Tapatío Gran Reserva Añejo
Tapatío · La Alteña Distillery (Destilería La Alteña)
A quietly authoritative highland añejo that rewards patience — proof that traditional methods, unhurried aging, and restraint produce beauty no shortcut can imitate.
Nose
Roasted agave leads, layered with warm caramel, dried orange peel, toasted almond, and a whisper of vanilla-laced oak. A subtle herbal snap of dried mint sits underneath.
Palate
Silky and unhurried — cooked agave and honeyed pear meet cinnamon bark, buttered oak, and a gentle black pepper lift. Highland minerality keeps the sweetness in check, and there's a light cocoa dust mid-palate.
Finish
Long, warm, and softly drying, with lingering vanilla, baked apple, and a return of that earthy cooked-agave sweetness threaded with white pepper.
- Agave
- 100% Blue Weber Agave, estate-grown in the highlands of Arandas at roughly 2,100 meters elevation
- Production
- Agave slow-cooked in traditional brick (mampostera) ovens, milled and fermented with native airborne yeasts in open wooden tanks, double-distilled in small copper pot stills, then aged approximately 18 months in ex-American whiskey barrels.
- Region
- Arandas, Los Altos de Jalisco, Mexico
- Cooking Method
- Agave slow-cooked in traditional brick (mampostera) ovens, milled and fermented with native airborne yeasts in open wooden tanks, double-distilled in small copper pot stills, then aged approximately 18 months in ex-American whiskey barrels.
- NOM
- NOM 1139
- Additives Free
- Yes
Cocktail Suggestion
The Alteña Old Fashioned — 2 oz Tapatío Gran Reserva Añejo, 1 tsp agave nectar, 2 dashes orange bitters, 1 dash Angostura. Stir with ice 30 seconds; strain over a large cube. Express an orange peel over the glass and drop it in.
Food Pairing
Grilled quail with mole amarillo, or a dark chocolate tart with sea salt and orange zest.
Crafted by the Camarena family at La Alteña — one of the oldest continuously operating distilleries in Los Altos, founded in 1937 — where mature highland agave is slow-cooked in brick ovens and fermented with native yeasts under the same unhurried hand that shaped Ocho and El Tesoro.
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