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While the spirits industry overall is in a difficult moment, one category that has shown some growth is agave spirits, specifically tequila. There are a lot of brands to choose from these days, ranging from celebrity-backed ventures to those that are flavored with additives to ones that are made using more traditional production methods (and are mostly additive-free, even if they are not allowed to be labeled as such). Then there is the small but growing group of tequila brands that are focused on highlighting the effects of terroir on flavor, and one of the leaders in that world is Tequila Ocho, which just announced the launch of an interesting new series.
Tequila Ocho was founded in 2008 as a partnership between maestro tequilero Carlos Camarena and the late tequila ambassador Tomas Estes. Camarena is a familiar name in the tequila world: he is also behind brands like Tequila Tapatio and El Tesoro (his sister Jenny is now the master distiller for the latter). Ocho calls itself the “world’s first single estate tequila,” meaning that it releases different vintage expressions that are distilled from agave grown on single fields throughout the highlands of Jalisco in an attempt to show how flavor varies based on the agave’s origin.
Today, Ocho announced that it is launching a new tequila series called Terroir Select, with different vintages that are distilled from agave grown in single regions but harvested from multiple fields in the highlands, specifically in Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Michoacán. The first release is called Comunidad, and it is distilled from agave grown by family farmers at El Nacimiento de Abajo in Arandas, Jalisco. Two expressions will be released, plata (or blanco) and reposado, each bottled at 80 proof.
According to Camarena, the impetus behind Terroir Select had two main drivers. “First, it enables us to help smaller agave farmers who share our commitment to growing only the best agave on some of the best land Mexico has to offer,” he said in a statement. “Hence the name of the first release, Comunidad, which translates in English to ‘community.’ Second, it allows us to explore the influence that terroir of other regions in Mexico has on tequila. This helps deepen our understanding of the role terroir plays in the cultivation of blue Weber agave and, in turn, its role in tequila distilled from those agaves.”
The first two Terroir Select expressions will be available beginning at the end of this month at select retailers. And you can look for more from this new lineup, as well as continued releases of Ocho’s single estate tequilas, over the coming year. You can find many of those tequilas available to purchase now at websites like ReserveBar.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker