Tequila has been a part of my website almost since the beginning. When I first made the decision to write about the Mexican spirit, it was with some trepidation. You see, I wasn’t familiar with agave, and I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to write a meaningful review. However, my website is about exploration and discovery, and I felt that it would be a growth experience to push myself in directions I had never trod.
One thing I discovered quite quickly, was that Tequila had much more to offer than I originally anticipated. The agave plant (more specifically its cooked and fermented juice) brings rich flavours though the distillation and unlike whisky, it is the agave rather than flavours drawn from an oak barrel which is at the centerpiece of the spirit’s character. My first reviews were cautious, but by focusing my discussion upon the my enjoyment of the spirit, my reviews found favour not only among Tequila novices like myself, but also among many seasoned agave enthusiasts.
Tequila Old Fashioned
I have learned a lot in the last eight years as my understanding of the Mexican Spirit has grown. So this year I plan to re-boot my Tequila Reviews section revisiting many of my early reviews with new tasting notes and new scores for each spirit. That doesn’t mean I will ignore new agave spirits which come my way, in fact I hope to expand the tequila section at the same time. I hope everyone sticks around for the ride.
Last year was a good year for the Tequila, and if you are starting your own home bar, a great place to begin will be with my Rum Howler Award Winners for 2018.
Here is a link to my Awards Page for the Agave Spirit:
The 2018 Rum Howler Awards – The Year in Tequila
Stay tuned for the rest of my Award Winners in the days to come!
Chimo!
Five years ago, I encountered Canadian Rockies 21 Year Old Whisky as a random sample in the group of 45 such samples which I was assessing as part of my duties when I served on the jury for the 
While Dr. Don Livermore was earning his PhD., one of the topics he was researching was the relationships between barrel aging, time and flavour. He did this by analyzing various types of oak barrels which were maturing whisky in the warehouses at Pike Creek, Ontario. The work he was doing eventually became the basis for his Thesis Dissertation which earned him his PhD. in Brewing and Distilling.
JP Wiser’s Last Barrels is an interesting new Canadian whisky which was produced from the last batches of whisky barreled under the direction of former J.P. Wiser’s Distiller Jim Stanski.
We have reached the top 5 rum spirits of 2017. In mid November, I tasted each of the top 5 rums side by side to determine the final rankings. These final rankings may not absolutely agree with my previous scores when reviewing each spirit, but they do reflect my feelings regarding the relative merit of each rum in mid-November 2017.
The Rum Howler Blog 