Volans Single Barrel Reposado

Rating: 14/23 N: Minerals, mild smoke, the faintest touch of mellow wood, faint mint. Is anything else actually happening here? This is a super subdued nose. P: Woody with some light pepper and mint. Some more nuanced herbaceousness grows out of that, but it's all still quite subtle and limited in scope. The wood imparts the flavor of a small number of wood chips being left in for a long time: that is to say, it comes across as over-oaked, but not with tons of wood involved. There's a bit of a paperiness here and a very faint touch of something in the cinnamon-ginger-clover range. There's a faint sort of pineapple with even fainter vanilla, and something else tropical. Perhaps just the faintest orange and lime? And the absolute faintest hint of mustard. Overall, there are a lot of spices here and it's light, but other descriptors carry less weight. F: Paper, wood, some spices, minerals. Very little sweetness to suggest agave or tropical fruits. - Conclusion - This is a step down from Volans Blanco, unfortunately. It isn't bad, but it's pretty boring Would I take this over Cazadores Reposado? Yes, but they're kind of closer than I wish they were. I'm thinking that this is at most a 14, but that seems a bit high for it. Going under a 12 seems a bit harsh for it. There's enough interesting stuff happening here that I'm leaning toward a 13. I appreciate the nuance of this tequila, but I want more oomph behind it and the wood really isn't doing this one any favors. The blanco really is significantly better. I'm thinking a 13 is the most appropriate rating for this. As a sanity check, I tried this against Partida Añejo (15/23). This tastes more natural, but it lacks some of the tequila elegance that I expect. Still, I think I was underrating this in the beginning. I'd probably still take the Partida over this, but that "probably" is a strong indication that I should be considering a higher score for this. I'm inclined to give the Partida the win, but I'm surprised by how close the two are. I'm going to give this something in the 13 to 15 range. I'm thinking a 14, but it could still be a 13. It's a tough call. I think the earthy woodiness might just be a bit too much, so I'm going to give this a 13. Actually, on final consideration, I think that this has enough complexity to make it to a 14. This seems to be a subtle brand, but it doesn't have a ton of obvious flaws and there's some some pretty good complexity when digging deep. Thank you for sharing this one too, @ctbeck11 !

Standard Bottling: lime rind wrapped agave with mild, cigar ash nose. Medium feel. Ash reduces, heat rises. Balanced. Cooked agave, butter and minerals. Almost as good as G4.

Great quality clean tequila. Love this one!