Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, guys, tonight I have a real treat. We are going to sit down and talk to Master Tecalero Jose Valdez, the guy in charge of Tequila Partida. And he's going to talk about the relationship to Macallan Scotch and this absolutely amazing Tequila. He's going to talk about their whole process, his story of how he got into tequila and what the magic is behind making this great brand. So stick around, I think you'll love it.
Jose, I am so excited to have you here today to talk about your fantastic tequila and to go through the process. How are you doing today?
[00:00:51] Speaker B: I'm doing pretty well. Thank you for having me, Brad, Today in your show.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: I'm so excited to share with all of the listeners and people who watch about Tequila Partida. Partita is such a well known name and family throughout all of Tequila that I'm excited to hear the stories and if you could tell everybody a little bit about you and what you do and let them know what your like position is.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Of course. My name is Jose Valdez.
My position is the general manager of Tequila Partida and Maestro Tequila of the brand. I create the products, all the products that Tequila Partida has and I have literally tasted every single batch of every production of Tequila Partida.
My position is to be the guardian of the quality and consistency of the product as well as the supply chain and distribution in Mexico and since 2022, global company that is available in 110 countries.
The brand. 100 the brand.
And I continue working with this group in markets in other countries such as China, recently Europe, in Benelux and obviously we are in America and in Mexico and we are trying to open also kind of.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know you were that global. I. I knew that you were a huge brand, but that's, that's really exciting.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Is not huge, to be honest. Actually, Lucas Ball is not a massive company. It's not obviously one of the top global spirit brands in the world. I don't know in which position we are, but it's public company. So the last year we sold 100 million euros which is not super, super big company compared to what we with Edrington. We were partnered with Edrington one time.
They own part of our company in 2017-2022 for five years.
Now this company, Eddington is bigger. No, it's a million euros. So 10 times more than Lucas Ball. But the difference is Lucas Ball is such a small employee company. So we are in total around 70 people globally, most of them in America. Because it's the only organization in the country that there. There is a sales organization around 40 people. And then the rest is in the corporation in the Netherlands and Amsterdam. And here my team is. We are nine people in Mexico.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: That's a lot of hardworking people to get this product in all of those countries. That's. That's really amazing.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it's a perfect fit of Tequila Partida that we learn how to optimize the resources to keep the quality.
So instead of running our distillery that at the very early stage we did that, we rented the distillery of La Familia Partira in Caso. And when we became our own producer, Casa Partira official producer in those years 078 a couple of years that we became our own producer.
And suddenly we noticed that the business of running a distillery is different than running a brand. Running a distillery is like a. It's like an airplane. You have to keep it flying all the time if you want to be productive. And whether it's your brand or is other brands or any production for, you know, in distillers, you can produce mult tequila for other distilleries. It's allowed by the law. And many distilleries don't run the distillery 100% all the time to. To save the cost. No. So we decided to move to another distillery in tequila after let's say three years of the early stage, from 2005 to 2008, 9. Then we started since that year with. With another distillery that they produce. But we have our team in the distillery and we supervise and control every step of the production to control the quality and consistency.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Tell everybody a little bit about your journey in tequila. How did you end up in the tequila business?
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Well, I think has been 20 years when I get involved in Tetequila. I study engineering in a local university in Guadalajara. And I was always fascinated about the spirits and especially tequila, because it's a product that cannot be produced out of certain territory in Mexico and that represent Mexico. So I have a trip outside of Mexico. I learned that not many good tequilas were available in many countries, even in the US in those year, only, let's say two premium brands. No, in those years it was only Patron and Don Julio, but no more options. And you walk into a liquor store nowadays, 20 years ago, you see all the additive freeze, all the celebrity, all the corporation, all the. And you have like value tequila, like premium, like super premium, ultra premium. And I think the founder, the investor, the main investor of Partira saw that vision. Gary Shansby and he said, I think it's a good opportunity to build a premium brand different than the current couple brands that are in America and non brand in Europe, non brand in Asia.
So that was the vision and the early, yeah, the early idea of making tequila.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: So did you grow up around tequila and the industry as a child?
