10 minute read
THE MAGICAL LAND OF TEQUILA
A guys’ getaway starts with a spirited train ride and culminates with visits to family-owned distilleries
This is how dreams begin in Mexico, with a ride on a tequila-inspired train.
My longtime friend Julio Bermejo and I board the Jose Cuervo Express, the train that travels from the city of Guadalajara northwest to the town of Tequila, now officially recognized as a Pueblo Magico (magical village).
Text and Photos by MICHAEL SHAPIRO
We’re in the recently unveiled Elite class woodpaneled train car with mariachi bands, premium tequila tastings, and a Mexican lottery game.
Sipping tequila while rolling past fields of agave, the spiky green succulent from which tequila is made, is the perfect way for a couple of guys to kick off a long weekend celebrating Mexico’s premium spirit.
Julio, the beverage manager at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, is a tequila ambassador (see sidebar on page 31). After my travel advisor suggested a trip to explore the origins of tequila, Julio got right on board.
“Grape fields are all over the world, but agave grows only here,” Julio remarks as the train chugs past a towering volcano. “It gives you a sense of place. When you see agave fields, you know where you are; it reminds you everything comes from the land.” Later, at the sprawling Jose Cuervo distillery called Fábrica La Rojeña, I turn the lever to open an oaken cask and pour my own bottle of Cuervo’s finest tequila, its Reserva de la Familia. Then I push in the cork and dip the bottle in molten red sealing wax.
The next day, we visit Guillermo Sauza at Tequila Fortaleza. As his surname suggests, he’s tequila royalty. He was in line to run the tequila behemoth Sauza, but in the late 1980s, his family sold the company.
So Guillermo launched Fortaleza, the small premium tequila maker, in 2002, almost next door to the distillery that bears his family’s name.
Tequila making can’t be rushed, says Guillermo, looking relaxed in a Hawaiian shirt. The agave heads take seven to 10 years to grow and weigh 50 to 200 pounds when harvested.
The spikes are hacked off with a long-handled blade called a coa. Then the heads, called piñas because they look like gigantic pineapples, are roasted under pressure in a steam boiler built by Guillermo’s grandfather more than a century ago.
Freshly roasted agave
Eduardo Orendain of Arette Casa Noble is surrounded by 3,000 acres of agave plants and 150yr-old mango trees
Julio notes that Arette’s tequila embodies the region’s terroir: “pungent, herbaceous, green notes with an earthy vegetal flavor,” he says. “Arette is all of that with a nice body and a strong finish.”
TRAVEL I CHASING TEQUILA The smell of the roasting agave evokes Thanksgiving: molasses, brown sugar and sweet potatoes, with a hint of pumpkin pie. The agave fibers are removed; then the liquid, called mosto, is fermented in copper-pot stills.
“It’s like going back in time,” Julio says, surveying the hands-on facility. In an age of celebrity brands, the best tequila remains “tied to a place, a community.” We go to Arette’s barrel room and absorb the warm welcoming scent of tequila dancing with oak.
“It smells so good in here, but you know who’s reaping the benefit?” Julio says. “The angels!” Liquor that evaporates during aging is called “the angels’ share.” Julio notes that 8 to 10 percent of tequila is lost during each year of fermentation – compared to about 2 percent for cognac.
Across the street from Fortaleza is the boutique distillery Arette. Eduardo Orendain, the earnest son of the owner and the fifth generation to work in his family’s business, grew up with tequila. We talk in the concrete patio where the piñas are unloaded and cut open, surrounded by autoclaves (modern pressurized ovens) where they’re roasted, and greased black gears that power the fiberremoving shredders. “I’m not sure how much the angels like cognac,” he says, “but I know they love tequila!”
In the hills above the town of Tequila is Casa Noble, which has made a name for itself with triple-distilled premium tequila. Aged in French white oak barrels, Casa Noble is made at the Cofradia compound, which includes lavishly decorated hotel rooms and a restaurant called La Taberna that serves everything from fishbowl drinks to locally-sourced lunches.
