Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I tell people when they come to Indianapolis to DM me and we'll sit down at my bar and have a tequila. And in one of the Facebook groups, somebody heard me say that. And Stephen Garrett is in Indianapolis. And what are we doing?
[00:00:12] Speaker B: We're trying some tequila.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: We're having some tequila at the bar. And he brought. I mean, he brought some really good, amazing old dusty bottles here that I can't wait to try. And he has not had one of my favorite brands, this wonderful Vular Tequila.
So he. He hasn't really heard about Valar. And he said he loves the story behind tequila. So Velar is a brand made 15.99 Atanasio, right? Made by Renee Caranza.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Do you like me some 15.99?
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Oh, 1590 has got that nice, funky goodness, right?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: I like it.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: So one of the things they do is they have a foundation. Cristiana really wanted to give money back to Mexico. We all take from there, right? I feel like I take from there every day. Hospitality, food, their tequila, their agave.
So she made a brand that would actually give back. In the little town that's right where Atanasia is at, it's called San pedro los landeros.
10% of every bottle goes back to the Gente Buena foundation, which is in Spanish, is good people. And their goal was to bring running water to everybody in the town because nobody had running water. It was delivered to them when they were home.
And this Christmas, it was two years ago August, that it started. This Christmas, the last cistern was installed. Now 71 people all have running water in this town because of what Christiana did with this tequila.
And they make love a noble cause. They make a fantastic tequila, too. I guess I'm not strong enough to open the bottle today. So this is their high proof. This is the first high proof that she ever did. This is from their batch number two. Batch number one is a little bit available, sold out at the importer level, but there's people that still have it on the shelves.
Batch 2 is completely sold out. Batch 3 is currently being made. And this wonderful high proof sold out right away. So it's very hard to find them. Now it's sold out from the importer level. So you still could find distributors that have it, you still could find stores that have it. But if the store runs out and they want to order more, too bad it's gone. So you'll have to dive into that. And then I can't wait to try this tequila right here. Espalone.
Like I used to see When I see Espalone in the store, I say, espalone, leave it alone. Right, That's.
But this goes all the way back to like the Jake Lustig world, right? The original Espalone. Jake forces the owner of the art they nom.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: I found that in a tiny little Mercado tucked away in the very back corner. And just goes to show, if it's not a state controlled market, you can
[00:02:41] Speaker A: find old man, you.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: You gotta hit those gas stations, you gotta hit the little markets because you just never know what you'll find.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: And what state did you find this in?
[00:02:49] Speaker B: In St. Louis, where I live.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: So I need. I need to come to St. Louis and go bottle hunting.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: I don't. I don't know how much you'll find left, but we could give it a go.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: And I like that you used the Fortaleza cork in there.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, usually the Fortaleza cork spray.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: I know I was gonna say it. Sometimes not the best cork to use. Right.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: That one was a good one.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: So what'd you think of that so far? Did you like the nose on it?
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just letting it open up.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Yeah, because that's a fresh crack too. I actually popped that whole bottle.
Ooh, wow, that's nice.
This is going to sound weird, but that actually smells old. Like it has that. I call it the busty, the musty barrel smell. When you walk into a barrel room, you know, you have that like wood must smell. I definitely have that there.
Do you know. Do you have an idea of what year this is from?
[00:03:49] Speaker B: It's been a while since I did the research on it because I've had those bottles for so long.
I want to say 2005 ish. Okay.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Nice earthiness to it too. It's got a nice citrus note to it. Once you. Once I got past that old smell, I get like opening up into agave citrus.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: The old school aroma and flavor profiles. Definitely.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: Yes. It definitely is.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: For sure.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: There's nothing old about that one.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Now this is nice.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: So, Indiana, we are not known as a great tequila state or great agave state.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: We're growing, we're trying to make it better.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: But I, I hear you found some nice bottles while you were in town.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: I've scored copious amounts of Altosaur olive oil bottles. Yes.
Honestly, they're personally my. My all time favorite 40 ABV tequilas. They really are the early stuff.
The early lots, like 2005, 2007, that era. Like, I mean, they're just. They're just sensational.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: So what's your agave story? When did you start drinking tequila?
