A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to get a call from Julio Bermejo (tequila ambassador to the United States and owner of Tommy’s restaurant in SF) and was asked to help judge some extra anejo’s with NYC writer/mixologist Naren Young. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. A new category as recent as 2005, XA is aged 3 years and longer. Not too many people know what happens to tequila when it sits in a barrel longer than 3 years and is a category we are still learning a lot about. Yeah, Herradura Seleccion Suprema has been has been producing for almost fifteen years, and Jose Cuervo has done the Reserva de la Familia but it’s just recently we have seen an explosion of XA’s.
Michael Feil and Rebecca Chapa joined Julio, Naren and myself to blind taste 20 XA’s in a Riedel tequila glass. A Riedel glass is the only way to tackle this assignment. I was a little nervous that some of my favorites that I usually dabble in weren’t going to be my top rated but I had to trust my palate. It was truly enlightening to be tasting with these spirit professionals and found the education priceless.
Three hours later we had our scores and scored the tequilas very similar to the San Francisco Spirits Competition and gave medals, gold, silver, bronze, and “no medal”. There was a lot of discussion a comments but we all knew which ones were ”gold” and which ones needed some work.
Here are our top 5:
1. El Tesoro Paradiso ($125)
2. Don Julio Real ($365)
3. Fortaleza 5 year (Not Released yet)
4. Clase Azul Ultra ($1,5000)
5. Chinaco Negro lot 71 ($200)
There were a lot of tequilas, some of them a lot more expensive than others, but it’s not always the most priciest bottles that have the best stuff in it.
