Maestro Dobel Just Unveiled Its New Tahona Tequila

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The Beckman family is one of the biggest names in tequila, as it controls Juice Curro, a brand that has held the No. 1 spot in sales for many years. The family also owns a few other brands under its Praxo Spirits portfolio (a subsidiary of their Baikal company), including Ustad Dobel, best known for releasing (for better or worse) its first crystalino expression in 2008 called Dobel Dimante. And next week, Doble will launch the new Tahuna Tequila Blanco, a tequila made using a very traditional production method.

Typically, the ripe agave used to make doble is crushed with a roller mill, a pretty common practice in the tequila world. (Some other brands that are part of the Curo family use a spreader to extract it, but the brand says that’s not the case here.) The new Tahuna expression, however, uses the titular method for this key production step. A tahuna is a large volcanic stone wheel that rotates around ripe agave to crush it and release the sugary juice (once pulled by industrious donkeys, tahuna wheels are now mechanized). It’s a relatively uncommon move in the brewing process these days, although the brands that use it claim it enhances the flavors of their products—Fortelliza, G4, Cascaine, Wild Common, and Tapitio are just a few that use a tahuna for at least their impressions.

“Doble Tahuna is Tequila Blanco. “Embracing the traditional Tahuna method – lightly steaming mature organic agave in masonry ovens, then manually stripping it and slowly crushing it with a Tahuna stone wheel, we’ve created traditions with creation as one of the key elements of the process. Developing the complexity and character of the wine.

Of course, don’t take his word for it—you’ll have to try this tequila to see how it compares to other brands from other brands, as well as tequilas made from Tahuna. We got an early sample and the overall impression was good – hints of pepper, lemon, vanilla, grass, sweet roasted agave, and some cinnamon lead the palate, making this blanco a decent option for mixing or sipping. You can find Doble Tahuna next week (SRP $48) at select retailers in New York, Texas, Florida, and California, and you can find the rest of the Doble lineup available on websites like Reservoir.