Fortaleza Blanco Tequila Still Strength

Fortaleza is the traditionalist benchmark of the Tequila valley, run by Guillermo Erickson Sauza at NOM 1493 in the lowland heartland of Jalisco. This Still Strength Blanco is the house Blanco bottled without dilution to drinking proof, a high proof expression of 100% Blue Weber agave from the Tierras Bajas around the Volcan de Tequila. The producer states it is made without additives.
The piñas are baked in a masonry brick oven, then crushed entirely by stone tahona, the slow wheel that leaves fibre in contact with the juice for a rounder, oilier body. Fermentation runs in open air wooden tanks and the spirit is twice distilled in copper. Undiluted at 46%, it carries baked ripe agave, black pepper and a mineral, briny olive note that reads as classic lowland character, concentrated by the higher strength.