Partida Añejo Tequila

Very solid especially at the price

Rating: 16/23 N: A nice balance of agave with wood. It's dry and kind of dusty with a bit of mint, mild agave sweetness, faint spices. It smells a little complex, but not very. P: Dry and spicy but with a nice sweet caramel agave layer that blends in pretty seamlessly. It lacks the sulfuric funk that the blanco has, fortunately. I get a hint of orange, a bit of mint, and a dash of lime. The mild woody spices really help to fill out the profile with some white pepper and add to the maturity. The complexity is decent here and the balance is really nice. This is light and easy to sip. F: Rich (but not full) with those spices, orange, faint mint, and a bit of extra complexity. It's sweet with that agave character and some woody dryness. It's a fitting conclusion to the palate. - Conclusion - This is a very nice tequila. It isn't excellent, but it's an enjoyable sipper for sure. It isn't as full as the blanco, but it holds together better. Between the two, I'd take this. I'm looking in the 15 to 16 range here. Probably a 15. Although I find this quite enjoyable, I can say for sure that it is not on the level of Fortaleza Blanco Still Strength (17). I might have underrated the Fortaleza a little, but there is a sizable gap between it and this, so I don't see how this would ever go past a 16. I have Cabeza at a 16 (though I can imagine upping it to a 17) and it also beats this. Although Cabeza is rougher around the edges, it has a really punchy and interesting flavor. Cabeza is the least sophisticated of the three, but it's very interesting and tasty. I was leaning toward a 15, but I think I'll give this a very low 16. Side-by-side with a lot of cross-category spirits, I found that the ones I rated 15 were clearly inferior and the ones I rated 16 were generally superior. Consider this to be the lowest 16 out there, but a 16 nonetheless.

There is a lot of weirdness surrounding this tequila brand. Weirness like reviews where people are fawning over the brand jerking themselves off in its luxurious radiant waves of awesome flavor of angels...Weirdness like it was founded by the same guy who pushed Vitamin Water and other various snake oils. I’m supposed to believe he donned a serape and picked cotton alongside peasants for 3 years until he saved up enough pesos and started an agave farm and leaped into the tequila game?Doesn’t it take 7-8 years for agave to mature? Oh I’m sorry, I forgot, I’m in America, where one is not allowed to question the narrative lest they be labeled a *gasp* conspiracy theorist! Mother of all insults! Is it though? Well whatever. Here’s one that goes against the narrative and you can call me whatever you want because I actually do not care what a single person thinks of me. This is just ok. It’s fruity and grassy and:...well that’s it. A little bit of wood sugar maybe if I close my eyes tight and pray for it to manifest on my disappointed tongue. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. And I doubt it’s been aged as long as they say. Which they don’t say. So I’m right. In your face! And you know what else? Vitamin water sucks too, there I said it. If you want a mediocre anejo in a perfume bottle, this is your dream come true. If you want to overpay for disappointment this is an option. Personally I recommend you go get a bottle and form your own opinion which is what I did.