Cinco de Mayo is holiday time… oh, wait, we’ve covered that already. Let’s get right to the review, then.

Don Julio’s Añejo tequila is top shelf stuff. This aged spirit has an immediate kick of vanilla, butterscotch, and Christmas spices, with a good, mellowed agave flavor that seeps into all of it. The wood is there (as it should be: it’s aged 18 months in oak barrels, though that’s shorter than many premium añejos), but it’s not overdone, as you get with some tequilas. Who likes to feel like they’re drinking liquefied oak? There’s some initial bitterness if you drink this tequila straight out of the water, but like fine wine it tends to “open up” after a few minutes exposed to the air and the bitterness fades away. (If you take it on the rocks, this effect happens much more quickly, by the way.)

Don Julio is good served neat or on the rocks, and I especially enjoy it with a Sangrita chaser. (Making Sangrita from scratch, ugh, that’s a whole other post someday.) It’s pricey, but it’s just about worth it.

80 proof.

A- / $43 [BUY IT NOW FROM TOTAL WINE]

Tequila Don Julio Añejo (2008)

$43

9

Rating

9.0/10

BUY IT NOW