Agfox…

It’s time for a recap of this month’s tequila dinner at Adobo Grill.  June’s dinner featured Tequila Ocho.   As usual, it was a very good time had by all.  I was able to bring 5 people to this event, and I hope to bring even more the next month.  I know it’s boring reading me wax poetic about every tequila dinner, but it’s well deserved.  I am truly devastated when work requires me to miss one.

Before I arrive at these dinners, I have the best of intentions to document the experience.   I swear I do.  I was going to take pictures of all the dishes (like I plan to do every dinner), and I got the first one!  Click here to view the stuffed mushrooms.  Unfortunately, it’s also the only one.  The Ocho rep went through the tasting flight directly after the opening appetizer.  Four samples with an additional margarita featuring the blanco makes note taking a bit too….. involved.  It’s best to just sit back and enjoy the great meal.

The menu is here.

I could blather on about how good the food was, but trust me, it’s just better to experience it for yourself.  Come next time, I promise you it’s worth it.   Instead, I’m going to focus my attention to the star of the show, the Tequila Ocho.

The rep brought 4 different bottles to sample.  A 2009 Las Pomez Plata, a 2009 Las Pomez Reposado, a 2008 El Carrizal Reposado, and finally a 2010 San Augustin Anejo.   I was disappointed there was no extra anejo to be found there, but I had a plan***.  The tasting sheet for the samples was below the tequila glasses, I tried my best to avoid reading them before sampling myself.   I had tasted a couple bottles of Ocho before the dinner, so I knew what to expect.  Mucho agave, fuerte tequila, extremely light touch of wood on the aged varieties.  One of Ocho’s unique features is the concept of “terroir”.  Bottles are created from specific farm, and they are not blended with others.  Each farm can (and does!) have a very different taste.

1. 2009 Las Pomez Plata – It is very agave forward, crisp, and fuerte.   I enjoyed this very much.   This is a very solid blanco that I could enjoy any time.
2. 2009 Las Pomez Reposado – Ocho repos are aged 54 64 days, the bare minimum, and it must be in very fatigued barrels.   Color is a very light straw.   The wood touch is so light, this could pass to many people as the blanco.   I sipped back and forth between the repo and the blanco, and you can pick up the oak but it’s easy to gloss over it.  I still liked it very much, but I’d rather just enjoy the blanco it was so close.   In my opinion the wood touch is too light to bother with.
3. 2008 El Carrizal Reposado – Same very light straw color, but vastly different than both the Las Pomez bottles in taste.  Honestly it could be a completely different brand.   The only thing it really had in common was the heavy agave presence, and the very soft touch of oak.  I tasted fruit on the palate directly after swallowing, and again it’s very fuerte.
4. 2010 San Augustin Anejo – It’s a light amber, noticibly darker than the anejo, but this is only technically an anejo.  I know the CRT is very strict on their technicalities, but this just doesn’t taste like a traditional anejo.  It doesn’t even taste like a traditional repo.   It’s almost as if they took the blanco, introduced it to the aging barrels from across the room and they stare at each other not mingling at all for the 365 required days.   This is still very fuerte, and the agave is still very bold and up front in your face.  If you love the blanco you will continue to love the rest of the line as they are very similar in attack.

After the tastings we were given a traditional margarita made with the Ocho blanco.  The house margarita is made with Herradura, and I have had soooo many I consider myself a good judge.    I thought the Ocho martarita was very good, and I would give it a nod over the house brand given the choice.  I thought it mingled well with the citrus, yet still commanded a heavy agave presence you could taste clearly.   I like a tequila I can still taste in a marg.   That was served with the ceviche course.  With the main shrimp course we were served a traditional poloma mixed with the El Carrizal Reposado.  Lime juice, a little orange juice, and about half a can of Squirt (it’s a grapefruit citrus soda), and a little course salt on the rim over ice.   It was refreshing and delicious.   I really couldn’t tell it was that specific repo in the drink, but the combination was great.   Finally the last drink served with desert was called a Guayavate.  It had the San Augustin Anejo, guava juice, coconut milk, cranberry juice, and toasted coconut flakes around the rim.  It was pink, very girly, sweet, and extremely delicious.  I downed mine, then grabbed the wife’s when she wasn’t looking (designated drivers don’t have quite as much fun, but I will make it up to her).  Again I can’t say I specifically tasted the Ocho anejo, but the combination worked very well.

