FORTALEZA TEQUILA Never before has it been this easy to make a mistake when purchasing tequila. The market is flooded with swill from Kendall Jenner, The Rock, Kevin Hart, etc., etc. When it comes to artisanal and hand-crafted tequila, a fancy bottle mixed with focused marketing typically gets the job done. Hang on to it for a few years, take a couple of pictures of you and your buddy being awesome on some old motorcycles and sell it for half of a billion dollars. No big deal. Good thing for all of us, there is a robust market of Tequileros producing mind-bendingly delicious stuff that don’t make it up on billboards or have a pyramid built from cases of it at your local liquor store. You must dig a little bit for the good stuff and be willing to spend a little more to be treated to something memorable. In 1873 in the town of Tequila in the state of Jalisco, Mexico Don Cenobio established a tequila distill- ery that would eventually become Fortaleza. Don Cenobio was a visionary, he would become the first Tequilero to export tequila outside of Mexico, he was the first to implement the use of steam to cook the agave and he was also responsible for shortening the name from ‘mezcal of tequila’ to just tequila making it easier to export to foreign markets. Don’s son, Eladio was responsible for introducing tequila to the world. He circumvented the globe calling it Mexican Whisky or Mexican Brandy. Eladio managed to get tequila established as the national drink of Mexico and established his own distillery, La Constancia. Following Eladio, Francisco Javier took over and he was responsible for one major accomplishment. While traveling,
Francisco visited Japan and came across a bottle of tequila that was produced in Japan. He was infuri- ated. That moment pushed Francisco to make sure that if it said tequila on the bottle, it meant it was produced in the state of Jalisco. In 1973, a group of Tequileros along with Don Javier first applied for certification that didn’t come through until 1996 - the Denomination of Origin for Tequila. If that’s not on the label it isn’t real. Only recently have other regions in Mexico followed suit with their own local concoctions. All Mezcal is Tequila, but not all Tequila is Mezcal. Tequila most be from the state of Jalisco, Sotol must be from the state of Chihuahua, Bacanora must be from Sonora. These are all special spirits, made from recipes centuries old and all unique in their own way. Personally, I feel like my taste in tequila has become extremely opinionated. I know what I love and what I don’t. Like wine, I don’t have any time to drink crappy tequila. Can’t do it. Fortaleza hits every mark – quality, story, presentation, and heritage. I’ve brought a bottle of Fortaleza to parties and intro- duced it to supposed tequila drinkers that didn’t like it because it didn’t taste like vanilla syrup. It’s phenomenal, wonderfully earthy with heavy notes of leather and sandalwood. Its sweetness is slight but presents itself at the perfect moment. On the palette, it is extraordinarily clean while also being complex. It’s such a different experience compared to almost anything on the market. Try the Blanco to start and move up through the Reposado and Anejo. Fortaleza also releases special bottles every now and then that are spectacular. Salud!
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