Espolon Cristalino Tequila
Travel Distilled tastes Espolon Cristalino Tequila to find an agave spirit that combines the crispness of a blanco with the complexity of an aged anejo tequila.
What is Cristalino Tequila?
There are only four official categories of tequila – blanco (white), reposado (rested), anejo (aged), and extra anejo – so what is cristalino? Technically it’s still at least an anejo but it goes through an extra process of filtration over charcoal to remove the colour and some of the tastes imparted by the barrel-aging process. That is why, as the name suggests, it is crystal clear.
Espolon Cristalino
Espolon’s Cristalino was the brainchild of their late Master Distiller, Maestro Cirilo Oropeza, who I was fortunate enough to meet and do a tasting with when I toured the Espolon Distillery a few years ago. He was a charming, gentle, and charismatic man, with a true passion for tequila.
Photo by Mike Gerrard
It’s a sign of the maestro’s pioneering spirit that although he had been making tequila all his life, he was still keen to push the boundaries and produce a cristalino for Espolon, just as other distilleries like Don Ramon have been doing. His final recipe blended their anejo with just a dash of extra anejo, with the minimum amount of filtering needed to produce a clear spirit with maximum flavour.
Espolon Cristalino Tequila Bottle
One of the fun things about cristalinos is that distilleries can be creative and playful with their bottles. Blancos tend to be cheap and cheerful (though not always, of course). Cristalinos are also clear, but they are also premium spirits, so the bottles need to be anything but cheap and cheerful.
Photo by Mike Gerrard
Espolon’s bottle delivers on that. It’s short and solid, with a playful design, inspired by Mexican cenotes, or sinkholes. I’ve seen some of these when traveling in the Yucatan, where they are most common. The Mayan used them for their water supplies, as the water is usually crystal clear. They would occasionally make sacrificial offerings in them, and some of the bottle’s graphics are inspired by a Mayan gifting ceremony.
Viewed head-on, as in the photo, it appears that the many little graphics are on the front of the bottle, but in fact they’re on the back. It’s a bottle to keep… or to replace with another! Espolon has said this new expression will be a permanent addition to their range.
Tasting Espolon Cristalino Tequila
My wife helped me with the tasting on this one as she has an excellent and sensitive nose. She doesn’t usually enjoy sipping spirits neat, but definitely made an exception for this one, after smelling it. On the nose she thought it had soft and sweet notes, a soft vanilla sweetness on the back of the tongue. Soft scents of spring, she said, and it would be lovely to sip over ice on a hot day. I could sip it all evening, was her final comment.
She was right. I couldn’t have put it better. There was vanilla on the nose and very subtle honey-like sweetness on the palate, combined with a gentle fruitiness. I too could have sipped it all evening, as it’s the kind of tequila that’s not for mixing but for taking slow sips of, each one rewarding you differently.
Buying Espolon Cristalino
You can learn more about Espolon Cristalino Tequila on the Espolon website, and can buy Espolon Cristalino online at Drizly. It’s the kind of tequila you could buy both for people who think they don’t like tequila, and for those who are tequila connoisseurs. That’s quite an achievement!
Buying Espolon Cristalino
You can learn more about Espolon Cristalino Tequila on the Espolon website, and can buy Espolon Cristalino online at Drizly. It’s the kind of tequila you could buy both for people who think they don’t like tequila, and for those who are tequila connoisseurs. That’s quite an achievement!
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