Airplanes – Villa Lobos Reposado

Yes, I know March is over, but I still have one more agave cocktail to go. In this case, I came up with a split base cocktail using tequila and rye. On top of that, I also threw in the rather unusual Parfait Amour. So, I guess you could call it a distant relative of the Margarita.

For the tequila I used the Villa Lobos Reposado. The tequila comes from the La Altena distillery and the agaves are sourced from a single estate in the Southern Los Altos region. Furthermore, the distillery uses stone ovens for cooking the agaves and a roller mill for crushing. After the fermentation in open wooden tanks, the mash is distilled twice in copper pot stills. The tequila spends eleven months in American oak casks.

Sweet agaves

While the Villa Lobos Reposado comes from the same distillery as the El Tesoro tequila, they taste quite different. The Villa Lobos has a slight green paprika note with a lot of sweet agave flavours. Furthermore, the oak just lingers on in the back. Nevertheless, it is a great tequila.

A Margarita or a Whiskey Sour?

Well, what do you get when splitting the base between rye whiskey and Reposado tequila as well as replacing the Curacao with Parfait Amour? – Besides, a delicious drink, I actually do not know. I guess the drink is far enough from the original Margarita, that you should not call it a variation of it anymore. Especially, because I also switched the lime for lemon juice.

Interestingly enough, the Reposado tequila takes over the first sip. Combined with the acidity you are briefly reminded of a Margarita. Yet, after a while the floral notes of the Parfait Amour kick in. At the end, the rye whiskey shows up and gives the whole sipping experience darker and more spicy undertones.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The tequila was provided by Perola.