Tequila is often considered a drink for all parties involved – as long as you mind the age. For the young it’s silver or rotgut gold shot so fast into your body it might as well be the bullet that kills you. As you get past those ’20s and ’30s though looking for something to sip quietly and in small quantities – you reach for an Anejo. This would normally be the bit where we undercut that with a past review, but it seems we’re starting at the Anejo and working backward.
(As in we bought this assuming we’d had the silver), and make no mistake down the line we certainly will if for no other reason then that this got quite a few things right. However, there’s not going to be that wood and smoke so who knows what we’ll end up with. This though – this you put on a cube and enjoy your time.
What they Say: “Every bottle of Tequila Don Julio begins with the finest blue agave specially cultivated under the brilliant sun of Los Altos de Jalisco. Once fully mature, the agave is hand-selected and masterfully crafted at La Primavera distillery according to the same methods used by Don Julio Gonzalez more than 60 years ago. Aged for 18 months in American white oak barrels, Don Julio Anejo is distinguished by aromas of lime, grapefruit and mandarin. It boasts a smooth, beautifully complex flavor that includes cherry, strawberry and butterscotch notes and a bright, lightly spiced finish with the essence of wild honey. Enjoy neat with one ice cube to open up aromatics.”
Taste: 8.0 – There is a long one-note combo of wood and agave mixed together so well it’s a singular flavor. It’s is quite enjoyable, and lasts for a good long while to the point that while it may not be complex it’s still very good.
Aftertaste: 5.0 – It changes a bit sort of diverging with some sweetness, some bitter, and some smoky that gets you in the nose. It nearly makes this not worth having neat.
Burn/Smooth: 7.0 – There’s a sort of ‘nose flare’ that hits you with a bit of burn, but otherwise the mellowed sweetness makes this quite smooth.
Aroma: 7.0 – That is a very nice and mellow agave flavor. The sole complaint we have it that as usual you really need to dig into this to get to that nice flavor.
Honesty: 5.5 – Nearly ALL of that nonsense fruits is really not there, and if it is – it’s undetectable so bollocks to that. They do get the 1 cube mentality which is the correct choice for rocks drinks most of the time. The look is also quite good, so well done there.
Mixability: 6.25
W/ Rocks: 7.0 – You get a slightly tweaked version of that core taste, it’s a bit smoother, and while there are hints of some of the other conflicting bits here, it’s as a whole much improved
Margarita: 5.5 – That is about what you’d expect, and sadly that major flavor isn’t as prevalent here as you would hope.
Value: 6.0 – That is actually a fairly good tequila, and the price matches it, and if anything is a bit under.
Google Shop Average: $55
Website: https://www.donjulio.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 7.0
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Metric Score: 44.75/70 |+| Metric Average: 6.39 |+| Reviewer Average: 7.0
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Final Thoughts: It’s not too damn expensive, and it sips so well on ice. There are no faults here as well, at best it’s on average. We don’t offer high praise here without it being well earned, and telling you that what you get in the bottle is worth buying, has some great aspects and no bad ones – well you can count that as a better marker than any score.
