly worked their way down. After eighteen months in those Jack Daniels barrels, Partida anejo lost a little bit of the agave flavor to the charred oak, but still made for a pleasant digestif.

The main objective of the dinner was to sell attendees on Partida, but right behind that was to re-train folks normally inclined to shoot tequila into sipping and enjoying it. Was Sofia Partida successful in that aspect? Somewhat; while there were guests hanging on her every word, others ran through all three samples before dinner was served. We’ve been to a few tequila dinners, and it’s the same thing every time. While it’s nice to gain new customers who leave the dinners with a new awareness towards the efforts of estate-owned tequila distilleries, the reason Patron and Cabo Wabo are the top-two premium brands is because they emphasize good times with their product that anyone can access. Still, we love being able to identify the flavor profiles of the newer offerings on the market. You don’t need to buy Partida to try “tequila yoga,” but Sofia Partida would be happy if you did.