With tequila-making comes centuries of custom and heritage, however firms like Espanita proceed experimenting with revolutionary new strategies to raise the spirit.
The simply launched Espanita Double Barrel Añejo Tequila is the most recent enlargement of the corporate’s vary of distinct choices centered on getting older and maturation. By working with two kinds of wooden, this new launch brings a singular aged tequila to the market that may maintain its personal with the best premium whiskeys.
Since launching in 2017 underneath the steerage of Founder and President Marina Wilson, Espanita has been producing a few of Mexico’s best tequilas from 100% Blue Agaves grown at excessive elevations within the Highlands of Jalisco. Every handcrafted tequila is made in accordance with labor intensive, typically historic traditions that permit the area’s distinctive terroir to shine. We ask Marina to inform us extra about this thrilling new expression.
Inform us in regards to the launch of Espanita’s Double Barrel Añejo.
Espanita Double Barrel Añejo is the most recent addition to our model household that was launched in November of 2023. To create our Double Barrel Añejo, we age our 100% Highlands Blue Agave tequila in American oak for no less than twelve months after which end maturation course of for as much as eight extra months in Bourbon barrels. The result’s distinctive and intriguing double barrel aged tequila with an genuine model, glorious construction, and lengthy, seamless end that showcases delectable Bourbon accents resting on a slow-roasted Agave middle. This new launch is a fruits of our a few years of labor with Bourbon cask finishes, together with cask curation, researching the affect of bourbons with completely different ages and mash payments, and represents our first age expression in ultra-premium worth vary. I very a lot sit up for sharing this glorious double barrel aged tequila with bartending group and with all tequila-loving customers.
What impressed this expression?
Whereas Blanco, an unaged type of tequila, deservingly stays essentially the most bought class, shopper curiosity in the direction of aged expressions of their favourite Blue Agave spirit is on the rise. In 2022, as market knowledge exhibits, Reposado accounted for 31.69% share of gross sales worth of tequila produced in Mexico and Añejo – for 19.58%.* These consumption developments have impressed us to begin experimenting with varied barrel finishes for getting older tequila and with completely different maturation approaches. Making a well-balanced aged tequila is an especially fascinating but additionally a really difficult endeavor as a result of delicate floral and citrusy Agave notes will be simply overpowered by robust wood-derived flavors. This work finally led to the launch of our Barrel Reserve assortment in 2023 and an inaugural launch of 97-point rated Espanita Double Barrel Reposado tequila, which is now adopted by Double Barrel Añejo.
For our flagship launches on this assortment, we have now fastidiously curated freshly emptied casks used to accommodate Kentucky bourbon with explicit mash payments and experimented with getting older strategies, perfecting the method. The objective was to create an aged tequila enriched with tantalizing Bourbon notes, however nonetheless expressing its grassy, fruit-driven Agave basis. To realize this objective, the primary spherical of maturation takes place in toasted American White Oak casks after which tequila is transferred to Bourbon casks the place getting older is accomplished. Second spherical of barrel-aging permits us to exactly management the maturation course of and improvement of desired taste notes. Experimenting with completely different barrel finishes celebrates the revolutionary spirit of our model in addition to the creativity and expertise of the artisans at our distillery.
Supply: Statista
What makes this spirit stand out from the remainder?
We imagine that the craftsmanship behind Espanita Double Barrel Añejo and our steadfast dedication to high quality and adherence to time-honored conventional manufacturing strategies, a core basis of our model’s identification, make this double barrel aged tequila to face out from the remainder because of its distinctive taste profile and its unmatched versatility. I’m notably proud that our new double barrel aged Añejo just isn’t solely a superb sipper but additionally pushes the boundaries on tequila’s utility in mixology. It actually opens up a realm of cocktails ready to be found.
What would you want bartenders to learn about this launch? What are bartenders doing with the spirit?
Espanita Double Barrel Añejo tequila has surpassed all our expectations on how properly this expression would carry out in mixology functions. Prolonged getting older and subsequent maturation in freshly emptied Bourbon casks enriched the flavour profile with daring, opulent notes of toasted honey oak, caramel, vanilla, darkish chocolate, roasted nuts, and cinnamon, the hallmarks of a well-aged brown spirit. Mixed with citrusy and natural notes contributed by sluggish roasted Blue Agave, the result’s an elegantly balanced, nuanced Añejo with glorious construction and nice aromatics that creates actually excellent riffs on such traditional cocktails as Outdated Original, Manhattan, Negroni, Sidecar and quite a few spins on Bitter cocktails.
Double Barrel Añejo pairs properly with such Italian bitters as Aperol, Campari and Cynar, and shines in amari-based cocktails whose bittersweet natural complexity supplies a superb match to our tequila’s vegetal Agave basis. We additionally advocate experimentation with bitters and liqueurs equivalent to ginger, apricot or espresso, and nut-flavored liqueurs equivalent to Amaretto or Frangelico. We had been amazed at how constantly Double Barrel Añejo outperformed standard spirits in blended drinks and resulted in additional flavorful, mouthwatering cocktails; potentialities are actually countless! It’s an ideal time to redefine how individuals take pleasure in tequila and let your creativity move.
What are you able to inform us in regards to the premium tequila class?
Premiumization stays one of many major drivers of spirits’ development within the US and this can be a notably essential pattern within the tequila phase. Whereas adverse financial developments can have an effect on the diploma of development of tremendous premium spirits, loads of components work in the direction of supporting gross sales volumes of tremendous premium tequila manufacturers, together with the rise in revolutionary cocktails, and rising cocktail tradition throughout the nation, product improvements, unique restricted releases in addition to evolving shopper training about Blue Agave spirits and their choice for high-quality spirits and pure substances. We imagine that the nook stone of tolerating success in premium class is to boost individuals’s data about craft tequila, encourage their curiosity and encourage experimentation in mixology.
What’s subsequent for you and Espanita?
At Espanita Tequila Firm we imagine in innovation being a key to holding shopper curiosity and we’re continually engaged on new expressions whereas staying trustworthy to conventional, artisanal manufacturing strategies which are essential to creating genuine, agave-forward tequila. Within the coronary heart of all our improvements is need to search out new artistic methods to precise the spirit of Blue Agave, to rejoice and honor its roots and essence. In 2023, we launched two new tequilas in our Barrel Reserve assortment, experimenting with Bourbon casks and maturation strategies, and are inspired by the success of those releases.
We’re at the moment engaged on aged tequilas with completely different barrel finishes that, as we hope, will please bartending group and tequila aficionados. We additionally proceed our work on increasing our 100% Agave “Signature Infusions” assortment, curating pure substances complimenting tequila’s taste profile and creating maceration approaches. I imagine that quickly we will have the ability to unveil extra thrilling new age and taste expressions as we’re constructing our model’s legacy.