***  Directly after the dinner I returned to fulfill my plan.   I had ordered a 2007 El Vergel Extra Anejo for my personal stash, as I had anticipated they wouldn’t bring a bottle to dinner.  Ocho is brand new to Indiana, and currently the Adobo Grill is the only place you can buy it.  So I ordered it from Hi-Time in CA, they are great at helping me get some harder to find tequila’s to Indiana.  While the Ocho line was still fresh in my (cloudy) mind, I wanted to sample the XA.   The XA is aged 3 years to the day in barrels, and I thought surely this will get that mellow oaky tequila I was half way expecting.  The color is there, it’s a beautiful golden amber, not too dark, not too light.  Now the the wood is very present in the XA, it’s oaky, vanilla.  There is not a lot of sweetness that I typically find.  I would argue the level of oaky wood taste is similar to most anejo’s I have tasted.  I think it’s still a very light touch for an XA.   The XA finally tempers down the boldness/heat and brings it down a notch.  It’s pretty good.   As I finish this review two days after the dinner, I’m tasting the XA again next to a lote 9 Fortaleza reposado as a minor comparison.   The Fortaleza is much sweeter on the nose and the palate.  I thought I could compare, but I don’t think it’s very fair (and I don’t think I will do it justice).   I’ll just say they are very different, and both deserve a couple tastings.

In summary….  I really like the bold agave attack of the Ocho, specifically the 2009 Las Pomez Blanco.  I kind of fear a bit that the “terroir’ concept may show some farms to have vastly different flavor profiles.   The Las Pomez was completely different than the El Carrizal.  This could be interesting, or it could be disastrous if no other ranches taste as good as the Las Pomez.  As to ages, I very much enjoyed the Las Pomez in both the blanco and repo, but I didn’t find that the repo was very different.   With the knowledge I have now, I would probably not buy the repo (or anejo/XA).  The blanco was totally enjoyable by itself, and it mixed very well in the margarita.

I will be calling around to add some Las Pomez Blanco to my stash, and carefully testing each new year and ranch that arrives at Adobo.

Thanks,

Nathan

On June 8th, 2011 the wife and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.   It’s been a damn long time, but it’s been worth it.   She’s a trooper and puts up with me, and I in exchange cook her very fattening foods like creme brule and churros…. But this is what we did to celebrate this time around.  I wish I had pictures, but we’re horrible at remembering to take pictures.

A couple days before the event we were discussing our options, and we decided we wanted to go out to a nice dinner.   We scrambled to get a baby sitter lined up, and then we had to talk about where we wanted to go.   In the past for a special occasion we had gone to Morton’s which is a fine place to eat.  The food is very good and the service is top notch.   To us it’s just another restaurant though.  An above average restaurant for sure, but nothing that got us excited in the pants.  I wanted something more personable, and I had an idea.  Over the past year we’ve become regulars at Adobo Grill, we could go there but is it special enough for this occasion?   During our frequent visits we’ve formed a good relationship with the general manager (George), the chef (Chef Angel), and the bar manager (Juan).   All do their best to make sure every visit is as good as it can be.   I told the wife I would go in and ask the staff if they do any kind of special dinners for two, just something nice for our occasion.

So the day before our dinner I went in for lunch.  And drank tequila….   But more importantly I asked George if they did any kind of special dinners?  I explained it’s my 15th anniversary and I wanted something special for the lady.   He asked what did we like..  beef?  seafood? pork?  I said we both like seafood.  He asked me to wait a minute while he found out what day he got seafood delivered, and to talk to the chef.   He returned a couple minutes later and said he got seafood in the morning of our anniversary, and if I trusted him with the menu?  Trust him with the menu?  Yeah, no problem.   He said he’d put us in a private room as well.  I replied I don’t think we’ll be doing anything to need a private room….  but he scoffed politely and directed me to the private “alcove” seatings that are very nice.  So I made our reservation for the next night and I returned to tell the wife the exciting news.   She was excited, we both were.  A mystery dinner prepared by a very excellent chef?  It was bound to be a good night.   I told Juan I would bring in some Fortaleza, as I had been singing it’s praises for a long time.  I tried to bring in a sample to him earlier, but failed miserably.  This time I was bringing bottles.   I went down to the stash and got out a lote 8 blanco, and the very famous lote 5 repo.

The big day rolls around and we pick up the baby sitter (Muchas Gracias Miss Oldham).  We excitedly arrive and are directed to our alcove table and our server was Alex (a regular I see often and very polite).   I ordered us a pair of Margarita’s made with Partida Blanco from my locker to start off.  We were directed to order a appetizer off the menu.  Juan was working the front of the restaurant instead of his normal bar gig, but he came by often.   He suggested a ceviche that was new on the menu.  It was a watermelon and tuna based ceviche, with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and more.  It was very light in flavor.  The margarita overpowered the palate leaving the ceviche tasting like not much of anything.  A slightly disappointing start.   As we were finishing up the ceviche, chef Angel came out with another appetizer.  This again was new, lightly fried shrimp with a chipotle mayonaise sauce.  These were delightful.  The breading was very light and thin, and the shrimp were of excellent quality.