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Correct? Well, I was in my 22 when I started getting interested in the tequila industry and started visiting distilleries and learning about tasting and taking courses. But officially was on to 2005 when I have a couple of years graduated as an engineer and I met Gary and I met Sofia Partida and both have this project to create this high quality tequila. No additives since day one, no shortcuts to represent the, the good tequila from the Valley.
And, and yeah, I was, I didn't know, I didn't know anything technical about the tequila in those years. So I learned. The first way I learned was doing practicing is very costly because every batch of of tequila production is a lot of agave, a lot of energy, a lot of process.
But I was super lucky that I met my mentor, a guy that worked for a big brand of tequila for 40, 45 years. And he retired, retired from this company.
And after the non competing years he was able to be an advisor and he was my personal coach and advisor how to learn about the tequila but more importantly how to manage the process and the team to run a distillery. And I think I learned from him. I also learned, I took course courses available all the courses available in those years. I took the CRT multiple courses with different universities with the Teso related to the exportation of tequila. Then I took the diploma and Technico Tequila which is Tequilero Technical, which were the basis to make a master in Master Maestro Tequila with the University Autonomous of Guadalajara and the crta. So I took that course as well. I took another seminar with Jaime Villalobos. Jaime Villalobo's no, Jaime Villa logos, no, Jimmy, his father.
He's very well known in the industry because he knows a lot and he educate you about the history about the.
Not too technical, but I would say more of the background and the, you know, history of the Mayahuel and the Mezcal and the tequila and all the Gaba spirit. And yeah, a lot of it was very fun. Also with Ana Maria Romero I took several courses. Maria Romero wrote this book that is called Los Aromas Tequila Tequila Romas. And she also is an advisor for many brands and Maestra Tequila for many brands. I think the one that I recall the last one is Mi genta and general or something like that. So she's very involved. So I took courses literally within those year at the very stage with all the available people.
Because in those years it was. It was very difficult to get the information and courses like nowadays it's very easy. After Covid and all the I E I and the social media and the cell phones in the 20 years ago. No, everything was very like old fashioned and the industry was very jealous. So the maestros Tequila. He was very old and they don't want to share anything. He was very jealous because they. I don't blame them because they pay their life working in a. You know, let's say implementation. So all the research and practica they put in place the there it was literally their knowledge. They're. They're part of their. Yeah their experience and sometimes they don't want to share. So when I hired this guy, his name is Benjamin. So Benjamin shared to me, wow. Like a lot of thing but more importantly a methodology to learn methodology of continuous improvement and listen the team and follow the numbers and be more scientific rather than romantic and feelings.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: So as a master distiller, what is your favorite part of the process?
[00:10:58] Speaker B: I believe I personally enjoy eating the Cuca Gabbard. That's. That's what I. That's what I enjoy most.
And also I noticed when I tasting with the. With Francisco which is the quality manager of the distillery and sometimes other guys at the distilleries we taste and that's when we listen others and say what do you think about the profile of this cook agave? What I enjoy most is that. But also that is a specific point. What I enjoy is to see the whole picture, you know, like okay, this batch is going to be let's say 5,000 cases, which is 20, 20,000 liters. So how many, how much agave we need? Okay, we need 100 tons of agave. Okay. So that's, that's five trucks. Where can we find. Okay, so the scouting of the agave takes us a lot of time because we are extremely picky, if you will. No, very strict in the. In the quality and the consistency. It was tough last year and the last three years because the shortage of the agave right now not that tough because obviously there are more options of agave supplier. We don't own agave. So we go normally with brokers and with the distillery also they have their own brokers. But we need to approve the quality of the Gabby. So we, Francisco and I need to need to make sure that the gave that is in the paper, in the Ghia, as we call the crt, is really the year that that represent visually. So we prove what the paper is saying, that is actually that the plant represent that quality, that age. And then we measure the sugar, watching the whole process from the scouting of the garden. Then everyday harvesting. We have the rule of 24 hours of harvesting and start the cooking after less than 24 hours to capture the.
The freshness of the Garber. And then do a slow cooking like 24 hours in autoclave, less than 90 Celsius degree. Normally higher pressure, higher temperature and a shorter period of time, like six, seven hours. We do it in 24 hours, normally 16 hours to 18 hours of steam. Then the rest of the night is without the steamboat close. Then in the Morning, guys, at 7am Open the autoclaves and start the milling. Then the water that we use in the milling is what we call volcanic water because it's a well around 100 meters the depth.
