Tequila

The heart of this range is the producer-led end of tequila, which is a different shelf to the one most bottle shops stock.

Don Fulano is the deepest: Blanco, the Fuerte at 50%, Anejo, the Anniversario, and the Cimarron blanco and reposado. The family behind it, La Tequilena, have farmed agave in the Los Altos highlands for generations.

Ocho was the first tequila to bottle by single estate and vintage, treating agave fields the way a winemaker treats a vineyard. Fortaleza still uses a stone tahona wheel to crush the cooked agave, which almost nobody does any more. Calle 23 is made by a French biochemist working with proprietary yeast strains, and Camarena covers the approachable end.

Clase Azul sits apart, as much for the hand-painted decanters as the liquid, and the full line including the mezcals is on its own page.

La Cofradia, La Cava del Villano, Rooster Rojo and Volans fill out the range.

Dirt Road makes an agave spirit in Australia, which cannot legally be called tequila but belongs in the same conversation.

Mixto against 100 per cent agave, brick oven against autoclave, tahona against roller mill: our tequila buying guide explains which of those you can read off a label.

History

Tequila is a legally protected product of Mexico, made from blue weber agave grown in Jalisco and parts of four neighbouring states. The plant takes six to eight years to mature before it is harvested, and it is harvested only once.

The name comes from the town of Tequila, and distillation there dates to the sixteenth century, when the Spanish, having run out of brandy, applied European stills to the fermented agave drink pulque that had been made locally for far longer.

The distinction that matters most on a label is agave content. Tequila labelled simply as tequila may legally contain up to 49 per cent other sugars and is known as mixto. Tequila labelled 100 per cent agave contains nothing else, and the difference in the glass is not subtle.

Production method matters almost as much. Agave cooked slowly in brick ovens tastes different to agave cooked fast in an autoclave, and agave crushed under a stone tahona tastes different again to agave shredded by roller mill.

The age classes are simple: blanco unaged, reposado two months to a year in oak, anejo one to three years, extra anejo beyond that.

How to drink it

Use a copita, a Riedel tequila glass or a small tulip. Never a shot glass, and never with salt and lime. That ritual was invented to get bad mixto down quickly.

Blanco is where the agave is most visible: green, peppery, citrus, sometimes a little saline. Serve it at room temperature or very lightly chilled and sip it.

Reposado picks up vanilla and caramel from the wood without losing the agave. Anejo goes further towards toffee and dried fruit and drinks closer to a light brandy.

For cocktails, use blanco. A Tommy's Margarita, which replaces the orange liqueur with agave syrup, shows the tequila rather than burying it: two parts tequila, one part lime, a bar spoon of agave syrup, shaken. A Paloma with grapefruit soda and a pinch of salt is the everyday Mexican serve and is better than most margaritas.

Reposado works in an Old Fashioned. Anejo is for drinking neat after dinner.