Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] A tequila born from just 18 agaves. It's truly a prestige. All right, amigos, today we're gonna head to the highlands of Aranda Salisco and talk about a tequila that's all about legacy, patience, and pure passion. Prestigo 18. Now, it's just not another tequila with a fancy bottle. This one traces back to 1843, when a farmer named Don Jorge Gonzalez planted 18 agave plants that eventually would inspire this entire family legacy. I actually got the opportunity to visit this distillery and met Ivan Gonzalez, one of Don Jorge's great grandchildren and the owner of this brand, and works with his master distiller, carrying out the same spark as his ancestors, who started over 180 years ago. It's rugged terrain in around us. Don Jorge started with the small 18 agaves, but he dreamed big.
[00:00:52] He distilled his tequila by hand. He called it Mia prestigo, or my prestige, sharing it with only close friends and family members. The story goes that they were blown away by how smooth and rich it was that Don Jorge never commercialized it. Instead, he left it behind in a handwritten process, a recipe that stayed in the family for generations. And now his great grandchildren have brought that recipe back to life as Brastigo 18. Every bottle pays tribute to his spirit, the craftsmanship, and the number 18 to the number agaves that it all started with. This tequila is made at NAM 1639, right in the southern highlands of Jalisco. They're cooking the agave in traditional stone and brick ovens. They're using a roller mill for extraction. Fermentation happens in open air, stainless steel tanks. No fibers, and you can really tell that it's done with care. It's twice distilled in stainless steel pots with copper coils, which helps balance out the minerality and give it a cleaner finish. You got to love it that they're sticking with classic methods. Nothing rushed, nothing industrial. Just real craftsmanship. All right, let's open this one up.
[00:02:05] Let's give it a pour.
[00:02:12] All right. Right on the nose. I get a nice balance of earth and fruit. Cooked raw agave, some hints of some minerality, A few herbs I can't really put my finger on, and a tart apple and maybe even some cherry with a whisper of cinnamon. All right, let's dive into the taste of this one. First thing that hits me is like a raw agave sweetness, not like a. Like a green agave, like raw agave. And then I get this apple with these herbal notes that come through. It has a delicate flavor. So it's not, like, super bold or have a heavy profile, but it's really clean. The minerality and the fruit work really good together. She has fruitiness, and I do get that. Apple is really strong with almost like an earthy minerality. It's light on the palate, but still expressive. You definitely get that highlands fruitiness. And I even got a little citrus in that one. Not overly complex tequila, but it's very easy to drink. It's very nice. The finish lingers with a soft, spearmint type, peppery finish. It's not overpowering, but the flavor just continues to stay there. That cinnamon comes in, and then a little bit of that clean agave is there as well. So that's a really nice finish. One thing that was really cool when we visited the distillery is we actually got there before Ivan did. And the master distiller spoke absolutely no English, and he really wanted to give us all a tour. So we started about talking about the orno and how many tons the orno held, and then he moved into talking about the roller mill. And as he was talking to everybody in Spanish, I was turning around and telling everybody in English what he was saying. And when Ivan got there, he said, do you speak Spanish? And the friend I was with said, no. He speaks fluent, affluent distillery. And it just gives me this, you know, great feeling of remembering this distillery and walking through it and seeing how close they were as a family and how much tradition they've kept in doing this and trying to honor a legacy that's almost two centuries ago. It's more than tequila. This one is heritage in a glass.
[00:04:13] So how does Prestigo 18 stack up? If you appreciate authenticity and clean, traditional profiles, you'll love it. It's not flashy. It's not over done. It's very elegant. If I was to score this, you know, on Tequila Matchmaker, it's probably around an 88 out of 100. It's balanced. It's true to its story. From 18 agaves to pure prestige, this tequila reminds us of what taste is supposed to be like. It's not available in the United States yet, but it's coming soon. I will have an interview with Ivan Gonzalez where he talks about when this tequila will be available and get his family story behind it. So tonight, salute to Don Jorge, to Ivan and the team, and to keep real tequila alive in Arandes. Cheers.