And the expert says that takes a couple of decades or more years to natural filtrate that draining water.
So we extract that water, we mill that, we extract the juices with that water using that water.
And then the fermentation is completely open, completely natural.
Many branches that only use agave yeast and water. We only use agave water. We don't use east. The yeast is from the environment and from the agave. And after the fermentation, yeah, the distillation is also very important. It's crucial. I like also to walk in the fermentation and smell in different stages of the fermentation. Like at the very stage is very east.
And then in the middle is more like a fruity and milky, if you will. At the end we don't go with the second fermentation with the malolactic. So it's only one fermentation that takes at least three days. That's the time that the minimum we control with natural propagation and inoculation. But we don't use any champagne wine or red yeast. It's completely natural from the Gabriel.
And yeah, the distillation is crucial because we measure the methanol and the superior alcohol from the first batch we call parada. So the first parada, we take the sample of the. Let's say we produce 1200 liters in the first batch. So we take a sample of that, send to the lab, to the chromatography lab to see, to measure how much methanol and super alcohol have us. And based on that with we either cut more heads and tails, but also the process is very visual. So you see when the heads and tails because of the color of the liquid, that is the right moment. Also we measure the alcohol volume and temperature. So we have our method, our team. Obviously I cannot be 24 7, so I have a team at the distillery. And then the aging part is also good.
Answering your question. Yeah. Is the Coca Cola what I enjoy most? Because I tasted many.
And also to. To, let's say the project of every production. I see like a project. Okay, this project, guys, we select. We. We work hard for three, four weeks that this is the result and ended with a tasting. So everyone tastes and say, hey, this batch is amazing, or this batch is not super. It was better the gabbit that what I expect in the liquid. We are very tough, you know, and very critical and try to be objective with the blind testing as well.
So I enjoyed that process that involve the people and see the result of hard work and the perfection. Obviously there's not perfection. I mean, not there's no perfect product, but in a perfection product process every batch. So right now we have produced more than 250 batches in 20 years. And like I said, I have tried and I have lead 10 got every single production and bottling batch.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: Wow, that's. That's awesome. So.
So when you guys are doing the harvesting, I know that some places will cut the pinkas all the way down and shave. Shave the pina a little bit closer. Some places leave an inch or 2 inches of pinka to change that flavor profile a little bit. Are you guys going with a little bit more of the pinka on the pina than shaving it all the way down?
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Yeah, to be honest, it has been a learning process for us.
At the very beginning of Partita in 2005, 2006, I was, you know, recently graduated and I was literally taking like every.
No, every production process, like very strict and very. Without flexibility. We said, okay, we wanted the kid agave completely white like jicama at the beginning. But then we realized that if we have longer lives, we're going to have a little more different profile. Like different.
More herbal, more mineral, more different profile at the end.
And if we leave like long, long leaves, it's going to be a problem. The problem is the methanol because less sugar is in the leaves, so that generate methanols in the fermentation. And also the flavor is a little bitter, bitter tequila than the sweeter, because the sweeter part is in the. In the center of the plant. So we decided to do like a policy, general policy. That is no longer than 2 centimeters, which is 1 inch, not 2 inches is 1 inch. So we don't want completely white. So we go back and say, no, we. We made a mistake. Instead of making completely white at the beginning, which is good, but is lack of personality and flavor in my mind.
So we want more.
More leaves, but not too much leaves, like no longer than 1 inch or 2 centimeters.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: I kind of wondered because I. I do pick up a little more of a. A clean freshness of agave. Where some tequilas, it's all just. Just that cooked agave and. And then some tequilas, you get that herbal and that vegetal cleanness that. Where you can kind of taste like a. I always say it's like. Like when you just crack open a celery stick, you know, and you can smell that celery and it's really bright that I get that bright taste in your flavor. So that's why I, I wondered if there was a little more pinka on there, because I get a really good vegetal clean taste out of that. I really like it.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: That's. That's the purpose, actually. But to have a tequila partida blanco that represent the fresh agave. The protagonist here is the fresh agave. Obviously you cook the agave and that tastes like a caramel or a sweet potato, which is super nice. It's sweet beer. But the green part that, you know, the experience of being in agave field, I bet you being in agave field. So when you harvest, when the himador harvest, that is, smell that like, you know, recently cut the leaves, that freshness, we want to be in every sip of the.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I completely pick that up. When I. That's one of the things. When I very first tried your brand, I was like, wow, I get such a clean, fresh agave flavor. So from there, are you doing low pressure autoclave and then using a roller mill for your extraction process?
