El Tesoro Tequila Unveils 2 New Additions To Its Mundial Collection: One Finished In Knob Creek Rye, And Another In Laphroaig 10

Forbes Lifestyle ForbesLife El Tesoro Tequila Unveils 2 New Additions To Its Mundial Collection: One Finished In Knob Creek Rye, And Another In Laphroaig 10 Karla Alindahao Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about travel and food. So I love forks in the road.

Following Oct 16, 2023, 08:02pm EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Knob Creek Rye Edition was made in collaboration with the esteemed Fred Noe of Beam fame. El Tesoro Tequila Whenever I find myself with a hankering for tequila (as I often do) I typically reach for one of my favorite blancos, which I much prefer over reposados and añejos . The philosophy being that the mark of a brilliant maestro tequilero is in their blanco—unaged and straight from the still and brimming with vibrant fresh agave notes that take you back to Jalisco.

Truly, there’s no way to achieve a beautiful aged tequila with a rubbish blanco. Hence my partiality. But of course, there are always exceptions.

And this year, there are two extraordinary ones: El Tesoro just released new expressions in its Mundial Collection—the Knob Creek Rye Edition, a one-time release of just over a thousand cases, and the second installment of its Laphroaig finish, which was fully matured for a full twelve months in Laphroaig 10 barrels (unlike the first edition, which was rested for only four months in the Islay whisky known for its forceful peaty notes). “The first edition that we launched—El Tesoro Mundial—was only cask finished because we were afraid of the influence of the Laphroaig. If it might be too peaty, too smoky, too much.

So for the first edition, it was a single-barrel El Tesoro reposado—nine months in oak and then finished another four months in a Laphroaig barrel,” said Carlos Camarena, third-generation master distiller at La Alteña Distillery, which produces El Tesoro. “For this edition we decided to start with blanco tequila inside the barrel, but for a full year. Because for the first edition, even in four months, we thought that the influence of the of the Laphroaig would be higher—and it was higher.

And this one, to me, is more soft to the influence of the Laphroaig into tequila, even if it was for a whole year. But we still have some of those peaty notes from the Laphroaig, but in a more subtle way. ” The second iteration of El Tesoro’s Laphroaig Edition was fully matured for twelve months in .

. . [+] Laphroaig 10 casks.

El Tesoro And subtler it is. On the nose, it reads like salty vanilla bean with hints of tropical citrus (think: pomelo and Kaffir lime). But on the palate, upon the first three sips, is where the 80-proof añejo really shines.

There’s a pronounced butterscotch-forward sweetness that complements Laphroaig’s smoky influence, which can be attributed to the cask’s provenance. MORE FOR YOU ‘Loki’ Season 2 Shows Why Marvel’s Multiverse Doesn’t Work Leak Reveals A Wall Street Crypto Revolution That Could Crush The U S Dollar Has Suddenly Begun Heralding Bitcoin Ethereum XRP And Crypto Price Chaos The Kremlin Sent Men To Die In 70 Year Old Fighting Vehicle Making A Suicidal Assault On Ukrainian Defenses “This barrel started its living in Kentucky and were used in Maker’s Mark. And after that, those barrels traveled to Scotland and then were used for ten years aging Laphroaig and after those ten years, they were emptied and then came back to [North] America—in this case, Mexico, to age tequila,” Camarena said.

“This is what we had in mind by thinking ‘Mundial. ’ Those barrels were traveling the world into different spirits: first bourbon, and then Scotch whisky, and then tequila. What are those barrels and the previous spirits bringing to the table? What are they imparting into our tequila? That was the challenge: How can we honor that travel? How can we honor these other spirits into tequila without covering one with the other, but actually complementing each other?” Camarena’s philosophy also extends to the Mundial Collection’s Knob Creek Rye Edition.

For this particular expression, Camarena collaborated with oft-celebrated Fred Noe—the seventh-generation master distiller at the James B. Beam Distilling Co. behind Knob Creek Rye .

El Tesoro’s Knob Creek Rye Edition—which clocks in at 40% ABV—is a limited one-time release with . . .

[+] just a little over a thousand cases produced. El Tesoro Tequila “It’s not something where we just happened to think, ‘Okay let me get some barrels of Knob Creek and I do it on my own. ’ It was a collaboration of two families getting involved with it.

I remember taking samples out of these barrels and sending a sample to Fred Noe in Kentucky. And then we would have this discussion on the Internet—on Zoom,” said Camarena. “So he was in Kentucky and I was in Arandas and we were tasting and I said, ‘Hey, am I honoring what you had in mind with this bourbon? Is this reflecting the flavors that you would expect? So this is a work of collaboration.

How can we build together—from agave, from grain; from tequila and from bourbon—something that honors both spirits? Not one trying to overpower the other, but how can we kind of combine them together in order to create something different. ” Knob Creek, which is recognized for its approachability because of the relatively low rye content in its mash bill, contains less than 55% rye. So unlike many high-rye expressions, it delivers more sweetness than spice—and that same distinct characteristic follows through in El Tesoro’s latest release.

There’s a rich (but balanced) dark chocolate-caramel note that soon gives way to warm baking spices and orange rind—certainly the kind of flavors that make for an añejo that does justice to its blanco. Follow me on Twitter . Follow me on Instagram (@kalindahao) and Twitter (@karlaalindahao) Karla Alindahao Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.