Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Have you ever wondered why some barrel aged tequilas taste elegant, refined, and others taste like somebody just dumped some bourbon barrel on top of tequila? Today, we're going to review the palador toasted series, the French medium reposado. And what makes this tequila unique isn't just the tequila itself. It's also the wood. This bottle is part of Palador's experimental toasted series and was produced by the legendary ordine family at NOM 1109, the historic Arete Distillery. The tequila starts with 100% Blue Weber cooked agave and traditional brick oven. It goes through a roller mill for extraction and then fermented in open air pine vats utilizing wild and a proprietary yeast. It is then twice distilled. And this is aged in French oak barrels that are naturally seasoned for 24 months before they even receive the toast. Now, before we dive into the tasty notes and open this bottle up, let's talk about why french oak matters. Because that's where things do get a little bit interesting. Most tequilas are aged in American oak barrels, usually used bourbon or whiskey barrels. American oak tends to be very bold and expressive. It gives us flavors like vanilla, caramel, coconut, brown sugar, and sometimes some heavy baking spices. If you're into bourbon forward tequila, then there's a good chance American oak is where you want to stay. French oak has a tighter grain structure than American oak. Because of that, the interaction between the tequila and the wood happens more slowly and more delicately. Instead of a huge vanilla coconut note, French tends to be more refined flavors. Think dried fruits, subtle baking spices, roasted nuts. Instead of dominating the tequila, French oak often works alongside the agave. And then you just add a medium toast. Think of this. A heavy charred barrel can create some smoky compounds, caramelization, and an aggressive barrel influence. A medium toast focuses more on developing natural compounds inside the wood itself. It means more complexity, potentially more spice or fruit, and an integration with the wood that doesn't overpower the tequila itself. The goal isn't to make tequila taste like whiskey. It's to elevate the tequila. So let's see if paladar hold it off. As you see, this is a fresh pop here. And I'm using the. The nice glass of in glass.
[00:02:06] Wow, this does have a nice color to it. Now, one of the things they do to increase the color and the time to get it to look like this with a short resting period to make the sereposado, they actually have all of the barrel that the, that the tequila goes into, but they also add some extra staves inside so you have more contact with the wood than you do just the barrel. So let's dive into this thing and see what we get on the nose. I do get the kota gabi, but I also get a lot of like a stone fruit. I get a little bit of an oaky note. I almost get some like red berries, like maybe raspberry note in there. There's maybe a touch of vanilla and there is a little bit of a floral note on the top of the glass that I really like too. So this one seems pretty cool. And I have to say, I do like French oak with tequila sometimes more so than American. Let's take a taste of this one. First note, cop the second note. Oak like that French oak.
[00:02:56] Woody taste is there. That's really nice. Develops into some nice fruit like the stone fruit that I smelled. Maybe a hint of raspberry. There's a, a really nice spicy ness that's a hint of cinnamon. And then it just kind of heats up as, as the pepper comes in in the finish. So a nice cooked agave, nice red fruit, stone fruit and really nice barrel spices. I've had the other ones. I've done the American medium. I've tasted the French reserve plus plus so far, all three of them have been different. This one, I have to say, I think I like it more than the American medium because it does give you more of this woody a note, this oak note. But also the red fruits are really nice. Let's take one more taste that one. The coke agave is kind of blended with a really nice minerality in that wood. The fruitiness kind of went away in the first palate, the first part of the palate, but it comes back near the mid to finish of the palate. I get some like apricot and some, I'm going to say raspberry, but some kind of fig as well. This one's going to open up and change like every time. So there's a lot of flavors. The finish is long to the oaky sweetness and spice just kind of lingers there. This is a fantastic tequila. Now one thing that's important is throughout this entire experience, it still tastes like tequila. That minerality is there, that agave is there. Like that's really, really cool. And it's something I really appreciate about what Pete did. What Pete did. Putting this together with Eduardo Ordine and making a really neat project of these different toasted series. If you are looking for a tequila that you can really get into the wood and not lose the influence of the agave and the tequila taste itself. Check it out. This is part of a collaboration with the Tequila Report More where multiple reviewers have done each one of the Palador Toasted series. And I really tell you, go check it out. Read through the reviews because each one of us is going to pick up different notes. Each one of our palates are a little bit different, and we each did a different one of these tequilas. So go check it out. For me, this bottle is one that I'm going to just sit and sip on. That's why I did it out of my glass. Glass. It's just sometime proof that great barrel influence can be there and still make it taste like tequila and make it unique. So I hope you're drinking some good tequila tonight. Cheers. Have a great night.