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Um, well, when I started drinking it and when I started drinking good tequila, a little bit of a time lapse there, but actually used to, used to be in a, in a business with a guy, we would go out, he would get everybody pickleback shots, and I was like, and I don't even really need the pickle juice.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: This, that's pretty, it's good. Yeah.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: And so then I bought a couple bottles to try it at home and just kind of developed a taste for it. And then, you know, I don't really do hobbies lightly. Like when I get into something, I, I, I dive in.
Huh. I got got.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: We have something in common.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I got on the social media groups and, you know, I posted up some stuff that I brought from, back from Mexico actually one year. And, you know, I thought I like, brought back some really good stuff. You know, everybody in the groups is very quick to tell me otherwise. And so I was like, okay. So I, I learned what added a free tequila was and what traditionally made tequila was, and I went out and bought a bottle of Code Rosa that weekend, and I was like, okay, this is definitely better than what I've had. Yeah. And then the second bottle I bought was actually Fortaleza Reposado. At the time where I lived, you could walk right in.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Can't do that no more.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: You could walk right into any good liquor store in town and grab a bottle off the shelf or msrp. And that was like the first great tequila I had. And like, once I had it, I was like, you know, it was like that, that moment I was like, yeah. I was like, okay, this is the way, the truth and the light. And you know, I've been drinking it, enjoying it ever since.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: There's no baptism, like, like the baptism of showing a bottle and all things tequila and thinking you have something good.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Definitely B. Being baptized by fire, for sure. This is amazing, by the way.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: You love it.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: I'm really surprised at how delicate it is for a high proof.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And I don't think. No, it's really, it's approachable. It's got flavor to it.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: It's very well rounded, very well balanced.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Well, you know, Christiana, she's got great taste. And Renee makes great tequila.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Tequila.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: So clearly he's amazing. This right here, I, I want to find bottles of this and buy it. This is amazing old school tequila.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: It's, it's delicious. I haven't visited it in a while, but yeah, it's delicious.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Well, I want to say thanks for letting me visit it because.
Wow, that's good. Now you, you gave another one for me to visit that I've never even seen before.
Familiar with the Distillery 1079 and actually know the master distiller that would have made this or at least been a part of this, Juan Lopez.
So I can't wait to taste this. But then I have something to throw at you that is pretty amazing too. This is a cascanes and do you know how to say it properly? Roots. What's it called? The Jungle Juice. There's a name to that that I say.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Oh, no, I don't. I just call it Jungle Juice.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: So one thing really cool about this, it actually is the first one to ever be first agave spirit to ever be scored a 100 by like wine and spirits.
So it just won like a huge award which is a really big deal for it. So this is actually batch two of the Jungle Juice. This is coming directly off the still as it's being made out there in the jungle with Umberto.
So it, it is. We guessed that it was pretty high. Wayne, a drink with Wayne. Wayne tested it and it was right around 70% alcohol. So you do your pour on that however that you want.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: We'll go, we'll go light.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: It is hot, it is tasty and it is very jungly. So tell me a little bit about this brand. I, I know nothing about this brand.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: I didn't really unearth a great deal of history on this brand. I do almost maybe recall seeing that they may have actually been a reposado only.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Okay. Repo only brand.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: I'm happy to be proven wrong on that. I know they are clearly hand blown glass. Beautiful bottle, Beautiful bottle.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Very cool the way it's frosted and shaped. That's pretty cool.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: And I kind of, I had, I have a habit of like whenever I go to a new city and obviously hunt for old bottles, I usually score on the very first stop.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: No shit.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Maybe not on any after that never works on the very first stop. And this was one of those.
We, we were going to Chicago for a show and there was something we wanted to do the day before that was kind of a little on the outskirts. So we got a place I think in like Joliet or something kind of off by the airport.
And I remember on the way in like the night before we checked in, the night that we checked in, I saw a little hole in the wall liquor store, which, you know, they're usually the best ones for the little Dusties. I was like, okay. I was like, before we check out and drive out tomorrow, I gotta get this door up and I walk in there and you know, you do this long enough, you see a bottle like that, you're like, hmm, that looks promising.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: So I picked it up and once I saw 1079, I just, I just picked them all up and I carried them.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Did you buy more than one of these?
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I bought like four bottles. My next to last ones.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: For people that don't know 1079 today there's tequilas coming out of there like musto or like in sueno. That today is nom 1580.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:10:22] Speaker A: this smells fruity.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: This smells punchy.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: This is fruity.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: And again, musty.
