Animals are just like people in that they occasionally enjoy a fermented beverage. Now, don’t me get wrong; they don’t get all gussied up in their favorite outfit and slide on down to the local bar and down a few shots. Out in the wild, while they forage for fruits and berries, they sometimes come across a tree or bush whose offerings have naturally fermented on the vine. And do they consequently avoid that fermented fruit? No way, they are drawn to it, and you can verify this statement by watching any number of YouTube videos showing drunken birds, bats, giraffes and even elephants getting totally wasted.

And that brings us to the story of the drunken Mexican rabbits and the agave cactus. Legend has it that tequila was originally discovered by luck. A farmer’s wife noticed rabbits getting tipsy on fermented agave and that is how mezcal and tequila were born. I would actually tend to believe this story as it is very similar to the discovery of beer. Back in the day, wheat was stored in open vessels and rain got in and soaked the wheat and naturally occurring yeast floated through the air and into that container, and it naturally fermented, and the animals got into it and got drunk, which prompted the locals to give it a go, and they got drunk as well and that became the beginning of civilization as we know it today, but that’s a different story for another time.

Suerte (which means “luck” in Spanish) Tequila is the brain child of a couple of Colorado based partners and a family run distillery in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico. Suerte uses only 100% blue agave that is made in small batches and sourced from its single estate. The agave at Suerte’s distillery is harvested by hand, and then slow roasted in brick ovens instead of being steamed in stainless steel. Then the agave is pressed, not shredded. The distillery uses micron filtering to double distill its tequila instead of charcoal filtering, and relies on gravity to power the filtration process, instead of pumps and motors.

Today we’re trying their Anejo tequila, which is aged in charred American white oak whiskey barrels for 24 months, twice as long as the industry standard. Of course, it comes in a clear bottle bearing a hallucinatory looking yellow rabbit that reminds me of the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland or perhaps some kind of hallucination from the 1960’s. The color of this tequila is a very pale yellow and the nose contains faint aromas of roasted agave, oak, honey and vanilla. On the palate, I get spicy, smoky notes followed by that agave flavor and a touch of oak and it is medium bodied and slightly oily. The finish is (dare I say) almost minty, citrusy and then smoky and just slightly spicy and lasts a medium amount of time.

Suerte Anejo Tequila is well balanced and downright tasty. This is a dandy little sipper that should be served in a snifter and enjoyed all by itself. It has a lot of flavor and that flavor is well blended and proportioned just right. And I rather enjoyed that minty flavor in the finish. You can find Suerte Anejo for around $60.00 per 750ML bottle and it is 40% ABV or 80 proof. So make like a good little rabbit and jump on a bottle of this tequila; you won’t regret it.

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By George Brozowski