Dori Bryant on Fifth Anniversary of ET

Experience Tequila launched in December, 2008. To commemorate our fifth anniversary, we asked friends and colleagues for their comments or reflections on our first five years. We will post the comments over the course of several months. 
It’s entirely appropriate that our first comment comes from Dori Bryant,  founder of the Spirits of Mexico festival. Dori is a trailblazing leader in the US agave spirits world, with a career in distilled spirits going back many years (don’t worry, Dori, no numbers!). Dori has been a mentor, role model, cherished friend and was one of our first supporters.  

“While Experience Tequila is a company which I hold in the highest regard, it’s the person behind the company who is on my personal and professional pedestal. Integrity, passion, patience and dedication are words which only begin to describe Clayton Szczech. His knowledge of the industry and the extra special care and attention that Clayton imparts to all he meets combine for one elegant package — be it his tours, his work ethic or his seminars. I have had the pleasure of attending a few of Clayton’s seminars–he’s well-versed, he educates, captivates and involves his audience. It has been our pleasure to have had Clayton associated with us at The Spirits of Mexico these past two years. Congratulations Clayton and Experience Tequila. Happy Fifth! Here’s to the next 5!”

Dori Bryant – IWSC Group / Spirits of MexicoDori Bryant

This testimonial is part of a series marking Experience Tequila’s fifth anniversary. If you would like  to submit your own, we would love to hear from you! Simply email us

Tequila Tasting (Gambit, September 2013)

“Tequila expert Clayton Szczech has wanted to attend Tales of the Cocktail, New Orleans’ drinks event, but he often finds himself in Mexico during the summer. He missed the event this year because he was touring distilleries in Guerrero and Chihuahua. But Szczech finally reaches the Crescent City this week to host a tequila tasting at Dominique’s on Magazine.

It’s almost like being a DJ,” Szczech says. “I put each tasting together in a different way, with different tequilas.”

Szczech spends half the year researching and leading tours in Mexico. During the rest of the year, he leads tasting events and shares his expertise in the United States.”

Click here to read the original article in its entirety.

More Experience Tequila media coverage.

Review: “The Tequila Ambassador” by Tomas Estes

Review: The Tequila Ambassador. Tomas Estes. Sauce Guides (2012).

Tomas Estes has written an instantly classic tequila book that is indispensible to the library of any agave aficionado. Estes, a native of Los Angeles, has spent more than three decades getting to know Mexico and mastering agave spirits. Along the way, he has opened 17 pioneering tequila bars in Europe and Australia, co-founded Tequila Ocho and was named the Tequila Ambassador to Europe by the National Chamber of the Tequila Industry.Tequila Ambassador Tomas Estes

Estes’ distinctive voice comes through lucidly in this work. He’s warm, positive, enthusiastic, inquisitive and humble. If you have been lucky enough to meet him, you’ll feel like he’s right there with you. If not, you’ll wish you had.

Estes’ attitude towards his status as Ambassador is, characteristically, at once ambitious and humble: he sees himself (as well as fellow Ambassador – to the USA – Julio Bermejo) as an “Ambassador Maker,” creating other ambassadors throughout the world through education and advocacy. Indeed, Estes emphasizes the primacy of education (for consumers and industry alike) throughout the book.

Estes shares his platform (which he modestly calls a ‘notebook’ or ‘scrapbook’) with his peers, mentors, teachers and other industry insiders. The book contains 13 interviews, from the owners of Cuervo and Patrón to distillers, scholars and experts such as Jose Sandoval and Miguel Cedeño, who may be as yet unknown to the casual tequila fan. The interviews are distributed throughout the book between chapters on each step in the tequila production process, tequila’s history, notes on the village of Tequila and a bit about Oaxacan mezcal.

Anyone looking for a purist’s diatribe should move along. As befits an ambassador, Estes avoids taking controversial or overly strong stances. He truly wants the tequila category to be broad, diverse and accessible throughout the world. So he doesn’t demonize the mixto category or large-scale industrial production methods. On the contrary, he sees both as providing more points of access to the entire world of tequila. He does, however, state a personal preference for tequila production that is small in scale, natural in technique and slow in pace. He also strongly advocates for a “less is more” approach to filtration, a detail whose importance will escape the novice but excite the advanced tippler.

The book is consistently good and there is little or no fluff here. However, the history of the margarita, the Robert Denton interview, the discussion of terroir and the final section on the future of tequila really stand out.