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Correct. We use the roller mirror. We don't use tahona.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: And then stainless steel. Is that for your. Is that what you're using for open fermentation?
[00:20:33] Speaker B: Yes. Stainless steel tanks open?
Yeah, basically.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: And then what are you using for your stills? Or copper?
[00:20:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a stainless steel pot steel. The outside and inside the coil is made out of copper.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Gotcha. So stainless steel.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: And you mentioned clean breath. That surprised me because many, over the years, many people mentioned our tequila blanco is clean. He's a very. We say in the Spanish Franco which is very frank. No. Tell you what you're drinking. No, it's not carrying anything.
And the second word that people say is the clean. And I think cleanness come from the garden, but also the stainless steel that we are mentioning in the whole process. Because the autoclaves is a stainless steel. Many people think, okay, all the autoclaves is stainless steel. Not necessary. There are autoclaves that are made of stainless steel. Steel. Okay, so not stainless steel. It's not as clean as that. It's more like a metallic mechanical, if you will.
So everything that is in contact with our. With the agave during the production process of tequila partida is a stainless steel autoclave. The milling roller. Milling, roller mill. The stainless steel fermentation and the hot steel.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: So after you're done with distillation, are you doing any kind of resting before it goes to bottling?
[00:22:04] Speaker B: Two things that is very different. What we do in the distiller, and I learned this in a very early stage, the heads and tails. First of all, we don't reuse the heads and tails. This is a common practice in the industry. Heads and tails are sended back to fermentation. Right. Because you don't want to lose alcohol. But we. I do believe that if you send the heads and tails back to the process, you are. You're not discharging what you think is not good for the product. So you, you basically are putting back and trying to separate again at the end. And. But you are not really separated. And actually, distillation is. Separation is. That's. That's the definition of the distillation.
So what we do is we don't reduce heads and tails. What we do basically is to separate both. In the destro samiento, which is the first distiller distillation and rectification. In the second distillation, we separate both heads and tails, and those are treated separately to distill and is used for the distillery, for other products. Not the same quality of partida, not the premium is not puro corazon, as we said. No. The purocorazon is the heart of the distillation.
And once the distillation is done, we put the tequila, we filter. Not activated carbon, just filter. A cellulose filter just to retain, to clean the tequila. And we leave it in a stainless steel for one month without movement. One month. Because we believe in the stabilization in that moment, then we have another stabilization. When we put the water, when we measure, when we cut to the proof or the alcohol by volume, we again, we Leave it at least one month in a stainless steel without.
Yeah.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: It's amazing how we've taken a plant from the ground and within a couple of days of harvesting it, we've turned it into this crazy awesome liquid. And to have it rest and let those molecules figure out what they are again, I think that's important. I think a lot of great tequila is rested like that. Yeah.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Our. Our process takes from the agave to be the still around seven to 10 days. But to be in the bottle is a little longer because the stabilization process.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Sure. Now, is this the blanco, the same tequila that's going in your repo and your anejo?
[00:24:27] Speaker B: Correct. So for us is crucial to make a super good blanco. Every batch of blanco, we.
We put all of our effort to choose the best cab and then to a compound to monitorate the all the process until we have the base, which is Blanco at 55.
And we have two options to bottle as blanco. Then we put the water or start the aging process to become reposado, anejo or extra anejo.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: So for your regular anejo, extra anejo and reposado, what are you aging that tequila in?
Like your standards?
[00:25:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, again, Brad has changed over the year. Everything has changed because for instance, the agave.
20 years ago, our average agave age was nine years. That means that we have agaves of 10 or 11 years and agave of seven and eight years. But average it was nine years. Nowadays it's impossible to get an agave of those years of that age.
