Wife and i are not big drinkers...but, we too wanted to find a nice Tequila. Because i do research on any purchase we make, we set up a plan. We boarded a cruise out of long beach and went to ensenada (3 day,of which we recall two). We booked land tours of different tequila distillers (sp?). One was a new 'factory' type of stillery, the other was on a back alley, old house with barrels of elixir ferminting into tequila. The wonderous part of this was to discover what Tequila is the the history and the deep relationship that the ancestory of Mexico holds to the Agave Cactus. There is so much legend and history that has tied product to the people. Bottom line, true agave cactus, roasted for a week or more, than is pressed and the fluid allowed to sit in barrels, have the dead critters and other things that land in the ferminting barrels scrapped from the top of the exlir. Distill the product... now that was fantastic tequila...we think...just a couple of prayers of thanks, some gestures (which include the correct inhale and exhale), and we were standing in line a the old counter buying the anejo...we are running out, the bottle has lasted us 4 years, but each shot (no sipping here!) is treasured memory and reminder of the people and their relationship to the cactus, earth and sky. Dona Engracia, 35% by volume, real clay 'bottle', real cork on top, real tequila, that tastes different from what we have here...a shot reveals an aftertaste of pepper, no hint of the alcohol, and reminds us of the sight and sounds of the agave roasting in the fire pit. Salute!