“I love tequila,” says Eduardo, who is in his late 20s. “Since I was little I rode horseback in the agave fields, but my family put me to work – I had to clean the bottles.”
A Tequila Primer
What’s tequila? A spirit made from blue agave harvested in designated areas in five Mexican states. Most tequila comes from Jalisco, the state that’s home to the town of Tequila. What are the primary types of tequila? Blanco is clear, straight from the still and unaged. Reposado is aged in oak from two months to a year, añejo one to three years. Extra añejo stays in the barrel more than three years. Casa Noble uses atmospheric fermentation, which means its tanks are open to wild yeast in the air. The best way to evaluate tequila is straight from the tank, says our guide, David. “You can’t imagine what tequila really tastes like until you’ve tasted it straight from the still.”
Is all tequila made solely from agave? No, just the finer ones. The spirit must have at least 51 percent blue agave to be called tequila, but premium tequilas are 100 percent agave. Does tequila have a worm in the bottle? Nope, that’s mezcal.
As we sit down to taste, David notes that taking a shot isn’t the way to enjoy tequila. “It’s like drinking boiling coffee and getting scalded,” he says. The right way is to sip it, slowly. “It’s not one quick bang – how about the cuddling and kissing – that’s what makes it more enjoyable.”
Tequila is one of the bestselling spirits in the world, which is “phenomenal,” Julio says, because by law it can only be grown in designated districts in Mexico, mostly in Jalisco.
The town of Tequila isn’t the only region where Mexico’s national spirit is distilled. Some of the best producers are in Jalisco’s highlands, two hours drive east of Guadalajara, so we travel to the pueblo of Arandas to visit Tapatio.
Referring to a leading scotch brand, Julio says: “There’s no Mr. Macallan” in Scotland, but in Mexico you can still visit many family-owned distilleries. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
Carlos Camarena, Tapatio’s director, is proud of adhering to generations of tradition. A tahona (a grinding stone the size of a small car) is used to mash the agave for Tapatio’s premium brand, El Tesoro de Don Felipe.
The process is “old and inefficient, but this is the way my father and grandfather did it.” Carlos says, raising a glass of golden tequila.
Beverage conglomerate Seagram’s approached the Camarena family, and offered “way more than the company was worth,” he says.
“But you know what, we didn’t accept. We have more than 80 years of tradition of making a good quality product. We have a decent living. That’s all we need.”
And that four-day trip Jalisco was just what I needed, a quick getaway with a good friend, reveling in Mexico’s native spirit and reviving my soul.
Contact your trusted travel advisor to learn things you never knew about your favorite beverage. Growing up the son of Mexican immigrants in San Francisco, Julio Bermejo worked at his family’s Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant. “I cut tomatoes, shredded lettuce, grated millions of pounds of cheese,” he said.
As a young man tending bar at Tommy’s, Julio discovered 100% agave tequila and began making margaritas with the premium spirit, lime juice and agave syrup – and nothing else.
“My father went ballistic,” Julio said. Compared to cheap tequilas, pure-agave tequila “was four times as expensive! But people could taste the difference.”
In the late ’80s, Julio discovered premium tequila made by Patron and El Tesoro, which inspired a pilgrimage to Jalisco.
“I knew Patron and El Tesoro were different but didn’t know why or how,” he said. In Mexico, the Camarena family that owned El Tesoro (made by Tapatio) welcomed Julio and showed him how fine tequila is made.
Returning to San Francisco, Julio founded Tommy’s Blue Agave Club to encourage customers to try various pure-agave tequilas.
Yet it’s not just marketing skill that makes Tommy’s a destination for tequila lovers – it’s Julio and his family’s warmth and graciousness.
Now beverage manager at Tommy’s, Julio welcomes returning customers by name, asks about their families and remembers what kind of tequila they like.
Because Julio has shared his passion for fine tequila with so many people and has become so knowledgable about the spirit, Mexico’s national tequila chamber (CNIT) has given him a title: Ambassador of Tequila to the United States.
Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant, 5929 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, Calif., www.tommystequila.com.
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