Clase Azul

Clase Azul is as much a ceramics house as a distillery, and the range here covers both the tequila and the mezcal side.

Plata is unaged and the clearest look at the agave itself. Reposado is the bottle almost everyone knows, rested in oak and presented in the tall white and cobalt decanter that made the brand recognisable at fifty paces. Anejo goes further in wood. The Gold Limited Edition sits above them.

The Reposado also comes in a 1.75 litre format when stock allows.

On the mezcal side there are three: Durango, Guerrero and San Luis Potosi, each named for the state the agave comes from and each using a different agave species. This is where the range gets genuinely interesting, because mezcal is where regional character shows most clearly, and Clase Azul bottles them separately rather than blending.

The decanters are hand painted in Santa Maria Canchesda in Mexico and no two are identical, which is a large part of why these bottles are given as gifts.

If you want to understand the range before buying, the Clase Azul guide on the site goes through it in detail.

History

Tequila can only be made from blue weber agave grown in Jalisco and a handful of neighbouring municipalities, and only after the plant has spent six to eight years in the ground. That timeline is the reason good tequila is not cheap.

Clase Azul was founded in 1997 in Jesus Maria, in the Los Altos highlands of Jalisco, and took a deliberately different route to most of the category. The agave is slow cooked in traditional brick ovens rather than industrial autoclaves, fermentation uses a proprietary yeast, and the spirit is rested in casks chosen by the house.

The decanters came from a separate decision. Rather than commission bottles from a glassworks, the company set up its own ceramics operation, and each decanter is thrown, fired and hand painted. That work supports several hundred artisans and takes days per bottle.

Mezcal came later and follows a different rulebook. Where tequila is restricted to one agave species, mezcal permits dozens, and the agave is roasted in earth pits rather than ovens, which is where the smoke comes from.

The ceramics workshop, the brick ovens and the reason one decanter takes days to finish are all documented in our guide to what sets Clase Azul apart.

How to drink it

Reposado and Anejo are sipping tequilas. Use a copita or a small tulip glass rather than a shot glass, serve at room temperature, and give it a moment before the first sip. Expect cooked agave, vanilla and butterscotch, with the wood showing more in the Anejo.

Do not do these as shots with salt and lime. That ritual exists to make rough mixto tequila bearable and it destroys everything you are paying for here.

Plata is the one to mix. A Tommy's Margarita, tequila with lime and agave syrup and no orange liqueur, shows the agave rather than burying it.

The mezcals are best neat, at room temperature, with a slice of orange rather than lime alongside. Sip rather than shoot: at their strength the aromatics need air.

If you are opening one of these as a gift bottle, decant nothing and pour small measures. These reward being made to last.

More from this origin and style:

Don Fulano · Reposado Tequila · Anejo Tequila