And the same with the aging. I think the quality of the bourbon virals has changed. I'm not saying that it's bad has changed. I think the extraction of the bourbon in the barrels has changed. And therefore the extraction and the natural coloring extraction of the blanco from the barrel is taking a little longer and is weaker in color and in flavor than 20 years ago. 20 years ago we aged Reposado six months. Exactly six months. And we have like an amazing color. Nowadays we have to wait a year and it's not even 80% of the color that we get of 60 of 6, 6 months. No.
So what we do is to blend sometimes with solera, an extra niejo that a barrel that has more than six years and we put liquid on that to increase in a natural way the color or we don't care and we say, okay, this batch is going to be a little lower and it's okay for years. We try to match all the color, all the time in a natural way. But I would say, I think in the last few years, we said, okay is what it is. And we cannot. We cannot control that. And even we got for more than a year in the reposado, we're not going to gain the same color that we used to because the barrel cannot give you that to the tequila.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Sure. She's kind of given up a little bit. Are you using American oak for your normal barrel process?
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Yes, American oak, medium toast charge, I think is four, 200 liters used with bourbon.
Normally three years.
We like to work with bourbon brands that has a high content of corn like Mashville with 80 corn like Jack Daniels. And that's what we like to use. But we are not with only one brand. We use several brands. Jim Beam, Heavenly Hill, Knob Creek for Roses. Many, many other brands we have used over the years.
But yeah, that's. That's what we're trying to. To get like a sweet bourbono. 80% at least. 80% corn.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Very good. Okay. I would love to know about this little logo here. Yeah, it's hooked to the bottles and then on the top of the robofina. So can you tell me a little bit about that?
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Of course. We call the spirit bird. And it's is the marriage between the traditional Mexican history with the modern. With the modernity. There is a story that we have this story that we created about our logo.
That is a religion story. Sorry, sorry. That the goddess. The goddess like Mayahuel gave us the tequila, give us the agave. But we didn't humans how to make a spirit. So they sent a messenger and is the spur bird. It was an eagle that. That discovered the nectar of the. Of the cave and bring that nectar to the. To the people, to the village. And people discovered that nectar fermented. And they, you know, regular people, worker people that suffered. Everyone suffer in certain way have a pain relief in a. In a natural way of this cabinet nectar. Which is related also with the.
With the Mexican story that, you know, the. The goddess. The indigenous goddess. No, we see cuichilo, bosley and yeah, it was a plant. And this plant was burned with the thunder and it was cooked. So it's related, it's mythological, but also is created part of the story.
And if you ever go to Mexico City to the anthropologist history museum, you're gonna find a lot of stone animals like jaguars and also eagle. And you're gonna find this shape of the spur bird, which we were inspired by the Mayan and by the Aztecs indigenous about this bird.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Wow, that's very Cool. I love coming to Mexico. I've been going to Mexico for 20 plus years and coming to Guadalajara and going to Tequila and of course around us and Atatanico and all of the region where we visited. The people are so amazing. Mexicans don't realize how amazing you guys are. You're amazing people. You're. You're welcoming and you're sweet and the tradition is rich. And you know, I was. It's weird to say because I'm not from there, but every time I come back to Mexico it's. I look at my wife and I'm like, I like feel, feel like I'm home. Like it's so refreshing to be there and to learn these different traditions and all of the different symbols I think is really cool. From the churches in your squares to the symbols and the traditions throughout the towns and how, how tradition kind of can, you know, kind of reigns. True. People stick to their traditions and their families and I, I just think that's just amazing. So I salute you for being so amazing all the time, every time we come.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Thank you, Brad. I think you're absolutely right. And sometimes we don't realize how lucky we are with tradition, history, products and hospitality.
