Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] What if I told you one of the most anticipated Blancos of 2025 was actually created by accident? Today we're talking about the House of Rare Founders Cut Blanco, A double gold best in show Blanco winner and one of the most unique production stories I've heard in a long time. This is the very first release of House of Rare and it's coming out of their own distillery, Ferencia de Agaves, located in El Reno in the valley. Only 777 bottles were produced packaged in a hand blown crystal decanter. And this is clearly polished and is something really special right out of the gate. Production was led by Miguel Ortiz, who I'll actually be interviewing soon. And I'm really excited to hear about the special things that they're doing and the special things they have coming soon. All right, first of all, let's open this up because this is one of the most insane bottles of tequila to open. I've never had to use a wine cork remover. And let's get this in a glass real quick.
[00:01:08] Let's talk about the story and the accident that happened. This batch was supposed to be a standard 24 hour cook in a traditional stone oven. But overnight the oven shut off and at that point most producers would just scrap what they were doing. But instead they restarted it, then shut it off again and restarted it again. So this goes on for 68 hours of cooking time. They're basically cooking the agave over and over. Trial and error. And they only kept the penis that were properly cooked. That's why this batch only yielded that 777 bottles, or I guess technically is around 800 total. This is not something you can replicate. This was one of those things that's right time, right place, amazing product to release. So let's talk about how it's made because that's right in our wheelhouse to talk about cooked in those brick ovens like we talked about. Extracted with a roller mill. Open air fermentation in stainless steel tanks, double distilled in stainless steel pots with copper coils and released 46 ABV or 92 proof. And one of the things to note about fermentation, because it is wild and it's open. The facility is surrounded by eucalyptus trees. So one of the things I've heard from people who have tasted this and done reviews is that they pick up some of that eucalyptus actually in the flavor and in the nose. Can't wait to try it. As you've seen, it was just now a fresh pop. So we're going to get to experience that together. Okay, let's dive in on the nose. I definitely get that cooked agave. I get a really nice minerality. And there's a fruit that I'm picking up as well, like a fruitiness. But I can't really put my finger on what that fruit smell that I'm getting. And I have to, to say, it's also just a little bit like a nutty, maybe like a. Almost like a pecan type or cooked pecan note in the nose. I'm really looking for that eucalyptus because I've kind of heard that from some people. I pick up a nice herbal freshness, but I'm not really picking up just straight eucalyptus like I was expecting. Probably was thinking about it too much. There is a little bit of a mintiness, though, in that nose, which I guess could also be transcribed as eucalyptus as you get this nice mint. It is a nice nose. There's a lot of. There's a lot of things going on there. And as a fresh pop, I'm sure this is going to open up into so many more things. Okay, let's dive into this one. Really nice cooked agave, almost like a roasted cook agave. And there it is. There's the eucalyptus I get. There's almost like a menthol opening up finish with this nice minty eucalyptus like note. It's more at the end of all of the flavors and going into that finish, and it just stays really bright. And the taste mid palate, I got, I got cooked agave up front. I got a lot of, like, vegetal notes. I got a little bit of like a tea note and some form of grassy note that I really can't put my thumb on. It's a very herbal, grassy note. That's really good. There's a nice salinity to it. You. You do get a little bit of this black pepper kind of hidden underneath that. That bright eucalyptus or mintiness. The peppers there more in the long term finish. Just. Let's try that again. I got to say, the sweetness of that cooked agave is nice. This is a very, very clean blanco. It has a lot of green notes to it. And that, that minty eucalyptus note is just really, really, really good. This thing right here, this is the real deal. House of Rare has built themselves as a very custom luxury product. You know, we've seen other brands that have put out bottles that were rested in House of Rare barrels, and those have always been, you know, so good. So I really expected this to be exceptional. And it is. It's very nice. This one is made at nom 1648. This is their distillery and the first product that they've done there. So I'm pretty excited about that. Maybe we'll get to visit that distillery soon. This is one where the story matters, the production matters, but most of all the juice inside of this thing. The tequila itself really matters and it does leave you with a really beautiful collector's type of bottle. Make sure you watch out for the upcoming interview with Miguel. We're going to talk about a lot of things that went behind this brand and how House of Rare got its start and what House of Rare is all about. Not to mention we're going to talk about a brand new release that's coming soon too. If you're into great clean tasting tequilas and unique production stories or limited releases, this is one definitely to pay attention to. If you like these kind of reviews and information about tequila, hit that like and share button and and put in the comments. Have you ever had this House of Rare product? Check it out. Thanks for watching. Have a great night. Salute.