Juan came back over to see how things were, and I asked him to make me a Millionaire’s Margarita with a substitution.  At Adobo, the Millionaire’s Margarita is made with their house tequila’s finest offering, Herradura Seleccion Suprema, the juice of one lime, a few strands of candied orange peel, and Grand Marnier Cuvée Speciale Cent Cinquantenaire.  I asked him to change in Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia for the Herradura.  I had tried the Herradura previously and it was good, I was just wanting to try the JCRF as it’s sweeter.   Note there’s no sweetner added to this margarita beyond the very small amount of candied orange peel and the Grand Marier, usually there’s agave nectar added.   Juan made it table side, and poured a sample of the Grand Marnier on the side for me to try separate.   The Grand Marnier is amazing, sweet orange brandy.  The margarita was good, I didn’t think it was fantastic, but I would never turn it down when given.   I told him to bring some glasses the next time he came around so we can try the Fortaleza.

Our main course arrived.  Chef Angel brought each of us a whole red snapper fish that was grilled, then lightly fried.  I’d say the fish was probably a pound and a half or so.  It was covered in a rustic salsa made with tomatoes, olives, and capers.   I’ve never eaten a whole fish before, but it was very good.  We devoured it in what seemed like two minutes.  We’re not slow eaters…

Juan brought over some glasses to sample the Fortaleza.   I have sung it’s praises many times while at the bar, so I was excited to see hear his thoughts.   I poured him off some blanco and some repo.  He thought it was a very nice tequila, but I don’t think he shared my passion just yet.  I was slightly disappointed, but he knows what he likes.  I poured myself the same, then quite a bit extra of that lote 5 repo.  I swear it’s carmelischious amazingness.   And no, my spell checker does not like that word.   He also brought over some Scorpion Mezcal to show the wife, who thought the scorpion in the bottle was far too creepy for her.  I’ve been hearing a lot about this stuff lately…

Now was the moment the wife was waiting all night for… DESSERT!  Chef Angel brought out two desserts on a very large square platter that he wrote “congratulations” along the side.   Was a nice touch.  The desserts were a tres leche cake with a coconut-caramel mousse (amazing), and a mango ice cream surrounded by fresh mango, and drizzled with a carmel and chocolate sauce (good, lots of mango flavor).

It was time to take my drunk butt home.  A fantastic night, babied by a fantastic staff.   Thank you to George, Chef Angel, Juan, Alex, and all the others that made it special behind the scenes.   I will remember it fondly, and I will sing the praises of Adobo to any that will listen.

Thanks,

Nathan

It’s here…   Oh I can’t wait to taste…

Edit….

Ok, tasting notes (from someone who is definitely not a professional).

• Blanco Lote 8 — To me, this smells the way I think Tequila should.  It’s complex, sweet, vegetal.  It’s very nice, and no doubt my favorite blanco so far.   Every sip I was finding something new.   It seemed to get very interesting on the back of the tongue.  I wish I could identify everything I’m smelling / tasting.  Someday hopefully.
• Reposado Lote 6 —  This was ok, didn’t blow me away.  The color is very dark, almost exactly the same as the anejo, but it’s not woody at all, well blended.  Smells were very nice.   It got smoother than the blanco, but again, it didn’t seem to make me want to pour more right away.   More analysis needed.
• Anejo Lote 8 —  Ok, this is where the party is at.   This anejo is amazing.  Color is deep, and smells of  heavy wood like the 1921 Reserva Especial, but it’s not overpowering.  Smelled wonderful, tasted just as good.   I could drink this all night, and ask for more in the morning.

The Lote 5 Reposado showed up at the door today, this has gotten very good reviews.  Have to crack it open soon to test side by side with Lote 6.

Everything with me starts out simple enough…  a random blurp picked up in passing, followed by a couple web searches, followed by 3 days of intense research, followed by an empty bank account.   It’s a pretty simple, and consistant workflow

So began the quest for Los Abuelos tequila, known as Fortaleza in the US.   At the websites I visit, Fortaleza has a very good reputation as a favorite blanco.  The reposado also gets some high marks, but it’s more specific.   Alright, we’ve seen the random blurbs, and it’s developed some mental interest so lets do some searching.

