Gift Worthy Aged Tequilas and Mezcals

Made from tobalá agave hearts or piñas grown on the estate, this mezcal is double-distilled and then matured in French oak barrels for a minimum of three years in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. If you are looking for an unusual, yet elegant pairing for a cigar, this would be an excellent choice.

It’s a unique approach utilizing former cabernet franc wine casks sourced from the Loire Valley in France for the maturation of this tequila. Enrique Fonseca, master mezcalero (distiller), uses these wine casks to age 60% of this tequila for 2 years and the remaining 40% for 3 years. He then ages them together for an additional year in American white oak barrels. ArteNOM is a project that “Las Joyas del Agave” has created to bring you special expressions from the some of the best distilleries or “NOMs” in Jalisco. The number 1146 represents the NOM where this tequila is distilled.

Ilegal Mezcal started as a spirit that was smuggled from Mexico to Guatemala by John Rexer and shared among friends at a tiny bar called Café No Sé. The (now perfectly legit) Añejo is a 100% agave mezcal. It is double-distilled from espadín agave and aged for 13 months in a combination of new and used American oak with a medium char. Each bottle is hand corked, labeled and numbered. (SRP $97.99)

"Diablito" translates to "the little devil," a play here on the phrase "the devil is in the details." The agave used in this tequila is grown using certified organic methods at 6,000 feet above sea level, in the Tierra Roja soils of the Amatitan region of Jalisco. The spirit is aged for 3 years and four months in new, lightly-charred French oak. Released annually in limited quantities.

The tequila uses organic agaves from the Los Altos region near Nayarit. The piñas are autoclaved for 20 hours, fermented with proprietary yeast, and triple-distilled. The añejo is aged 18 months in used bourbon barrels, yielding a dark straw color. This is bottled at 100 proof.

Chinaco is the only brand of tequila made in the northern state of Tamaulipas, and in fact the owner of the distillery had to fight to have it included in the designated area for tequila production. These tequilas are distilled from Tamaulipas-grown agave both from the highlands and near the coast, as well as a small amount harvested from Jalisco. The añejo is aged two and a half years in casks formerly used to mature Glenlivet single malt (90%) and ex-Bourbon barrels (10%).

Don Amado is a heritage distillery citing 11 generations of mezcal production in Mexico’s Oaxaca region. The agave hearts are gently roasted in the earth before being double distilled in traditional ceramic bamboo pots. Perhaps most notable is that the resulting spirit spends 18 months in ex-Pedro Domecq brandy casks — the producer of Mexico’s most celebrated brandy and an incredibly popular brand nationally.

Tapatio is the partnership between Marko Karakasevic of Charbay Distillery in northern California with Master Distiller Carlos Camarena at La Alteña distillery in Jalisco. Excelencia Gran Reserva Lot 1 was distilled in 1996 and aged in char no. 4 new American oak for four years. Here's where it gets crazy - then it was rested in 5 liter glass vessels before bottling in 2013. Spirits can't evolve in glass, you say? Well, agave breaks all the rules.

Germán González puts his tears and his heart into a distinctive, etched bottle with the classic Llorona legend on the back. Extra-mature agaves are selected and a proprietary yeast strain is used in a slow fermentation. Oak barrels which aged Scotch, sherry and cognac are used for maturation and aged for around five years. The blend is made with the goal of achieving a cognac or single-malt level of complexity. While most tequila is aged at 80 proof, this is bottled at 86 proof. The release will always be limited, according to González.

Enrique Fonseca's massive Tequileña distillery is a veritable laboratory of tequila production and the experimental lots of extra añejo that comprise the Fuenteseca project were never intended for commercial sale. These barrels were laid down in a subterranean cellar, where the cool environment was intended to allow them to age for years beyond what was otherwise considered desirable. This single-harvest tequila is a blend of column- and pot-distilled products which were vatted together before being aged in American oak ex-red wine barrels (85%) and used French oak (15%). This is the youngest batch of Fuenteseca but is still eons older than almost anything else on the market.