La Gritona Reposado Tequila is a subtle rested tequila distilled by Melly Barajas and her staff of women at her small distillery in Valle De Guadalupe, Jalisco (NOM 1533). Melly distills La Gritona only with agave that has matured, always with an age of between 8-10 years, and all of her piñas must originate in the iron-rich red soil of the local Jalisco highlands. These agave plants are cultivated at the height of their sugar production, near the end of the life cycle. They are put into ovens within 24 hours of trimming. La Gritona IS and ALWAYS has been additive-free.
Melly’s agave is first steam cooked in two thick-walled earthen ovens for 24 hours and then allowed to rest for another 24 hours before crushing. The collected liquid is naturally fermented and oxygenated in open steel vats at a rate that is dictated by the local air temperature. Once fermentation is completed, we distill our nascent blanco tequila twice. We rest the distilled blanco in reused American whiskey barrels (Jack Daniels and Balcones) for 8 months before bottling.
Our reposado is very pale in it’s color for a tequila with an 8 month barrel rest. We use the same barrels over and over again to allow for them to become stripped of most of the residual oak, whiskey, and color. We like for barrel notes to be as stunted as possible in our tequila. Our aging is intended only to soften and round out the blanco tequila from which La Gritona is derived, not to introduce new notes. Our intention is to keep the verdant and crisp qualities of the original plant intact while still allowing it to age briefly in the oak. We do not use copper stills or a tahona, and we do not diffuse or use an autoclave. Our cooked agave is crushed with a steel mill and we distill our liquid in steel stills with copper coils. Every step of production takes place under one roof and our facility is overseen by a small staff of local women that work each process from start to finish.
We currently bottle an average of 12,500 liters per batch. All of the agave remnants that are left over after production are given to local farmers to use as cattle feed. Our bottles are hand blown with recycled Mexican glass in Zapopan, an hour away from the distillery.
La Gritona is light on sweetness and retains the aroma and true essence of the plant from which it was distilled. Though LG has rested for 8 months in oak, the taste is herbaceous, with agave notes that have not been “whiskified” by the barreling process. It is a very vegetal tequila, without any oak, pepper, vanilla or dulce de leche that can be associated with a highland reposado. It retains the crisp qualities reminiscent of an excellent silver tequila while still expressing subtle signs of Melly’s deliberate aging. The finish is extremely round with no burn. We recommend it straight with no ice, lime, salt, or mixer. It’s best when paired it with a nice cold Mexican lager or pilsner.