Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] This might be one of the most honest agave spirits in Mexico, and it's not tequila. And that's not a gimmick. This bottle breaks nearly every tequila rule on purpose. And once you understand why, everything about it makes perfect sense. All right, before we dive into drinking this, we need a little bit of context so you can understand the philosophy behind it. This comes from Caballito Sierra, a producer that refuses to label their spirits as tequila, even though they're made in Jalisco from agave by people whose family have been doing this for generations. Why? Because tequila today is governed by regulations. Cabrito Sierra is governed by tradition. They don't make tequila. They make ancestral agave spirits the way they were made long before the CRT ever existed. The distillery is in Amatitan, deep in the valles of the Jalisco region. It's an area that's really known for earthy, bold, vegetal agave character. The distillery doesn't chase scale. They don't chase trends. They don't adjust production to fit into modern standards. Instead, they preserve family methods, small batch production, traditional equipment, and agave varieties that don't fit neatly into the modern tequila definitions. It's not about marketing nostalgia. It's truly about making tequila the way their family has always made tequila. Okay, let's talk about the agave, because this one here couldn't be a tequila anyway. This is where they really start to break the rules. This spirit is made from chocolate chato agave, not blue Weber. Chato is a regional agave variety. It's traditionally used in Jalisco, long before tequila became standardized. But because it's not blue Weber agave, it cannot be legally called tequila. And these guys, they're perfectly fine with that. Chato brings earthier flavors. It's more herbal with some bitterness, less sweetness than the blue weber. And in some cases, it has a deeper connection to terroir. This agave is expressive and it is wild grown, not cultivated. Now, their production of this facility is also different than a lot of the different facilities that we've been to. I have not visited this distillery, but I look forward to hopefully in the future. Everything here is done through a really ancestral method. But the key difference to what this is is puntas. Puntas only puntas is the heart of distillation. Some call it the distiller's cut. It's the most flavorful, aromatic and intense cut. Most producers blend it back in or discard. These guys made it a bottle of their own. And what does that mean? Higher proof More texture, more intensity, Zero margin for error in the way that you're making this. And let's also talk about what percentage of alcohol this is. It is 69% alcohol. I can't wait to try this. Let's open it up.
[00:02:45] That wax top's pretty cool, but man, it makes a mess. Let's get in the glass.
[00:02:51] Well, that's a big pour for 69% alcohol.
[00:02:55] Wow. I can actually smell that from here.
[00:03:00] Wow.
[00:03:03] Coat agave is there, but it's a green olive.
[00:03:07] It's like, like wet clay or wet stone.
[00:03:12] There's a real herbal smoky note, some minerality, And almost like some hot pepper.
[00:03:30] Wow. That this has a just a ton of different flavors. And for the first pour, I bet it's going to open up just more and more.
[00:03:42] That olive becomes a little bit of almost like a celery note as well. Okay, let's give this one a hit.
[00:03:58] Wow. That is fire, dude. That's a really neat fruit flavored agave. That's like a roasted flavor. It's. It's also thick, has a really oily mouth feel. There's a lot of black and white pepper heat. There's a herbal bitterness that has a lot of different vegetable notes and like mint, bay leaf, sage or grass. There's a, like a saline or briny taste. And then the minerals that are in there, that's like limestone or a little bit of earth.
[00:04:33] Man, this, that's, that's a lot. And it's, it's very, very high proof. It's very overpowering at first. And then as it lightens up in the finish that the flavors kind of come together a little bit more. That note I get actually a little mint and almost like a dark chocolate. The finish is long. It just kind of hangs on. It's. It's got an earthy agave flavor, a mineral dryness, a gentle hint of smoke, and there's just like these savory spices that just kind of hang on for so long. The finish really kind of tells you the production method by tasting that smoke and that earthiness and really let you know that there's nothing fake here. This is real true tradition and agave spirit to the max. Now who's this for? Boy, it's not for your casual drinker or your people who are going to do a bunch of shots with lime and salt. This would absolutely burn people to death in a giant shot. This is something that a connoisseur, something that's really looking for that deep, additional savory, sweet earthy tequila lover is who's going to want to drink this? It's high proof, it's terroir driven. It's traditional production. It's letting you understand the taste of agave that goes beyond the tequila label and really stretches before the modern production of tequila. So if you're looking for something that kind of breaks the rules and you can find this Puntas Chatto, I'm telling you, this is one to get. It's probably one of the most authentic tequilas I've had. It is the highest proof of anything that I've tasted and it's pretty awesome to have somebody willing to make a traditional product and yet still break all of those rules. This one is one that will be sipped on easily tonight. There's a lot there left before we call it a night. So thanks for watching the videos. If you've had any of the cabalito, let me know. Let me know what your favorite one is. Let me know if you've had this one right here. If you like these reviews, hit that like button, subscribe button. And thanks for watching my videos.
