Review: Amatitena Tequila Blanco
Amatitena Tequila Blanco is made from single estate agave using artisanal methods that date back to the early 1900’s. Master Distiller Don Alberto Partida is a fifth generation Maestro Tequilero and a 6th generation agave grower. He began distilling tequila at the age of 12 at the family’s Puerta de Hierro distillery. Each label denotes the field or parcel of land within the Partida Family Estate on which the agave was grown. It also notes the year the agave was planted. The agave from the bottle I’m sampling was grown on Las Tripitas and planted in 2018. The trimmed agave is cooked in a rare type of traditional stone oven which burns mesquite wood to cook the agave. The cooked agave is milled using a Tahona wheel. The juice and fibers are fermented in wooden tanks with spring water and ambient yeast. The spirit is double distilled in 19th century alembic copper pots and bottled additive free. The aroma leads with smoky cooked agave. Additional time brings out caramel and citrus notes. The sweet herbal and citrus agave entry builds to a vanilla, lemon, and very smoky agave peak. It fades with caramel, herbs, mineral, camp fire, and lemon peel and finishes with smoke and agave. Without a doubt Amatitena Tequila Blanco is the tequila I’ve tried that tastes most like mezcal. As someone who strongly prefers tequila to mezcal, Amatitena will not make my play list but that said Amatitena is a well crafted original tequila.
Made with Lowland Agave
42% Alcohol
Score: 90
Award: Silver Medal