First thing we learn “googling” is the brand isn’t available in Indiana, or 47 other states for that matter.  They are only importing to CA and NV at this time.  (Seriously giving me a CA envy complex, grrrrrr….)  First the reason for the name descrepancy is Ron Abuelo Rum filed a suit against Los Abuelos for trademark infrindgement.  A little bit of a legal battle was waged, and long story short, Los Abuelos changed to Fortaleza for the US market.  

So now we know we have to order from CA, and that’s possible.  But is it worth it?   More research is needed about the brand, and why do they get such good reviews.  What’s special about this brand?   Well, a lot really.

First and foremost, this is a single NOM distillery, 1493 to be exact.  They make one brand of tequila here, and that’s it.  Many distilleries make multiple brands, as I think there’s 150 distilleries roughly, and over a thousand brands *boggle*.  Next, almost everything that can be done, is done with old techniques.   Water on site, check.  Fully mature Pinas, check.  Brick steam oven, check.  Tahona, check.  Wooden fermentation barrels, check.  Small copper pot stills, check.  Small batches, check.  The only thing they don’t do on site is make the hand blown bottles.  But they are brought in empty and bottled at the distillery.   All these things add up to a tequila that is more expensive to make, but in theory produces a very pure tequila made like they did in the old days.   I say it’s theoritical because, I don’t have any old 100% stuff to compare to.  I’m in Indiana remember? 

So these small batches are labeled in lot numbers.  Lot 1 was labeled Los Abuelos when it entered the US.   Lot 2 was imported as Fortaleza.  There didn’t seem to be any huge difference in any lots until Lot 5 Reposado came out.  Seems the barrels were chipped down to new wood and given a medium toast just before the batch was barreled.   Upon it’s release it gathered some very nice reviews claiming this batch stood above the rest.   Also getting good reviews is Lot 8, both the blanco and the reposado are well recieved.  Ok, so now we have a target to go on the hunt.

At this time Lot 8 is the current batch out in the CA stores, so that’s easy enough.  However, Lot 5 would have probably come out I’m guessing April (ish) 2009.  This means I’m about a year late… gah.   Time to start calling and bugging stores to pick up a bottle, turn it around, and tell me what lot numbers you have in stock.  Yeah, some of them get very annoyed.   Some hang up.  A few want call back numbers, and half call back.   I was pleasantly surprised with a couple stores, one being http://hitimewine.net/ , specifically with a person there named Forrest.  Which I believe has his own blog… http://adrinkwithforrest.blogspot.com/  Go say Hi, I’ll wait.  A good phone call revealed at the time of this posting, he had Lot 8 blanco and anejo, and lot 6 reposado.  I jumped in, send me one of each, and another blanco.  What about the rumored extra anejo?  It’s coming.   Before the end of the year I’m told.  Fortaleza is getting the label approved now, and I have that on very good authority…

The second store I can’t tell you about yet.  But, I struck the goldmine there.  A wooden box set of Lot 1 Los Abuelos, containing one of each type, and yes Lot 5 reposado.   Yeah, I’ll take ‘em.  I didn’t take all of them, there are some still there.  For now.  When I get this Lot 5 reposado, I’m going to give it a try immediately.  And if it’s as good as advertised, I’ll be calling back for the rest.   Hey, I don’t want to hear it.  It’s hard and expensive for me to get it here.  Most of the damn tequila fans just have to brush the beach sand out of thier shoes, and drive in their convertables to the liquor store where they can look for themselves.   Bastards.  See?  CA envy… grrrrr.

So that’s my story.  Hopefully this weekend I’ll post a tasting report.  Basically it’s a thumbs up or down for me, I’m not able to pick up those subtle aromas yet.  Hopefully time and practice will rectify that.

Well, last night was a very good night.   I have come to love Adobo Grill over the last few weeks as my interests have snuggled up next to a tequila bottle.   Employed there are two very knowledgable bartenders that I have gotten to talk tequila with, Juan and “Speak” ( go there and you’ll find out why he’s called Speak soon enough).   I’ve been able to sample many good tequila’s they have at the bar, and some not so good ones…   I’ve found I mostly agree with their recommendations, but not all (you can keep that Cabo Wabo Anejo doods).

Anyhoo…  The last Wednesday of every month is a special dinner.   September’s was the Herradura Tequila dinner.   Herradura means horseshoe in Spanish, and as an Indianapolis Colts fan, I can get behind a horseshoe logo.  Herradura is a very old and respected premium tequila maker.  It is the “house” brand of tequila that they server at Adobo in the signature margaritas, and it really does make a fine margarita.   I’ve tested it at least a dozen times…

I sat at the bar waiting to be seated and got to meet the two reps from the distributor, Brown-Forman.  Lisa was the tequila specific rep, and another man ( I totally forget his name, and he’s the one I talked to most… gah, I’m going to call him Carl* until I can find his proper name later.)  I had a perfect talking point, I had learned earlier in the day that Herradura was changing bottles to a new, more upscale design.  This was better suited to reflect the quality tequila in the bottle, and to celebrate their 140th anniversary.   We talked for several minutes, and I recognized the box under Carl’s* arm being a bottle of Seleccion Suprema.  It’s going to be a good night.