I would say vocation or call that we have in our genes. Because until you go outside and you see other culture, that they appreciate your culture more than you, that's when you realize that, wow, there's all people or Mexican people that go and live outside and they miss this. No, there we have all relatives living in LA or in Chicago, in New York, in Florida, say hey, I want to go to downtown Guadalajara and see the churches and I wanna, you know, I wanna just hang out and go to restaurant or just have a family party. And you said because we don't have this, you know, I don't have friends that have this kind of celebration and this dia de los Muertos and this family gathering and these weddings and these churches event and religious and this product. No. And this welcome that you can be welcome. I have been lucky to live in three cities in Mexico and every city is the same people is very open in some places more than other. But in general people is very open, very friendly. It's part of amazing of what I have been in this industry for so many years and I expect to be more years. Because you shared your happiness. Basically no experience with all the brands of tequila. Especially if it's brands that, that you put effort to do additive free. Not because it's a slogan or marketing slogan, because it took you more to make this tequila. It took you more time, more resources, more effort, and people are appreciating these the moment they're drinking and the day after. No, to avoid the hangover or to feel well because they trust that the quality is way better because it's not, you know, nothing artificial that is going to hurt your, your body.
But yeah, thank you, thank you for the compliment. I, I, every time that I received this compliment is like, yeah, I feel very proud of being Mexican and I, I, I'm thanking enough the, the tourist people that come and help us to build this, this industry.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I've, I've never been welcomed into a group and felt like family so quickly and so easily with the people that I've gone and met. So let's talk about this because I, I was really surprised when these show up and I want to say thank you very much for sending these to me. And like I, I told you off camera, I've tasted them. As soon as they got here, I let them rest a little bit. They instantly moved up to one of my favorite repos that I've ever had and one of the best flavored anejos. And I actually redesigned the bar for them to go to the top of the bar in the center and remove some other tequila from there because this is absolutely amazing. So if you could tell a little bit of what we did here to make this repo and this on Yeho and you know, get the story behind this a little bit.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: Of course. This is a, it's a very nice story and super, super lucky and proud to be part of the Roble Fino development and promotion. Rob Lefino After 15 years of perfecting tequila, Partida Blanco reposado batch after batch and group regroup and yeah, continuous improvement and listen to our consumers. So we felt that we need to develop new product. So we partnered with Edrington. Like I said, it was a distribution agreement in the US for 2017-2022.
And turns out that in 2018, a year later, I was super lucky to be part of a small group that visit the Edrington distilleries, Scotch distilleries in Scotland. Ingle malt Scotch distilleries including Macallan, the new distillery they recently opened in 2018. So they opened in June. I was in September, I visited September and also I went to Glen Rotis which is another whiskey, Dutch whiskeys in gumball.
And then they also own the, the Vikings. The, the, oh, you know, it's, it's this one is the oh, Highland Park The Highland park is. Is in an. In an island in Scotland called Orkney, where they believe that the Vikings came. Anyway, me and my team, my boss and that. That time we. We spent a few days in Scotland learning about the process.
And after this trip, I said to the Edmonton team, they have a operation in America and also in Scotland. So I have a meeting with all of them and say, hey, guys, I'm super fascinated. Thank you. I cannot thank enough to be in these distilleries and to learn from the master distillers, the master of wood, and the whiskey blenders, the three expert in the process.
Just nothing but. Just thankful for everything you have done. But I think we need to capitalize this in a product. And I have a few ideas. The first thing I ask is barrels, because I learned that the whiskey is not like tequila. They don't have blanco. All the whiskey is aged. So they make a neutral grain, malted, barely mountain. Is a. Is a. Is a grain that is a neutral. They call new make, which is the distillation product. And then it's put into the aging cask. But the selection of the. Of the oak, first of all, where the oak come from. The oak is a trick that takes 100 years. So where this oak come from and then what liquid or what wine or spirit has before the Scotch. So, long story, short story, I insisted for over a year about the barrels. They said, no, no, no. So I escalate, escalate, escalate, until they said, okay, Jose, we're gonna send you a few bottles so you can make how many you need. And I said, four. I use one. I want to put blanco, reposado.
That's it. I only need four. So they send a container, and at the beginning it was like, wow, cool. But then it's a problem because having an empty barrel is a problem because if you don't use it, it's going to dry out, it's going to rinse, it's going to, you know, it's not going to be adjusted anyway. So we. Over one year, we experimented. I put it in different barrels. Blanco, reposado, anejo and extra.
The blanco didn't well or didn't go well.
