Tequila
Mexico 2008: Jalisco Journey
CHAPTERS:
1. Arrival
3. El Lago Chapala
4. Guadalajara
5. Guadalajara II
6. Colima
7. Volcano
8. Volcano II
9. Volcano III
10. Volcano - Lakeside Meditation
11. Volcano - Departure
12. Dinner
13. No Smiling
14. Mayahuaral
15. Probably Her Mother
16. A Perfect Island
17. Ceviche in Vallarta
18. This is a Road I Travel Only Once
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I visit the nearby birthplace of that quintessential "cosa Mexicana,"
Tequila. Traveling through fields of the blue agave cacti (they look
like four-foot-high heads of blue pineapples) to get there, and passing
through numerous tequila-making villages, it feels like a visit to Napa
or Sonoma. Instead of Wine Country, I'm on pilgrimage in the heart of
Tequila Country.
In one village's Museo Nacional del Tequila I learn
about the different purities and types and the white, gold, rested, and
aged styles of "the most Mexican drink." And in one of the many
distilleries nearby (I choose to visit the largest one, the home of
Jose Cuervo, a sprawling museum and distillery called "El Mundo
Cuervo"), I get to witness the process of splitting and crushing the
hearts of the ripe cacti, the double fermentation, and the aging
process. I finally sit in a fancy tasting room and sample the various
styles. Seated at a table with a German girl, a Spanish guy, a
Colombian lady, and a Mexican cowboy, we're shown how to swish, sniff,
and taste the various glasses of gold and silver delight. The best Añejo ("aged" -- in oak barrels for 3-5 years) has
delicious subtleties, fruitiness, oakiness, caramelness, spicy
sharpness. This, by the way, from me, a guy who's never had a taste for
the stuff -- or at least for the impure unaged stuff that passes for
"tequila" in most American bars, parties, and frat houses. By the end
of the visit I was both a delighted student and an enthusiastic (and
inebriated) customer.