Review: Milagro Tequila Select Barrel Reserve Silver (2010)
Review: Milagro Tequila Select Barrel Reserve Silver (2010)
60 bucks is a lot to pay for a silver tequila, so it better be good, right?
Well, even if it’s not, it helps if it’s a work of art. Milagro’s Select Barrel Reserve line come in some of the most gorgeous bottles I’ve ever seen, amazingly crafted with a glass rendition of an agave plant blown right into the base. It really has to be seen to believe, and once you do you’ll understand the reason for the plastic, padded case the bottle comes in.
Fortunately Milagro’s SBR Silver (100% blue agave, of course, and 80 proof) has the legs to go the distance with its looks. I’m not a huge fan of Milagro’s standard bottlings, but SBR is a significant improvement, toning down the bite of standard Milagro considerably. Here, however, though aged for 30 days in oak, it shows an awfully strong charcoal character, perhaps the result of too-aggressive filtering. Agave is huge here, with an herbal punch and a touch of mellow caramel on the finish. Still has some kick to it, though, before fading into that charred finale.
A very worthwhile tequila, but I regret to inform you’ll find better tasting tequilas for less money — though they’ll be nowhere near as pretty.
80 proof.
B+ / $60 / milagrotequila.com [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS] [BUY IT NOW FROM TOTAL WINE]
Milagro Tequila Select Barrel Reserve Silver (2010)
$60
Not sure how you would execute this, but I think it would be better if you took steps to eliminate the bottle/container/packaging influence on your rating. Same goes for price, for that matter, since you sometimes review some very high-end stuff which may impart some psychological impact on your expectations. Or maybe I’m just being an uptight jerk-face.
Edoc – tough to do unless everything is tasted blind, but my actual ratings I try to keep completely packaging-neutral. Price does play in, but mainly only at the very inexpensive end, where a good value becomes a bonus. That said I do like to comment on unique packaging, just because I get a kick out of it, really… even if it doesn’t play into the rating. For the record, this tequila would have the same rating no matter what packaging it came in.
Thanks for the comment. It’s good to remind folks of that, since you do seem to pull in a nice haul of high end liquor.
My wife recently purchased a bottle of this and we thought it was undrinkable. Tasted completely off – so much so that I ended up throwing it out. Definitely noted the overly strong charcoal, but it also had this sort of vanilla chalky taste to it that just made it terrible. Our father-in-law tried it (and he loves tequila) and he said undrinkable as well. I’m convinced something had gone wrong with that batch or bottle, but we won’t buy Milagro again. Ever.
Why they stopped making the pretty bottle.
Undoubtedly because it was so expensive to produce.