Tequila (4th one, Tastings #26)

Tequila Tasting (January 19th, 2023)

This is our 4th Tequila Tasting. The bottles in question were;

We had 13 people on the Zoom, but not all voted independently, some voted as a group.  Most of the time, we had 11 voting.  This was our 4th Tequila tasting, but our 1st ‘all’ Blanco/Plata Tequila tasting.  We are getting more ‘refined’ as a group.  For those who are unaware, rule of thumb, there are 4 types of Tequila;

• Blanco/Plata/Silver,  (0-2 months aging)
• Resposado meaning ‘rested’,  (2 mths – 1 year)
• Anejo meaning ‘aged’, (1 year to 3 years)
• Extra Anejo (> 3yrs)

Some may argue for 2 more ‘types’, Joven, and Cristalino (charcoal filtered to remove the tannins, and therefore the color, of the Resposado or Anejo Tequilas).

The other 3 tequila tastings are referenced here, for those who are curious. 3rd Tequila tasting was Jan 2021, the 2nd Tequila tasting was July 2020, and  1st Tequila tasting was in Sept 2019.

We had 2 from the same NOM, a NOM is a distillery in Mexico.  The brands have to say what distillery they are from, there are 146 different ‘NOM’s, and thousands of Tequila brands.  The brands from the same NOM, got the exact same rating, which is kinda cool, given its blind.

In terms of identifying the Tequilas based on the tasting notes, it was a 1/7 or 2/7 ‘right’, being the best in the group, so it was hard to recognize them from the tasting notes.

We used Zoom to record our votes for the 1st time, I liked it better, since its only displayed once everyone has voted, no biasing the votes by seeing what people are voting one at a time.  I did have some challenges downloading the results at the end.  I got the numbers, at the bottle level, and at the vote level, but not who voted, what number.  There is a way to do it, and I finally figured it out, 3 months later, it’s not a very intuitive UI.   The results are displayed below.

The timing was reasonable, we started about 20-25 minutes late, not bad (if you’ve read our other tastings, its normally 30 min late.)  We finished in about 2 hours, nothing crazy short.  It ended quickly after all the bottles were drawn, that was a bit different, but many new players were involved in this tasting.  I’ve also heard rumours since the tasting, that it was me who ended it early…hmmm.

The Winners!

The winner was Pasote, with 8.3 (91/110) a clear winner over the group.  The next closest was Olmeca Altos with 7.3 (80/110).  A close 3rd was Arette with 7.2 (72/100), 4th was Fortaleza 7.0 (63/90).

So $$ for $$, the Pasote $50-$70, the Olmeca Altos is $45, and the Arette is $40 , Fortaleza is $115, and hard to find.

1st Place (8.3) $70 CAD/$42 USD

2nd Place (7.3)            $45 CAD/$25 USD

3rd Place (7.2) $40 CAD/$27 USD

The next Tasting is Feb 16th, 2023, our first Scotch tasting.  I thought I’d never do Scotch, but what do I know, I also thought I’d never do Gin tasting.

The Survey Results (# in cells, represents # of Votes)