At ~6:20 I left the bar area to get seated for dinner at 6:30.   Upstairs above the kitchen is a private dinning room that seated approximately 70-80 people I would guess.  There were only a couple of empty seats, and a lot of hungry/thirsty people.   I got seated at the reps table, with Lisa, Carl*, Amber, Sergio with his wife Jen, and their friend Jen (that’s a lot of Jen’s, which works well to remember names under the influence of alcohol).

The General Manager of Adobo, George, gave a small speech about Adobo and Herradura,  He talked a little about they kind of food and drink we were going to enjoy, then gave the floor over to Lisa to talk more about Herradura.  She explained the different tequilas they had, and the process of tequila making.  She stressed how proud they were in making it the traditional way, emphasizing the use of clay ovens to bake the agave, which is slower and more costly to use than the newer autoclaves.   I don’t think they use a traditional tahona to press the agave though, so there’s always some yielding to technology.

The table was set with a Herradura branded caballito glass with about an ounce of Herradura silver, (we get to keep the caballito, woot!), a tall shot glass of Herradura reposado (aged 11 months), and a snifter of Herradura anejo (aged 2 years).

Our appetizer arrived, a pan seared scallop on a small bed of rice with two different sauces, a green and a red.   Matched with the scallop they served the house signature margarita made with the silver.  Very tasty.

Next was a heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese, and a tequila vinaigrette.  I’m not a tomato guy, but I tried a couple bites and didn’t die (surprisingly).  Matched with this was a beet juice mixed drink with the reposado.  It tasted like a modified margarita, and surprisingly it was very sweet and tasty.   You could definitely taste the beets, but it wasn’t overpowering.

The main course was a dry aged ribeye grilled to a nice medium temp.  With it was a sort of scalloped potato casserole dish that was very tasty.   Matched with the steak was a mixed drink containing the anejo tequila, agave nectar, with pineapple and a roasted serrano pepper muddled in.   This drink was spicy and smokey.  Very unique.  It was not to my liking, but the lady next to me liked it so much she drank her own, mine, and another.  (salud Jen)

Last but not least was dessert.  A shredded coconut torte topped with an avocado ice cream.  It was delicious.

After dessert I drank some water to clear my palate as much as possible to sample the tequilas straight.   I’m not an experienced taster, and I won’t be able to find the subtleties that make this tequila different from other premium brands.  I do, however, know what I like, and I like the silver.   This is a good thing since all the rest build upon the flavor profile of the silver.  It’s different from my normal go-to brands 1921 and El Tesoro, but it was tasty in it’s own way.   The repo introduced a lot of the wood tones from the barrel.  White oak, vanilla, it too was a very nice drink.   The anejo is a very nice amber color, smells even more woody.  I didn’t like this as much as the others.  2 years might be too long for me in the barrel.

As we finished up dessert Carl* popped open the bottle of Seleccion Suprema, and poured us a sample.  As he made his way around the room pouring samples, I treasured mine.  The smell is very good, and I could sit there for an hour just smelling it.  This is an extra anejo, aged 4  years, and you can tell.   It looses some of that agave bold flavor and mellows out in the barrels.   It was very good, it’s not my favorite, but I stress it’s very good.   You can tell they take pride in that product.   Carl* returned to the table and had probably just under 2 ounces left.   He asked the table if anyone wanted some more and I waited patiently.  Everybody at the table declined, and I was happy to threaten Carl’s* personal safety to pour me another.  He poured the last of the bottle in my glass making me a very happy sipper.   Leaned back, sniffed it in, and thoroughly enjoyed Herradura’s premium product.   A great way to close the night…  but wait, there’s more.  I expressed to  Carl* that the bottle and packaging on the Seleccion Suprema was outstanding.   I was hoping he’d raffle the empty box/bottle, but as I got ready to leave he gave it to me.  Sweeeeeeeeeeet….

But then it came time for the bill…  but 38 dollars plus tax and tip feels like a stellar deal.   Dropped 50 bucks and felt like I underpaid.  A evening of great food, great tequila, and friendly company.   It doesn’t get much better than that.

Next month one of my favorite brands is hosting the dinner, 1921.   October  27th, I can’t wait for you…

My spoils….

Edit:  Found the proper menu of what we had.