I think it was. The blanco is very aggressive in destruction. And most of the Scotch whiskey use sherry, oloroso sherry. And it was full of sherry. And it was like an agave sherry, but not the oak. So I don't know. It's. It was not. And it was not only my opinion. I have a panel tasting here in Guadalajara and also at the distillery. So both in the offices and. And in the distillery. And now blanco with a no reposado.
Every week, literally every week, we took a sample. The CRT were crazy. They were saying, you're crazy. You're asking us to open. Because in those months, the verificador, the guy that come to the distillery, has to break the seal, the paper seal, and put it again.
So every week we ask. He broke. So we have. And we said, this is an experiment. We are learning. So we measure color and do tasting. And after one month, it was like, no, it has no personalities. It's not tequila, is not whiskey, is not sherry. But then after two months, using the reposado as a base, it was amazing. It was. And we tasted at 55% direct from the. From the bar.
So I said, okay, let's take the liquid out, and then let's decide the alcohol by volume. Pudding, 40, 41, 42, 43, up to 50.
We did that exercise several times until I decided to be 43, based on what I listened to the majority of people in my personal taste, yeah, that was the result of the Roble Fino reposado.
So basically, six months up to a year in the Jack Daniels.
And then after that, take the liquid out and put it in the Oloroso sherry. These European oaks are this oak from Galicia, which is a region in Spain, in the north of Spain. That's where the tree grows. They create the cask in Jerez, which is the Sherry area, in.
And then they put Oloroso sherry. There are multiple cherries like Amontillado Pedro Jimenez, but there is one in particular called Sherry. I mean, Oloroso sherry. And that one is very sweet and very nice sherry. So they put it three years and then sent to the Macallan distillery, put the Macallan 24 years, 12 to 2 passes of 12 years, make a Macallan 12 twice. And then those bottles were sent to tequila. And we put this reposado. So as you can see, the complexity. So we have agave. We have different worlds now. We have Mexico, USA because of the bourbon. We have Spain because of the sherry and the oak. And we have Scotland, not because of the. Of the single malt. So it's a. It's a tequila that is super complex. And that's the reason I decided to elevate the experience to 43%.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: It's amazing. I'll do reviews on them later in the next couple of weeks and kind of talk about each one and the flavors in Each one. But the.
There's a great oakiness, there's a great agave flavor. But the fruitiness that's in these and the amount of dried fruit and fresh fruit that you get in the flavor is just. It is unbelievable. Like I.
I've heard they were great. And then I opened them and tasted them and I was like, okay, nobody has talked about how great these really are. And I had a couple of buddies that said, you know, I've kind of seen those and they weren't really on my radar, but they are now. And I was like, no, they should be there. Absolutely top shelf. Amazing.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: And I recommend Brad to taste in different moment with different glasses with different temperature and also if you want to do with ice cube, like an old fashioned and then in the sniffers, the whiskey sniffers and then the tequila rhythm and then in the cognac and then indifferent. So you can actually.
You're going to taste the different.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: Kind of like opening up a scotch with a. A little ice cube or a little scotch and water. How it changes the profile. So it changes the profile here too.
[00:42:19] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:42:20] Speaker A: In. In a good way.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: In a good way. And depends on your preference. You're going to choose which one of all the option is your favorite.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: Well, it. It's amazing. And again, I want to say thank you, you know, from the bottom of my heart for sending these to me. I really appreciate it.
Anything new coming out that people don't know about yet that you can kind of spill the beans here? Is there any new products in the works or any new neat stuff coming out?
[00:42:46] Speaker B: Yeah, actually we have a very exclusive program called Single Viral that we launched with Danjo, but now we're launching the single barrel for Roblefino. So we have already a few customers that say, okay, we want our own barrel. They're gonna select the Anejo barrel and we're gonna put in the sherry cask and it's gonna be hand customized the label with the name of the account or the name. We have groups like New York, New Jersey Agave Club.
These guys are from.
And they acquire. Not like Rollino, but they acquire La Cingo barrel. We have another from South Carolina, Carolina liquor store that won their own Roble phenomenon. And we have sip tequila from.
From Florida, from Stuart, Florida. They want their single bar. And we have multiple clients with the Anejo. But nowadays we're launching the. The Roller Fino. That's the. I would say the newest program, if you will.
[00:43:51] Speaker A: Well, you just took out my whole tequila budget right there with One conversation. My wife is not going to like you anymore.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: And you know, let me tell you something Brad.
