Agave Maria! It's Siete Leguas Reposado.

hint of green? errrrrrrrrr...no.

 Sorry for the dreadful pun in the title of this week's post. I had this all written and hadn't realised I would need to think of one, so you'll just have to make do with that this time. I'll try harder next time. Here we go...

Having dipped my toes into the welcoming waters of 100% agave with my last tequila purchase (el Jimador), it was time to up the ante even further and spend possibly more than anyone has ever spent before on a bottle. Obviously that isn’t true as such, but all of my friends who got to try it were astounded when I told them I had paid fifty quid for a bottle of tequila. We just don’t do that here.

Now, I don’t know any particular brand of tequila that is any better than any other so I looked for a recommendation, and the one I decided to take was from proof66.com. So at the time of purchase the top rated tequila was Siete Leguas Reposado – that’s Seven Leagues, named after the horse of legendary revolutionary Pancho Villa. It’s aged for 8 months and is bottled at 40%.

This is the first tequila I’ve ever owned that came in its own box, and the bottle is quite ornate with a horse embossed on the base, little agave plants embossed onto the sides and a big wooden hat on the cap. It certainly looks the part.

fan-ski!

Now the problem with tequila is that people just don’t think of it as a sipping spirit. The 7 Leguas website suggests that tequila should be held in the mouth for 20 seconds (and then a little air admitted) in order to allow its full flavour to come out, yet most people, when they hear you’ve got tequila want to do shots, or stick in in a tequila sunrise, or do body shots… No! Not with my expensive bottle you don’t!

Actually, yes you do. Body shots was the first thing Mrs Cake and I tried when the bottle arrived in the post. Obviously, this is not the best way to appraise what your tequila has to offer. But there would be plenty of time for that. Or so I thought. I ended up taking it to parties rather more than sitting at home going, “hmmm…”, so I got through it quite quickly. It proved a hit wherever it went.

It’s a very light golden colour, with (according to the producer’s website) hints of green, though I can’t say I noticed that. Yeh, it looks nice. Nose? Don’t know. Palate? Well, it has a nice texture and mellow flavour but I’m struggling to give you any more than that.

I have to say I am surprised that this ranks as among the very best tequilas (still number 2 on proof66) because… it isn’t amazing. I was actually more impressed with the el Jimador because that –being unaged - had a rough edge that I appreciated. The 7 Leagues was smooth and mellow, but there just wasn’t enough going on in terms of flavour. When I’m drinking whisky I’m looking for a lot to be going on in there, so with this tequila I’m disappointed and left wondering whether the people that have rated this so highly are the kind of people who don’t really like the flavour of tequila anyway. That’s not something I can really know the answer to. It was a pleasant tequila, but for £50 I’d be hoping for more. I probably won’t be buying it again – not at that price.

I have since moved on to purchase El Jimador’s Reposado expression, so in the fullness of time we’ll see how that pans out. In the meantime, I'll leave you to explore booze on your own for a week, after which I'll return with a post about something else.