Ocho Tequila Extra Añejo La Laja 2019

Tequila Ocho is the single estate, vintage dated project of the Camarena family in Los Altos, the Jalisco highlands around Arandas and Jesus Maria, where each release names the specific rancho that grew its Blue Weber agave. This extra anejo comes from La Laja, a south facing, treeless field named for the flat stones in its soil and farmed for the first time in 2019, so the bottle is a snapshot of one parcel in one year. As an extra anejo it has spent at least three years in oak.

The agave is baked in brick ovens, milled and twice distilled in copper, then aged in American oak that pushes the spirit toward dessert. The aroma runs to apple juice, grape, melon and strawberry over fresh wood, flan and roasted nuts, while the palate is cooked agave, honey, hazelnut and candied nuts wrapped in caramel, lightly dry and soft. Ocho is additive-free, so the sweetness here is barrel and ripe highland agave rather than syrup.