Terroir is the concept, coming from wine, that the soil and climate in which the raw material (grapes, agave, etc.) is grown will be expressed in the final product. So, just as Pinot Noir grapes from France produce a wine with different characteristics than those grown in Oregon, blue agave from Jalisco’s Highlands produce a tequila profile distinct from that of the lower Valley regions. Estes is one of the people behind Tequila Ocho, which succeeded in putting to rest any doubts about tequila’s claim to exhibit terroir. Each year, a new vintage is produced by Carlos Camarena (the master behind El Tesoro de Don Felipe and Tapatío, among others) utilizing agave from a different Highlands ranch than the previous year. The finished product, while produced on the same equipment with the same yeast strain, is remarkably different each year.

Robert Denton and Marilyn Smith were responsible for ushering in the wave of 100% agave sipping tequila in the US by importing Chinaco and El Tesoro in the 1980s. Estes’ interview with the couple is a fascinating look back to the birth at the US tequila boom, from the mouths of those who brought it to light.

While Denton and Smith were instrumental in bringing premium tequila to discriminating US drinkers, nothing has increased tequila’s popularity with the general public than the margarita. Estes’ bars have served over 8 million of the tart, salty concoction worldwide, and he takes us along for a ride on both sides of the border to research several versions of the drink’s origin. This is easily the most interesting and enjoyable telling of the margarita story we’ve ever read.

Tequila Ambassador BookEach of the chapters on tequila production provide technical precision and nerdy details in abundance, while at the same time providing a thorough and understandable explanation for the novice or spirits generalist.

Readers with a long history or deep involvement in agave spirits may want to turn immediately to the final section: “The Future for Tequila,” as we did. If the lack of bold prognostication disappoints slightly, all the right questions are asked. Fundamental problems in agave production related to price instability, overreliance on chemical pesticides and the monoculture resulting from cloning as the exclusive method of reproduction are succinctly and intelligently introduced. Estes does make strong arguments for some specific policies. He cites successful examples in Europe and California in arguing for price controls and cooperative organization in agave farming. Maintaining his focus on education and category-wide advocacy, he calls for the National Chamber of the Tequila Industry to be beefed up, take on more of a leading educational role and bring in bar owners and experts as non-voting honorary members. In his view, both the state of Jalisco and the Mexican federal government should do more to promote tequila education, tourism and entry into emerging markets in Asia.

This book has moved immediately to the top of the stack and is highly recommended. Experience Tequila will be hosting participatory dialogues and tastings with Tomas Estes in Seattle and Portland in mid-May, 2013.

-Clayton J. Szczech

Selected Tequila Bibliography

Tequila: A Natural and Cultural History

Selected Tequila Bibliography

Tequila a Traditional Art Tequila: A Traditional Art of Mexico. Ruy Sánchez, Alberto and de Orellana, Margarita (eds.) Smithsonian Books (2004).

Recommended for novices and aficionados alike. Mixing text with engaging graphics and montages, the book itself is attractive and artistic without compromising on information or facts. The book puts tequila in the context of Mexico’s independence and Revolution, while imparting all the necessary details of tequila production, though the idealization of the hacienda system is off-putting.

 

Book of TequilaThe Book of Tequila: A Complete Guide. Emmons, Bob. Open Court (1997).

This classic was perhaps the first comprehensive reference book about tequila. An excellent introduction for the novice, if you can get past the somewhat pedantic tone. The general information on the production, history and geography of tequila is solid, although the information on specific brands and distilleries is out of date. Includes tasting tips as well as food and drink recipes using tequila.

 

Tequila The Spirit of Mexico

 

Tequila: The Spirit of Mexico. (Second edition).  Martinez Limón, Enrique. Abbeville (2004).

A good general overview of tequila with excellent photos. More a coffee table book than a reference work, it’s unique in that the author is willing to go on the record and review and rank dozens of tequilas. However, he doesn’t make his criteria clear and many of the brands reviewed have changed signifcantly since the book was published.

 

Tequila: A Natural and Cultural History

 

Tequila: A Natural and Cultural History. Valenzuela Zapata, Ana G. and Nabhan, Gary Paul. University of Arizona Press (2003).

A fascinating work from two botanists specializing in the study of agaves. Equal parts romantic paean to the spiritual and cultural power of tequila in Mexico, and fairly erudite horticultural science. The book is most interesting when focusing on the plagues and problems of the contemporary tequila industry, and the relationship between globalization and agave production.