Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] This is a special Release aged for 18 months in custom Symphony barrels built from American oak staves sourced from Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Today we're checking out a great tequila. This is the new Mahinte Symphony series number three. It's bottled at 45 ABV and it became available on Monday, March 23rd. Mahinta does special releases and every year they do the the Symphony series, they do the Maestre series, and they're always something really special. And one of the things I found interesting about this one is it's the first one released from NOM 1499. All the others were produced at NOM 1412. So here's the big question. Does this Mahinte Symphony series number three actually deliver something special in the glass or is it more about a concept? Let's get into it. Now. We've all known Mi Gente for a long time and we know they have a reputation of making really elegant, great tequilas and that their whole company has a sustainability forward story to it. And the Symphony series is where they really started playing with barrel influence in a more creative way. Instead of just one traditional cast type, these barrels are built from staves sourced from multiple oak regions, creating what Mahinte describes as kind of an evolving barrel ecosystem. The idea is the wood interaction keeps changing and as the tequila matures, giving you some more layered, less predictable than your standard barrel or H releases. In this case, the tequila spent a full 18 months, which puts it in a space where barrel absolutely matters. But ideally it still leaves room for the agave to be forward production wise. This one's listed at nom 1499. It is made with blue Weber agave from the Highlands in Los Altos, specifically the Southern Hotel Highlands region. The agave is cooked in a low pressure autoclave. It's extracted with a roller mill. It's fermented in stainless steel tanks without fibers, of course, twice distilled and they are using deep well water. This is not a tahona or brick oven or some rustic tequila profile. This is a cleaner, more polished production approach, which makes sense in a release like this, where you're really trying to highlight how the barrel creates the complexity. But you still want a great blanco in the bottle. And I'll be honest, one of the things that makes this bottle really interesting to me is Mahinta always leans into this elegance flavor more than brute force or hot pepper spice. So I'm really excited to see how these barrels affect the blanco that I like drinking. Let's get this one in the Glass. It is a fresh pop.
[00:02:45] All right on the nose. This one comes across like the me gente blanco I was drinking yesterday when I got home from Evansville. Right away, you get cooked agave. I pick up this hint of vanilla. And on this one, I seem to get a little bit more caramel than what I did in the blanco. There's a light citrus and orange note, and there's a little bit of like a chocolate note. There's just a little bit of a floral note, and I can't pick out what that exact floral note is. There also is, like a hint of like a smokiness to it. Not like mezcal smoky, more like just roasted, roasted smoke type smell. Okay, let's give it a taste.
[00:03:20] Okay. Cooked agave, vanilla, chocolate, a little bit of that orange that I got. That floral note is nice, but the oakiness that I get at the mid palate and on becomes a really strong, like, oak barrel taste. Not like the normal musty, like, barrel smell that I would get or taste what that barrel, that old bourbon barrel tastes. But this is more like a wood oak sawdust type taste with the agave sweetness kind of right there with it. And then as it goes into the finish, you get a little bit of that floral and a little bit of that citrus note. But you get the cooked agave comes back and you get a nice balanced bitterness with a nice sweetness and maybe a hint of that chocolate. I got to taste it again. Let's see.
[00:04:09] Okay, again, fresh pop neck pour, if you will. The second one, a little more orange, a little more of that oaky wood flavor. But that agave is there. The cooked agave is nice. There's a nice sweetness. There's a nice balance, really, between sweetness and bitterness. And I kind of like the way that layers. It does kind of coat your mouth really well. It does have really nice legs. If you see on the glass, it kind of coats it all. And then if you wait a few minutes, you can see the legs running down. I don't know if you can see it on camera or not, but it has a really nice mouth feel, really nice balance. To. To.
[00:04:44] To describe the difference in that oak is really difficult. Okay. I think this is a fantastic tequila overall. This is one to really check out. It's neat to have an anejo that has such a structure of using these different barrels, yet the agave still be the thing that stands out and still have those nice floral notes with a really nice oak taste. So this is a very special bottle. I'm glad that I have one. Thanks Mahinta for sending one over. Anna Maria really knows how to make phenomenal tequila and then using these special techniques like for this one with the barrel or the five different regions for the last Maestre selection that came out. Every time something new comes out I'm excited about it because they always have such a great flavor. Again, this is a limited release. I do know that it's not going to every state. I got the chance to talk to Chris, one of the vice presidents of sales that happens to live here in Indianapolis and he said the bottles are not coming to Indiana. So if you're going to want to find this bottle, you're going to have to go to the Mahintas website and make sure you get one bought before they run out. It did just get released on March 23rd. So if you're the kind of person that likes chasing special bottles that have really special tequila in them, this is one. This bottle is for any tequila drinker that really likes to experience an anejo and have that oaky aged taste along with an agave forward tequila. So if you're a fan of that or you're a fan of mijinta, this is definitely worth paying attention to. Hit that like subscribe, let me know in the comments. Would you pick this up over in a traditional anejo or do you like these kind of experiments with barrels? Let me know your thoughts. Thanks for watching. Salute.
