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Well, it’s not the first time I’ve been the asshole… and it’d be money well-spent to bet that it’s also not the last time. But I have to recant a previous nasty review I gave to this tequila. Turns out I had a bad bottle. A really, really bad bottle of what I’ve recently rediscovered to be a really tasty tequila. So here I sit, El Presidente de Culos: I was too damn dumb to spot a tainted bottle when I drank one. So here’s to the power of trying again. I’m nothing if not tenacious when it comes to my booze. Call me Tenacious J.

And let me just say this: I am really happy that I gave this one another shot. And there’s a story behind that. Bear with me here.

See, the bottle I reviewed several months ago was So Bad that my first reaction on tasting it was along the lines of “what the hell is this stuff?!”, followed by a gag reflex, a Zero Point booze review (it didn’t even get points for having alcohol in it!) and then a BBQ in which the rest of the $50 bottle served as a shrimp marinade. I mean, I drank exactly 5 baby sips of it that night I wrote the review, then another 4 or 5 baby sips when asking others to tell me what they thought. So let me underscore this: it was So Bad that I didn’t drink the stuff. Now, you don’t know me, but let me just make something clear here: that’s reeeaaaally bad. You’re talking to a guy who considers spilled beer to be the highest form of alcohol abuse and has gladly licked it off the grubby outdoor beer pong table at my mother-in-law’s house, while she watched.

So in my review, which I’ve since recanted for sheer karmic reasons, I held out the idea that I could have encountered a tainted bottle, but said I was unwilling to shell out another $50 to find out. Well, I didn’t have to. Seems that the maker of this stuff is, among other things, a really good sport who clearly stands behind his product: he sent me not one, not two, but 3 bottles (añejo, reposado and blanco) of his prized hooch so that I could try again. This guy was so sure I’d like his agave juice that he willingly stepped into the ring for Round 2 of an extremely unfair fight.

Now, when I first got these bottles, I had myself a bit of a conundrum. I have to admit, I had the following conversation with myself:

Self: Shit. What if this stuff sucks again? This guy was nice enough to send it to me, he clearly believes it’s good stuff, but what if I have to tell him to his face next time that, no, it wasn’t a bad bottle, it just sucks. Can I do that and still think of myself as a decent human?

Other self: Fuck it. It’s tequila. Drink it. Bitch.

But, I’m really relieved to report that it’s really pretty good tequila. I’m going to go out on a limb here, hoping Señor Cielo hasn’t dropped rat poison into one of these bottles (as he should have), and say that his reposado might very well be one of the most interesting reposados I’ve had recently. But this review isn’t about the reposado, it’s about the añejo and me being a jackass. We’ll do the tasty reposado in another review.

So, in my new, happier opinion, almost everything the labeling says about the añejo is right on the money:

Decadent aroma of toffee, vanilla, perfume and rich brown spice. A super smooth entry leads to a rich dry-yet-fruity full-bodied palate with caramel, grilled tropical fruits, lavish brown spices and a touch of salt and pepper.

First off, this is a really distinct, unique tequila. It stands out in a crowd of top-shelf hooch.  Depending on your tastes, it might not stand out as your favorite, but it will stand out.

It’s got some nice layers going on up front, there’s not a ton of vanilla here, but I get the toffee and the spice, probably coming from the fact that they’ve aged this stuff in old whiskey, port and sherry barrels. Not a lot of new oak on the nose like some other añejos I’ve tried recently, so the nose is really balanced out with little hints of agave layered under the spice. I get the pepper at the end too, but can’t figure where the “grilled tropical fruits” bit comes from. I get the whiskey in there, without a doubt, which could be a problem for me (see my Jack Daniels review) and could kill the deal if I think about it too much. But that’s just me: I don’t much like Herradura either, and pretty much can’t handle whiskey in general anymore. But, where some añejos really let the oak mellow out the agave and subsequently layer up on the vanilla, this one manages to retain some piss and vinegar: it starts out nice and easy and then backs up so it can get a running start once it gets into your pie hole, where it proceeds to have a little piñata party on your tongue, busting open layers and layers of tequila goodness all over your face. Oops, I mean taste buds. Sorry for the porno reference. Freud would have some fun with that one, so I’ll let it stand.

So, OK. Points. For starters, this one gets 20 bonus points for having an owner who stands behind his product and truly believes it is the best it can be, despite what some asshole (me) says about it. I don’t think it ever occurred to him that someone could possibly dislike his tequila. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone disliking this stuff now either… unless they taste the tainted bottle I had originally (still gives me the shivers when I think about it). So I’m gonna give it another 90 points because it is what it says it is: I love it when the tasting notes on something match what I actually taste. Then I’m giving it another 10 points because it’s waaaaaay better than I expected it to be. But I have to deduct 25 for making me think about whiskey. Thanks to Jack Daniels and his cheatin’, lying ways, I can’t even think about whiskey without gagging. So what is that? Decent points?

**I should also note that I think I was extremely unlucky and that tainted bottles of this tequila are probably pretty rare, and that I should have probably just returned by bottle to the store where I got it. And believe me, you will KNOW if any tequila you ever get is tainted: this tequila is a really clear, fresh smelling tequila; yet my bad bottle smelled like formaldehyde.

***Added 2 months later*** Actually, it would appear that these guys may have an issue with consistency. Others I’ve talked to have crossed this one off their “buy” list after encountering lackluster or outright bad bottles.

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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