![]() Now that Clase Azul price of around $150 in the USA, $90 in Mexico seems like a bargain. The company says that each bottle takes two weeks to complete. They craft each bottle by hand, so none of them are exactly alike. In the town of Santa Maria Canchesda, the workshop of pottery makers and painters has grown to more than 350 artisans. Clase Azul in the Painted Porcelain Decanterīack to the reposado decanters, because they’re almost as important as what’s inside. There are better values out there for silver/plata tequila in fancier bottles at that price point if you prefer unaged spirits with no barrel notes. There’s no aging, the (glass) bottle is not as pretty, and the price is about the same as the reposado one in the U.S. The plata (silver) version is not a good value though, in my opinion. I have only gotten to try that once, in a tasting round with a few others, but even with that brief encounter, I could tell it was something quite special. It’s aged for five years in barrels that used to hold sherry. If you want to go for the añejo version, you’ll pay a lot more for that, but for a reason. Search prices online here for the reposado and anejo versions. It pulls this off year after year too, in blind taste tests, so nobody is being swayed by the pretty bottle in those cases. Clase Azul Reposado has won gold awards in beverage competitions and gotten scores in the high 90s from known spirits reviewers. This tequila is also differentiated in where its blue agave is from (the highest points in Jalisco) and how the big fruits are roasted (72 hours in traditional brick ovens).īut hey, you don’t have to take my word for it. It’s also darker than a lot of reposado tequilas, thanks to more time in a barrel. But it’ll be an after-dinner drink with a lot more complexity than some of the syrupy things that often show up on that section of the menu. Clase Azul Reposado is sweet enough on the finish, in my opinion, that it could take the place of a liqueur as an after-dinner drink. The taste lingers on far after you’ve swallowed and it’s a pleasant, sweet finish that almost feels like the aftermath of indulging in dessert. Save the more clumsy mass-market ones for your cocktails. As you would probably guess, it’s for sipping, not mixing. This is a true highland tequila, with more going on in the mouth and a much smoother finish than the more famous, high-volume brands you see on every bar shelf from the town of Tequila and its surroundings. This is some of the most interesting and balanced tequila I’ve every tried (and as a tasting editor who lives in Mexico, that’s a lot). ![]() The first impression is of sweet, ripe agave and as it rolls past your tongue, a whole array of complex tastes come out, from the dark and earthy to the bright and flowery. Even in a shot glass, there’s a pleasant agave nose that effectively buries the alcohol. The result is simply divine, a pleasant sipping experience from start to finish. He distills it three times in copper stills, and stores it all at least eight months in oak barrels. This premium tequila is from a small operation where the master distiller chooses the organic agave fruit at the height of maturation and cooks it with steam in traditional brick ovens. This is a premium spirit that would really stand out in a blind taste test and it’s approachable enough that you don’t have to be a connoisseur to enjoy sipping it straight. This is not one of those tequilas where the bottle and marketing hype justify the price more than what’s inside. You won’t normally buy an expensive bottle of liquor just for nice packaging, which is why Clase Azul is so satisfying. It makes a great impression at first sight, but it also impresses when you go to sip it after a pour. The first time was at Rosewood Las Ventanas in Los Cabos, recently when checking into a grand vacation rental from Agave Villas. Probably for that reason, this is the kind of tequila I’ve received the most as some kind of welcome gift at a high-end luxury hotel or villa rental. It’s something to put out on display like a beautiful vase. This is not a tequila bottle you want to hide in a closed bar cabinet. Made by hand on a pottery wheel, fired, and hand-painted with fine glazes, these are gifts that will create a lasting impression on the lucky recipient. There are a few that are packaged in real Mexican pottery though and the Clase Azul packages are real works of art. In most cases, when you hear premium tequila described as coming in “a beautiful bottle,” that bottle is usually glass.
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