Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/611718
106 / the tasting panel / december 2015 TEQUILA N o distilled spirit takes more of its character from the crop on which it is based than tequila. Vodka is distilled to near neutrality. Gin is all about botanicals. Most brown liquors draw most of their flavors from oak aging. But top-quality tequila tastes of blue agave and even the soil in which it's grown. Agave represents a substantial investment for fine tequila producers which own their own farms. Other plants providing sugars for fermentation leading to distilled spirits —such as grapes, wheat, corn, potatoes and sugarcane—grow quickly. But agave requires as many as eight years to reach sufficient maturity for use in tequila. And, once that agave is harvested, the plant is dead. The field must be replanted and the multi-year cycle starts all over. Tradition and Terroir EL TESORO TEQUILA FOCUSES ON QUALITY by Fred Swan