If you remember my interview on the blog with Jake Lustig a while back, he mentioned that he was working on a “blanco historico,” saying:
“If you made a Venn diagram of agave flavors, you would have minerality and citrus on one side and sweetness with baking spices on the other. When you look at the historical records, you can see that the Camarena family was one of the first to bring agave to the highlands. For the entire 19th century, almost all tequila came from the lowland valley. But were they barrel aging it? Not really. They were storing the tequila in large wooden vats called tonéles in Spanish or pipones. You wouldn’t get too much wood contact, but what you would get was oxidation and settling. There wasn’t much color, but it would still be rested, or reposado.
I like to research the history of tequila for new ideas, so what I wanted to do was dump some of my Don Amado mezcal barrels, rush them to Jalisco while the barrels were still wet, and fill them with valley-floor Cascahuín blanco at a higher proof. We’re conditioning the tequila for 25-28 days, so it’s like flash aging. It’s not 60 days like what’s required for reposado, so it’s still considered blanco. The Don Amado barrels are American white oak, first used for Mexican brandy, then used for Mezcal.”
I’m happy to announce that Jake’s “Blanco Historico” is here and in stock for $54.99, all distilled at the bastion for non-diffused agave spirits: NOM 1123 - Cascahuin!!
Can you imagine sipping on anything better with the warm weather outside right now?
-David Driscoll