Rich to the point of being buttery. It’s decadent and gets better the more sips you take, especially once it opens up. Side by side with Patron Anejo and there’s not much of a contest, the nose alone on this one is a solid win—full of woody, agave, vegetal, and spicy notes. The Patron nose is almost not present. Flavors are a bit of a closer call, but the Tapatio still comes out ahead by a good margin. Patron has that mellow smoothness that you can either take as a lack of character or refinement, depending on your disposition. The Tapatio has tons of character, including something almost reminiscent of buttery street corn without all the toppings. Yep, there’s a chardonay-like vibe here that I dig.
About this bottle
Tapatio is produced at La Alteña distillery in Jalisco, where generations of the Camarena family have been making tequila, mostly for local consumption. This a joint project between Carlos Camarena and Marko Karakasevic of Charbay Winery & Distillery in Napa. The 100% estate-grown blue agave is roasted for 4 days and fermented with a proprietary yeast culture that dates back 75 years. It's double-distilled in copper pot stills, aged 18 months in ex-bourbon barrels and undiluted to retain natural flavors. Additive free.
How it tastes
Measured across 14 flavor axes. Tap a note to find other bottles that lead with it.
Reviews
Showing the most detailed of 9 parsed reviews.
Neat. Beautiful golden straw color. Nose is sweet agave, dusty oak, minerals, light honey, pear, vanilla, herbs, black pepper. Taste is natural, sweet agave, honey, oak, vanilla, herbs, cinnamon, black pepper. Finishes a little buttery, with some slight sweetness, oak tannins, vanilla, cinnamon and pepper Love this light, natural tasting anejo, that still showcases a lot of agave Very similar to El Tesoro anejo, which is one of my favorites (same distillery, slightly different methods). Not quite as good, maybe 95%, but significantly cheaper around me, since they nearly doubled the price recently..so a nice regular day sub. Can be hard to find, so I snag a bottle when i see it
There's something Dusty on the nose here. On the pallet is that typical agave sweetness, and for me there's like a corny kind of quality. There's also some green vegetable notes. Maybe almost something like roasted broccoli. And then the tail end is definitely like a Dusty pepper note with that wood coming through
Some cooked agave, fresh mint, hint of oak on the nose. Slight potpourri-like herbal essence. Faint, damp air. Light body, some oak, wintergreen, agave, toothpaste. Vegetal and agave-forward. Herbal finish, some pine sap, simple syrup. I don't love it - Not a whole lot going on here, could pass for a reposado.
Muy rico, delicioso, suave, sedoso, el único pero que le pongo es que es muy similar a todo al reposado. Por eso prefiero el Reposado. Very rich, delicious, smooth, silky, the problem for me is that it is very similar to the reposado. That is why I prefer the Reposado
Spectacular. Just clean agave and pepper with a hint of oak. So light and refreshing and so good. Just wish we could get it cheaper in Canada.
3 more reviews were collected for this bottle. The longest ones are shown first.
Tastes like this
Closest flavor profiles across the whole catalog.