Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, what happens when one of the best tequila brands ages their tequila in a Bardo wine barrel, bottles it at 98 proof and does it as a single barrel release? This is Montegave's showcase wine and spirit single barrel reposado. And I already know this is fantastic because I popped it last night to give it a taste and had to have two glasses. I've been traveling a lot while I was in Cabo. Rob Girard, the Tequila Collective, picked this up for me at Showcase Wine and Spirits and fired it down to me so I could try it here. He said it was fantastic. I know he's got an amazing palette, so I wanted to dive into this also. I just did an interview with John Melvin, the owner of Monave, and talked about their entire process and how the brand came together. Check that out over my YouTube channel. You're going to gain a lot of knowledge and information about this brand. Now this is one of those special releases that's really hard to find. Actually, Rob told me that he was surprised that even had any left. So if you go to their website, they do ship from California. So go see if you can find this one if you're interested in a fantastic tier tasting single barrel. Now, Montagave coming out of NOM 1123 Cascawin, located in El Arena, Jalisco, the tequila producing region known as Los Vallas or the Valley. I visited this distillery many times and there's a reason tequila enthusiasts hold it such a high regard. Cascawine has been producing tequila for generations and they're known for traditional production methods that really allow the agave to express itself. Montegave is an interesting brand because they've taken a different approach to barrel aging. Instead of relying on exclusively on traditional American whiskey barrels that you find so many reposados on, Jejos in Montegave has really built its identity around French oak wine barrels from Bordeaux, France. If you know anything about wine, Bordeaux is one of the most famous wine producing regions in the world. These barrels can bring some really interesting characteristics to the tequila and I can't wait to taste this with you today. And let's run through the production method of this one real quick. This is produced, like I said, at Cascal Wien with blue Weber agaves from the Valles and Jalisco. The brand's documented production methods include cooking the agave in traditional brick ovens, milling is a roller mill to extract the sugars, fermentation in stainless steel tanks and double distilled. I also know that Costcoine always has this really Great minerality, flavor. It's kind of that thumbprint of the brand and the other Montagaves that I've had, really had that thumbprint. So I'm really curious to go through this one again today after it's been opened up and see what those flavor profiles actually taste like compared to a regular reposado of Montagu. Some people really complain about these single barrels. I think it's kind of cool. This one is bottled number 117. This retails for about $125.
[00:02:35] So let's get this in the glass and check it out.
[00:02:41] I really like the color on it. It is a little bit darker for a reposado, but, you know, coming in this Bardot barrel, I don't have the amount of time that it was aged because they didn't put that out there, so may have been aged a little bit longer than a normal repo. And I will say that their heritage series, which is a blanco, is darker than some reposados. I haven't opened that one up yet to give it a try, but I can't wait. We'll do it here on the show. Okay, let's dive into the nose of this one. I do get first off, that cascoine petrichor minerality smell that I love from this brand. I still get cooked agave, but I do get some red fruit notes. Almost feel like it's raspberry. The minerality in this is really nice. There is a nice oaky note to it as well. Like a barrel. A barrel note. And there's a bit of a vegetal type note as well. I'm gonna say, like, in between asparagus and celery. All right, let's dive into the taste of this one.
[00:03:35] All right. The minerality, the cooked agave, that. What I said was raspberry in the note is a red. Like a red fruit note. But I. It's probably more plum than it is raspberry in the taste. That minerality is there. If I didn't say that already, like, that, that. That taste of the distillery is very, very present. There's a nice spice. There's a little bit of, like, tannins. The finish is, like, not warm, but kind of dry with just a. Like, a little bit of a spice to it.
[00:04:04] There's a really great sweetness to this, too. I don't want to pass on how nice and sweet that is. That second taste, there's a lot more heat in the finish, a lot more pepper, a lot more barrel spice. There's a really nice barrel note and that coat agave is fantastic as well. It also has a really good mouth feel like it really coats the mouth. I really like that about it. Now let's dive into the price. 125 bucks. There's some serious competition for reposados that are less money than that, but in this case you are paying for a single barrel selection at a higher proof and a different aging approach or different barrel approach.
[00:04:36] So for me this is something that I feel is really worth it. I like finding things that are different and not just drinking the the core or the base or going to that same tequila every single day. That is just my comfort tequila. I have a lot of tequilas that I go to and visit on a regular basis, but these special bottles are a little bit better. For me. I like having something that maybe I'm going to go to based on my feeling and I know that it's special or I'm going to share this with family and friends and people who come over and other tequila aficionados. So for me, yeah, that spending that money on a bottle does not bother me, but I understand if it doesn't fit into your mentality as well. I will say this though, don't buy tequila just simply because it's rare.
[00:05:20] I really think that if you're looking for something, you have to trust the person that's talking about the tequila and know that your pallets line up before you go buy something or if you can get out there to a tasting and taste it, that's even the best way. Again, I want to thank Rob from the Tequila Collective for pointing this one out to me and picking it up. I really appreciate you thinking of me and helping me get my hands on this one. I want to know if you tried Montegave. Have you had any of their single barrel releases and do you like their normal Bardo aged expressions? Drop all those things in the comments. I love hearing from you. I love knowing what you're tasting. I love hearing people's feedback about the videos and about my thoughts on the tequila and comparing them to your thoughts. So if you haven't checked out the Tequila report, make sure you do that at Tequila report. Com. Until next time, Salute.