A little old school profile.
Do you have an idea of what year as you take a mouthful of the hottest you've put in your mouth in a while?
[00:10:50] Speaker B: It's great.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: I don't think it is that hot for, for 70%. Yeah, I mean,
[00:10:58] Speaker B: I mean it's, it's not beginner friendly certainly, but.
Oh, it's great.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: It's not beginner friendly. Like here, let me give you 140 proof Jungle Juice to get started in your agave journey.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not the transition bottle.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: No, it's not at all. You know, I think it's fantastic.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: No, I love it.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: But it is definitely someone who has to have a palate to be able to taste through, you know, the heat that is there and to appreciate the, the, the gave that's in that thing because it's delicious to me.
And we were drinking it right off the still.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: It's got some great grassy, green, earthy, funky notes going on, but not like 1137 levels of funk.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Yep, it's, you know, decent funk.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: It's, yeah, it's very nice.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: This is fruity. This is floral, fruity cooked agave. There's.
Have you tried it yet? Yeah, yeah, I just took a little sip. While you were, while you were diving into that heat. When I was asked, I was going to ask you, as you took a drink, do you know what year this came out?
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Approximately, I believe that bottle is from. Approximately.
Again, happy to be proven wrong.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Well, here's the thing about doing videos, okay. Somebody will come on and tell you if you're wrong. Hey, you know, it's amazing.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: I, I okay with being humbled.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: I love the comments. Bring them on, please. You know, I don't get mad, so this is crazy. I, I know it's 1580, so maybe it's in my brain, I pick up cinnamon in the finish.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: It's been so long since I've. Since I've like visited. Honestly, I definitely remember it being.
It is definitely naturally sweet.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Naturally sweet.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: It is definitely got a sweeter, more robust flavor profile.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: That you don't get. I think honestly of a lot of modern day reposados. A lot of them tend to be, at least in my opinion, like, cleaner and crisper, which is okay. I. I appreciate those too. That is beginner friendly.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Very much so. But it's also not like it's not woody.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: No.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: It's not like okie forward. Like some. Like a reposado that dark you think would be. I mean, it's kind of a dark repo.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: It is.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: But the. There's a cinnamon note in the finish of that to me, which hints back to like a Musto or in Suo that I get from, you know, modern day 1580. I did just get the opportunity to taste this, which is love, though. Oh, I just almost broke the rest of the clay. The clay or the clay? The wax got broken.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: I still actually have a lot.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Do you really?
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Blancos, reposados. I even have the anejos, which I think are.
I think they're technically extra. Yes.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: No kidding.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: I think so.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I. I got to drink this with. With Juan, the master distiller at 1643. 43 El Savino is actually in the backyard of 1580.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: You almost can walk to it. When you go to 1643, you go down a mile and a half long road to get back to the distillery. And then when you get there, they go, oh, you could have came from 1580s right there. It's like a whole back way.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: It's like walk through the backyard.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: So, you know, they all work pretty close together. Juan's doing a lot with them to help them.
This is reminiscent of this.
Now what I had of this one was a lot lighter, I think I
[00:14:20] Speaker B: was about to say. I definitely think I remember this reposado being overall a little lighter.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it was much lighter. Like, this has way more like.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: I would love to know how long this was aged for because I mean, it is. It's borderline and yeho in and flavor and character.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: But you know, it could have been a really charred barrel too, that lent more to the bottle and not as much, you know, time.
Dude, thanks for bringing some great bottles.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thanks for having me, man.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: This is fun. Again, I say it all the time. If you're in the Annapolis area and you want to come have a drink. A bar.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: He delivered.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And I let you pick, like, anything off there, right?
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: And one of the things he did get to have today, which I'm pretty excited about. We'll talk about it again. Coming out May 2nd.
The Yayo Mission, 1530. A tequila with a purpose. A tequila is helping out.
You're a lover of the Yay.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: I love Yayo. Yeah.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: And that's another great one. Make sure you look for it at Sip Tequila coming up for sale on May 2nd.
Stephen, thanks, dude. Thanks for coming.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Pleasure.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: I'm glad that your company had a function in Indianapolis. Me too.
Cheers, guys. Have a great night.
