Los Abuelos Tequila Reposado

Very traditional look, although it has its own identity and has not gone the road that many tequilas take of copying others, so I like the originality. Nose is nice with caramel, cooked and raw agave giving us some spices and vegetable notes. Tate is again very nice smooth and well balanced with inicial sweetness, caramel comes in for sure, maybe a bit of vanilla, buttery, and then the agave very nice with the combination of the cooked and raw feel. Body is nice medium to heavy, color straw golden. All the fortaleza line is great, they do a wonderful spirit.

An excellent example of what a traditional reposado should be.

Aroma: Butter, caramel, cinnamon, grass, and oak.
Initial taste: Semi-oily, sweet, and no bitterness. Agave and fruit come first.
Body: Light in color (for a reposado) and light in flavor. Not overpowering, but very well balanced.
Finish: Caramel, vanilla, spice, and oak last the longest, but all play second-fiddle to a strong note of pure agave.

One of the best. It's in my top five reposados. A bit expensive compared to some others that are better, but delicious nonetheless. I love the hand-blown bottles and real cork stoppers.

Tasted at home from white wine flute. Intriguing, welcoming nose of wood, oil, vanilla, mild agave. Pleasantly oily mouth feel. Piny, grassy, vegetal attack, rounding out to nicely balanced agave and oak taste around the tongue. Slight floral, cinnamon finish. I gave it a 90 for price because it isn't available in Oregon.

Tasted out of a snifter. Time and time again, I find myself loving the Fortaleza line. As TV Jefe says the presentation screams authentic and traditional. So does the taste. Everything is done the old fashioned way and I love that about this tequila. One of the best lines out there, and highly recommended to everyone. Aroma: A great nose of dried fruit, slight earth and slight cinnamon. Initial Taste: A semi oily moth feel, there's no bitterness on entry and the initial taste is dried fruit. Body: A very tasty and complex body full of agave, wood, cinnamon, earth, and slight smoke. YUMMY! Finish: A slightly heated finish of medium duration, with a slightly cinnamon lingering.

Fortaleza Reposado (formerly Los Abuelos): Tasted 6/11/08, at my home in a Riedel. Again, the presentation screams authentic and traditional. This bottle looks fantastic and it one of the favorites in my collection.

For me, a good reposado is the mark of a good master distiller. To balance the flavors of agave with the flavors of the wood - to make sure they compliment without overpowering one another - must be incredibly hard to do. I have found that a solid reposado usually indicates that a brand will be strong all the way through, and Los Abuelos is no exception. But since this review is on the reposado only, I will try to stick to that.

Los Abuelos reposado is a fantastic example of the harmonious balance found in a good reposado. The presence of the agave-rich blanco can be found in both the aroma and initial taste. I find the cinnamon, vanilla, and oak flavors from the resting to be secondary but apparent, adding a subtle complexity.

I recommend this reposado (as well as the rest of the Los Abuelos line) to everyone: blanco and anejo lovers alike. It's a great example of a pure product made from a traditional process.