Review: Komos Anejo Cristalino Tequila
In 2021 Richard Betts & Joe Marchese partnered with Casa Orendian to craft Komos Anejo Cristalino. Since then they have added Komos Reposado Rosa, Komos Anejo Reserva, Komos Extra Anejo, and their newest expression Komos XO. Betts worked as a winemaker for over ten years before founding Sombra Mezcal and Astral Tequila. Komos Anejo Cristalino is made from a blend of agave grown in both the Highland and Lowland region. The pina’s are slow roasted for about 3 days. The extracted juice is fermented with native yeast for up to a week. The spirit is twice distilled in copper stills and then aged in French oak white wine barrels for 12 months before it is dripped through a charcoal column to remove the color and soften the wood notes. The tequila is aerated in a clay Greek wine amphorae before bottling. The aroma leads with cooked agave, vanilla, oak, brown sugar, soft caramel, dark dried fruit, and black licorice. The sweet agave syrup and vanilla entry builds to a citrus, cinnamon, oak, and raisin peak. It fades with vanilla, cooked agave, sweet cinnamon, and milk chocolate, and finishes with caramel, lemon, Raisinets, almond, and pepper. This is quite possibly the most complex Cristalino tequila I’ve experienced, and that’s a good thing.
NOM: 1110
Region: Highland and Lowland
40% Alcohol
Score: 93
Award: Gold Medal