Volcan Blanco Tahona review

We have a shiny new Tequila to get all excited about here at Master of Malt: Volcan Blanco Tahona. Inspired by the silky white smoke that blankets a volcano post-eruption, this is very much a premium expression, priced at £119.95 and backed by wines and spirits producer Moët Hennessy.

We were one of the first people in the world to try this liquid at a launch lunch event at KOL, a high-end Mexican restaurant in Marylebone which was a deliberate choice for a brand embracing the modern Mexico. We were hosted by Carlos Pechieu, general manager and COO of Volcan de mi Tierra, who described Volcan as “A beautiful brand and story that needs to be told. Tequila is a story, a synonym of Mexico. Many brands are telling the same stories that may fall into the stereotypes: the burros, the sombreros, and the tacos. There is more than those stories”.

The story of Volcan Tequila

It was Don Juan Gallardo who conceived this brand. His family has deep roots in Mexico, going back to 1774. He wanted to move away from the shot and slammer notion of Tequila, a story we’ve heard before, but one backed in this case by Moët Hennessy’s luxury savoir-faire. It says something that the brand didn’t boast a Tequila in its ranks until 2017, but also that it does now. 

Pechieu says the Gallardo family and Moët Hennessy came together under two conditions. The first, is that it would be a brand with a 50-50 partnership between each, the first relationship of its kind for Moët Hennessy. Second, there could be no comprises on quality. Pechieu is effusive about Gallardo, “He’s such an important person. He was critical to NAFTA, the treaty between Canada, the US, and Mexico. He even got to choose where the treaty was signed as a thank you from the president,” says Pechieu. Don Juan chose where he eventually wanted his Tequila to be, near the volcano Tequila. 

The partners found a distillery, NOM 1523, with a dying brand called Volcan and breathed new life into it. “We started by doing our own liquid. To you, that might be obvious. But there are over 222 Tequla, all of this made in 169 distilleries. Most are creative with the bottle, the fancy name and many celebrities get involved… but of the 169, just 23 are distilleries make one brand,” Pechieu remarks. 

How Volcan De Mi Tierra Tequila is made

The process to make Volcan Tequila begins by harvesting 100% Blue Weber agave from both the Highlands and the Lowlands, the two volcanic terroirs of Jalisco. The Highlands are 5,500ft above sea level with red clay soil rich in iron and are characterised by floral and fruity aromas, while the Lowlands sit more than 3,000ft above sea level and have a richer, darker volcanic soil which gives an earthy, spicy and herbaceous taste. These are distilled into separate liquids that reflect the terroir

“We don’t buy kilos, we buy quality. We genuinely buy mature agave between 6-8 years, a lot of people say they do but don’t do that. We’ve seen tennis balls being cooked, three years old, that’s not the common practice but with a shortage of agave that’s more prevalent,” explains Pechieu. “We don’t harvest in the rainy season, you’re extracting a lot of water there, we do a very clean and bold shaving, so less kilo but getting the proper piña because the leaves are not bringing the quality. We cut them in half, removing the stem from the piña to cook a cleaner agave”. 

Volcan is interesting because it combines the traditional and modern for milling, cooking, and fermentation. Tahona volcanic rock milling and modern milling machines are used to mill the agave. Cooking is also split between brick clay ovens (which take 36-44 hours) and autoclaves (4-8 hours), predominantly the former. The agave is fermented slowly in stainless steel tanks and wooden tanks. While various yeast strains were tested in the steel tanks (settling on rum and Champagne yeast), in the wooden tanks the juice undergoes natural fermentation, where no yeast is added. Hence, the Tequila “expresses the most natural way of being,” as Pechieu puts it. Distillation takes place in a copper still, then a stainless steel still. 

After this, the liquid is left to rest for 30 days. The Blanco expression is bottled, anything aged is transferred into casks. Volcan boasts American oak and European oak casks, some of which came from its connections at Glenmorangie and Hennessy. The Añejo, for example, spends time in Glenmorangie casks, while the Extra Añejo matures in Hennessy casks, and both are blended to create the Cristalino. 

The most important thing that Pechieu underlines is the lack of additives after bottling. “We don’t use abocantes. The CRT refers to the legal use of “abocantes” (“mellowing agents” in English) as the process of adding caramel, colourant, natural oak extract, glycerin and/or sugar syrup in Tequila-making. Volcan de mi Tierra does not engage in this practice. “We need to do a Tequila that tastes like Tequila,” summarises Pechieu. 

The growth and growing pains of Tequila

Volcan ticks a lot of boxes to meet the cool, craft designation – everything is made at its own distillery, it doesn’t use additives, it favours traditional processes (at least partly). It also has the Moët Hennessy backing and is very much positioned as a luxury brand, both in the way that it centres its story on production, but also in the aesthetic and design as well as a punchier price. Pechieu refers to it as a “boutique brand”. That’s favourable in the market but doesn’t excite Tequila purists the way pure spirit profile and authenticity do. 

But growth at any cost is very much not the pitch at this Volcan launch. Picheiu stresses that the way it makes Tequila has to be authentic and sustainable. He talks us through what the flavour of Tequila should be, leading us through a demonstration where we Tequila in our hands then rub them together and smell them. “You should notice cooked agave. It’s not sticky, as Tequila with additives can be. The minerality of the lowlands, the herbaceous of the Highlands. A Blanco Tequila profile can express 500 aromas in a glass. How many white spirits can show this level of variety?” I would say there are others, like Rhum Agricole, but it is worth acknowledging the variety of flavour Tequila has. 

Picheiu also has concerns about the current market. What he calls “The George Clooney Curse” has made people believe there are a billion dollars to be made in selling Tequila brands (a reference to Clooney’s high-profile sale of his Casamigos brand to Diageo). That’s led to a lot of brands being formed, but as for many many will stand the test of time, it’s easy to be cynical. While the price of premium tequila is going up, agave prices are going down and sustainability issues persist.

It’s all happening because we’re in the midst of renewed interest in Tequila, particularly in the more premium side of things, but that comes with challenges. The US has been front-running the growth but the rest of the world is growing fast too. The distribution and marketing capabilities of Moët Hennessy give Volcan an edge, as its ability to produce at a bigger capacity. Outside of the US, Volcan is thriving in markets like Spain, Turkey, the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, and Indonesia. Moët Hennessy’s stability should see Volcan through any bust that follows the boom, but the quality of the Tequila has to stand up too. 

Volcan de mi Tierra’s Blanco Tahona review:

This brings us neatly to its new product, Volcan Blanco Tahona.  This liquid is made from agave sourced entirely from the Lowlands, at the foot of the volcano. It’s cooked entirely in the brick clay oven, then rested for 12 hours. It goes through the first press of the agave with the two-tonne volcanic stone wheel that gives the Tequila its name (the tahona), directly from the oven and is only passed between 25-35 times.

Volcan Blanco Tahona was bottled at 40% ABV, though some discussion was given to presenting it at 43%, it was decided that the lower strength offered more drinkability. There’s a clear focus here on creating a pathway for people to drink Tequila neat, and in doing so, respect the spirit. Certainly this a Tequila worthy of a sip. Sampled next to its core Blanco, the minerality is heightened and it has a cleaner, purer profile, more vivid and vibrant. There’s spearmint, grapefruit acidity, salted almond, bell pepper, custard sweetness, and a little Szechuan peppercorn numbness. Of course, that cooked agave note is front and centre the whole way. It’s Volcan in HD. 

You can buy Volcan de mi Tierra’s Blanco Tahona here.

The post Volcan Blanco Tahona review appeared first on Master of Malt Blog.