Tequila El Viejito Reposado Review: Is This What Tequila Used to Taste Like?

[00:00:00] Is the best tequila made by a brand that actually owns the distillery. Now, I'm not saying that producer owned brands automatically are better than a contract brand because there's some phenomenal contract brands out there. But I do think there's something pretty cool when a family behind the tequila is also the family behind the distillery. And they've been making tequila since 1937. Today we're talking about tequila El Vijito Reposado. This is the house brand from NOM 1107 in Atatanico, El Alto in Jalisco. And this is a tequila with a completely different story than a lot of other newer brands we see today. Albajito was founded by a family in 1937. They're now into their third generation. They've been exporting since 1964. And they describe themselves as the first tequila from latatenico. This is 100% Mexican family owned company. And 1107 has some serious history behind it. One of my very favorite tequilas started at this exact knob. This brand isn't somebody coming into the distillery and creating it. This, this is the family's house recipe. One thing I really like about Elito is they're not trying to make the production sound fancier than what it is. In fact, after talking with Sean Miller today from package Group, I think I understand their philosophy behind making this tequila and it makes it even a little bit more interesting. Their goal is pretty simple. They want tequila to taste like agave. That's it. They're not trying to create a bunch of secondary flavors through fermentation, water or exotic barrels. They just want a clean, straightforward tequila where the agave remains the star. The they start with 100% blue weber agave from the highlands. The agave is cooked in traditional brick ovens and they're extracted using a roller mill. From there, fermentation takes place in closed fermentation tanks. There's actually a reason behind that. We talk about how open air fermentation changes the tastes of tequila. They don't want airborne bacteria or wild yeast interacting in the fermentation, so they control that, keep it consistent and used fermentation tanks that stay closed. They're also using a commercial yeast and the reason for this is interesting. They believe their yeast allows the natural flavor of agave to come through without adding a bunch of additional flavors. Different yeast strains can contribute different aromas and flavors during fermentation. Fruity notes or floral notes or other characteristics. And that's not what they're looking for. Their philosophy is essentially don't make the yeast the story, let the agave be the story. Even their water follows the same philosophy. They're using well water at the distillery, but the water goes through a reverse osmosis system system. So they're intentionally making the water fairly neutral. Again, they're not looking for the water to contribute a huge minerality characteristic. They're trying to eliminate variables, keep this tequila clean, consistent and agave forward. Then we get to this one, the reposado. This is another area where they're refreshingly straightforward. This is typically aged for around four months, sometimes a little longer, in used American bourbon barrels. And according to Sean, there's no elaborate barrel story here. These aren't some incredible expensive or hand selected barrels from a famous winery or rare whiskey producer. It's basically a mixture of American bourbon barrels. They do rechar the barrels fairly regularly to keep them producing color and contributing what they need to the yolk. But that's really it. Now, when you put all these things together, brick oven, roller mill, controlled fermentation, commercial yeast, their water, they're going to bring a really straightforward tequila. Something that's clean, simple and drinkable and tastes like tequila. And there's something else that Sean told me that I absolutely love. He said one of the comments they hear pretty much regularly, particularly from older tequila drinkers and Mexican men, is basically, this is what tequila used to taste like. It reminds them of the tequila they drank in the 80s and the 90s. Sometimes they say it reminds them of what tequila is supposed to taste like. Now I think that's a cool description because I love tequila and I love the way tequila tasted when I first learned about tequila in the very early 2000s. So I'm looking forward to see if this one brings me back that nostalgia, if you will. All right. I poured it a little bit ago to let it open up. So let's jump into the nose of this one. You get it cooked agave. Now what does that mean? If you haven't stood in front of an oven and smelled cooked agave, my best way to explain it is probably going to be a roasted pineapple with a little bit of like a sweet potato smell, with this like caramelizing fruit smell. And that's exactly what I get on this. I do pick up a little bit of caramel probably from the barrel. A little, little, little bit of a barrel note does smell fantastic. Let's dive into the taste. [00:04:09] I have to agree with Sean. This tastes like what I feel like tequila is supposed to taste like as well. You get that really nice tequila flavor or that cooked agave flavor. I pick up some nice pepper notes. There's a just a slight hint of citrus, a very light amount of vanilla and barrel. It's very agave forward. You get the taste of tequila with just a few essences of the barrel. The finish is nice too. It's. It just kind of hangs in there with that pepper and a little bit of that sweetness. Very nice. Am I going to say this is the most complex repo I've ever had? Absolutely not. And I think that's what they're leaning into is making tequila taste the way it's supposed to taste. I I do love all these special releases and special barrels and all these things that bring in this real depth of complexity. But if I'm going to sit down and just grab a tequila and drink it because I like tequila, this is what I'm going to dive into. I definitely want to point out a shout out to Package Group. They are another person behind the story of this brand. Package Group has a portfolio of outstanding producer owned and producer connected agave brands and I think Elvajito fits exactly great into what they're doing as a company. And you have to check out their website, package group.com. you'll find out all the brands they bring in and see some really amazing products. All right, well I'm going to spend the rest of the evening sipping on this reposado right here. If you enjoyed this review, hit a like for me and a share if you've had El Vijito, let me know in the comments. And if you want to learn about great Tequila, go check out the Tequila Report at the Tequila Report.com subscribe until next time Drink good Tequila Salute.