I. We believe that it's a very full, very just price point of Roblefino.
Why is that? Because the packaging and also the liquid. The packaging is a crystal hand polished bottle that only the bottle because has engraved the Roblefino which means fine oak by tequila partida.
That is real Mexican silver ink.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: No kidding?
[00:44:31] Speaker B: Oh no. No kidding.
[00:44:32] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: That's real silver ink.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: And the cork. Yeah, you know bringing, bringing the. The bird back to the cork and the cork is solid and big and I mean the.
So I have a question. How come the repo goes to here and the anejo goes to here? It looks like there's more anejo in the.
[00:44:50] Speaker B: The wrap always. Because the production process of the glass is different. It's a semi automatic process and sometimes the bottom is taller or thicker if you will. And some of them are slimmer.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: They're beautiful.
[00:45:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And I forget to mention we have three rogue finos. I send you the Reposado and the Anejo.
It's using the base of our Anego which is two years, almost two years of aging in the Jack Daniels and then it's finished five months in the, in the Macallan casks.
So we have more intense and it's 45% alcohol.
So my point regarding the fair price retail price is because if you go outside and see in the shelf different tequilas that the packaging is not even close to this or the liquid with this kind of exclusivity of cask. Double angel share. No double aging losses. Yeah. We are in a 40, 150$. The bottle you can find sometimes in 120.
It's super pretty. Fair price considering.
Yeah like competitive set with, with other competitors. But also considering the cost of goods sold. No, the. The cost of producing this glass, this cap that is a super solid metal and, and all the details. The label is. It has my name on the label, it has the batch number per. So it's very exclusive, very limited ant.
[00:46:35] Speaker A: Aging in a barrel that has some of the most exclusive scotch on the planet. I mean I think there's Macallan bottles that sell for 25 and $30,000. I do see pretty bottles on shelves. I tell people all the time that's. That's a $200 bottle with $5 tequila in it. Don't drink it unless you like it. I am a drink what you like. But yeah, this, this is a, this is a $300 tequila in a beautiful bottle for $150.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: I mean, that's.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: You define. Absolutely correct.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: Yeah. This. This is amazing. This is one that I, I can't wait to share with people when they come over. And like I said, I can't wait to do the reviews and actually talk about it. Sometimes in. In the interview we taste through it, but I want to do a whole video on just tasting through these because they are so good and all of your tequila is good. So let me ask you. I got a. I got a wrap up question that I love to ask this question because I. I love hearing the answers. So you've had this great journey into tequila. You've spent all of these years refining an amazing product.
So if you could pick anybody in the world, alive, not alive, any single person you could think of, who would you like to sit down with and share a glass of your tequila and your tequila story with? Who. Who would that person be?
[00:47:56] Speaker B: That's. That's a good question. I guess I'm very religious. I'm very Catholic religious. So I guess la Madre Teresa.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: The Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. I guess she was a wise woman.
Insane women as well. So I would like to have a conversation and probably. I don't know if she drinks, but maybe have a partilla with her.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: Oh, that's really cool.
That'd be such an amazing experience. And probably one of those people that you would just let them talk and you would just listen the whole time.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: Correct, correct. Just making. Good question.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Well, I really appreciate so much for you taking your time today. I know that you're very busy out there creating amazing tequila and to take time to talk to a goofy guy on the Internet like me. I really, really appreciate it. Again, I really appreciate the tequila and I'll definitely send you a message next time we're in town.
I'd love to stop by and meet you in person and just. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[00:49:06] Speaker B: I. I'm the person who have to thank Bradley for having this, having me, you in your show and. And yeah, for taking the time to taste Tequila Partida and promote our brand. So I really appreciate. And yes, let's keep in contact in case you want to do another tasting, maybe with just the roller Fino or with another products of our line of. If you come to Guadalajara, obviously we can take you to the distillery and to leave the tequila party experience.
[00:49:36] Speaker A: I'll take you up on that next time we're there. So I'll put your website and everything in the video, and I'll share where people can find you and, you know, salute. Thanks for taking your time today. Really appreciate you very much.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: Have a great night.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: You too. See you. Thank you.
