Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Most tequila drinkers talk about agave, the oven, the tahona, and the fermentation. But how often do we really talk about the water? Because this bottle right here, Volon's blanco, is made with three different water sources. Rainwater, natural spring water, and water pulled from a well more than 450ft deep. And after recently sitting down with Chad and Christina and spending some time at the Cantina Valens in Guadalajara and getting to know this brand at a much deeper level, I thought it was time to come back and taste this tequila and really spend a little time with the Valon Blanc. Valon is a family owned brand founded and managed by Chad and Christina Aller. The tequila is produced at one of my favorite distilleries in Mexico, El Pendio, NAM 1579 in Jesus Maria in the highlands of Jalisco, under master distiller Felipe Camarena. If you have followed me for very long, you already know how much respect I have for Felipe and everything they're doing at El Pendio. Because almost every part of this production process has been thought through, engineered, and sometimes literally invented by Felipe himself. This all starts with 100% Blue Weber Agave grown by the Camarena family in Los Altos. From there, the cut agave, or pinas, go into El Pendillo's masonry hornos. They're first steam cleaned and cooked for around three hours. It helps remove the dirt, the impurities, and their bitter moles, or what we call bitter honey. Once the tanks are dumped, then the oven is turned back on and they're slowly cooked for roughly 19 to 22 hours. And then they're allowed to rest and cool for another 24 to 36 hours. Now, here's where El Pandio gets really interesting. Instead of immediately crushing the cooked agave with a traditional roller mill, they have a machine Felipe invented called Igor. Yes, Igor. It looks like something you'd feed tree branches into. It shreds the agave into very fine fibers, preparing it for extraction without unnecessarily destroying those fibers. Then comes one more of the coolest pieces of equipment you ever see at a tequila distillery. It's Felipe Stein. Felipe built his own mechanical tohona using repurposed components, including parts from a massive steamroller, a train axle, and custom iron tracks. Instead of a horse dragging a volcanic stone around in circles, Felipe Stein gently extracts those sugars with an incredibly efficient design powered by a relatively small motor. That is tequila engineering at its finest. But now we get to what I think is one of the most fascinating parts of the water. Elpandillo collects rainwater from the roof of the distillery and stores it in a roughly 53,000 gallon underground cistern. They combine that with natural spring water and highly mineralized water from their 450plus foot deep well. Think about what those three sources can potentially bring to the final tequila. Rainwater is softer. Spring water brings its own minerality composition, and. And then that deep well water brings another earthy, mineral driven component. That blend becomes part of the fingerprint of valance. And when I'm tasting this Valens blanco, that minerality is something that I'm specifically looking for. Fermentation, Use Felipe's proprietary family yeast. And after fermentation, tequila is twice distilled in traditional copper pots. Copper's not there because it's cool. B roll copper interacts with sulfur compounds during distillation and helps remove aromas and flavors you don't necessarily want in the finished tequila. Then there's one more step. After distillation, this tequila is aerated or oxygenated, and that allows for some of the more volatile compounds to dissipate and helps create a rounded mouthfeel that Valens is known for. So now that we know everything that went into the glass, let's actually see if we can find those flavors while I put it in the glass. All right, let's get this one on the nose. All right. Exactly what I expected. There's sweet coat agave, but there's a wet minerality character. You can almost smell ground stone, limestone, or the smell of a sidewalk right after it rains. And I don't know if that's coming directly from that rainwater or if it's just part of all of the waters and everything combined. That brings you this nice petrichor. I also pick up some lime, some green apple, some herbal notes. There's a little bit of a floral character there as well. Okay, let's take a taste.
[00:03:52] They're cooked agaves there. There's some citrus, Plenty of minerality. That's something that this tequila does very well. There's a lot of texture, and for only being 40 ABV, it doesn't drink thin. In fact, there's this buttery, almost velvety that comes across your palate. It brings this, like, nice agave flavor With a little bit of citrus and a little bit of pepper. The finish is really clean. It's agave. It hangs on those minerals are there, and you get a little bit of cracked pepper coming through at the end. Now, this is exactly the kind of blanco that I enjoy. Now this is a brand that I've been sipping on for a long time, but I don't believe I've done a lot of videos about it. They're high proof or still strength is one of my favorite still strength that they've ever done and and they've put out some amazing single barrels and reposados. Not to mention having their seven year extra anejo. It's absolutely phenomenal. And I will say after interviewing Chad and Christina and learning a little bit of the story behind Valance and actually getting to hang out with them at their cantina in Guadalajara, you have to go there. It is really fun. It's a great place to hang out. There's a guitar on the wall so probably let you pick up that guitar and jam a little bit too. So Valance, great example of what tequila is supposed to be in my opinion. Great Highlands minerality and tequila Florida flavor. If you want to learn about tequilas like this, go to the Tequila Report. The Tequila Report has great information about a lot of brands, industry news and everything that's happening in tequila. And it's free. It'll come to your email every week. Go to the Tequila Report.com subscribe now. What I want to know about this brand and Valon's. What's your favorite one? Is it their blanco, their still strength, their repo? Let me know in the comments. I want to say thanks to Chad and Christine for hanging out doing the interview. Cheers. Have a fantastic night.
