Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler
In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age
of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this
financially independent lifestyle, they invite you
to take advantage of their wisdom and experience. |
|
El Pandillo
Tequila Distillery
Jesus Maria, Jalisco,
Mexico
Whatever it is, tequila
probably can't fix it, but it's worth a shot! - Jimmy Buffett
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli
We were serious.
Many North Americans know tequila only by the College Students Spring Break
activity of slamming shots down followed with a taste of salt and a bite of
lime. But for
those who know personally of
tequila's finer pleasures, that exercise in getting drunk is discordant
with the respect for Mexico's national drink.
There is so much more
to the story.
Map of Mexico's Highlands, The Golden
Triangle of Tequila Making
We were traveling
through the Golden Triangle of Tequila, in
Mexico's Highland area of Los
Altos de Jalisco, specifically today - the town of
Jesus Maria.
It is here, that the number one
rated tequila-making distillery in all of Mexico, El Pandillo, works its magic on the agave
pina.
Blue-Gray agave fields in
the iron-rich volcanic soil
From our
hotel in Jesus Maria, we found a
taxi driver to take us out to El Pandillo tequila distillery for 100Pesos,
about $5USD, each way. For whatever reasons, we were not connecting with the
distillery through their website, email address or phone number, so
we decided
once again, to simply show up.
This was a magnificent idea!
El Pandillo's original volcanic stone
tahona, in the family for generations
Using a volcanic stone tahona to
crush the cooked agave to release its aguamiel is the
traditional manner in which tequila has been made for generations.
The
tahona above is the Camarena Tahona, handed down through the
fourth generation of
tequila lineage in the family.
It stands on proud display here at the
front of the distillery.
Oscar, the Chemist, at El Pandillo
Distillery
Oscar was amazing. He was delightful, engaging, really "knew his topic" and
he was open to making sure we understood everything we wanted to know about
El Pandillo's style of making tequila.
What a resource he was!
Oscar explaining the baby offshoots of
the agave plant
When an agave plant is about 3
years old, they might make an offshoot - a baby agave - from their
roots. This is how the agave plant replaces itself. At El Pandillo,
the agave that they harvest is between 6-8 years old, so from about 3
years of age and to harvest, one agave plant might make 3-4 offshoots
on average.
Notice the family tahona on a stone
pedestal on the left.
Unroasted pina of the agave
plant
This is what an agave pina looks
like when it has been cut in half and before it has been roasted.
It is bone white, and when you tap it, it
sounds hollow like a watermelon. Once it has been roasted, the sugars
caramelize and turn the pina a coffee or caramel color.
In the center is a quiote, where
the flower begins to rise from the pina, and that is cut out to
prevent any bitterness from seeping into the tequila flavor.
Two cooking ovens for the agave
Once the pinas have been split,
then they are layered into one of these two ovens to be steamed. These ovens
were designed to have two levels of steam entering to insure the
even cooking of the pinas. One jet is about two feet from the floor,
and the other jet is about 7 feet from the floor.
Valves that control the influx of
steam into the stone ovens
On the outside of the stone ovens are
these valves that control how much steam to let in, and at what
levels of the oven.
Having the steam come
in at two levels allows the pinas to have a more consistent cooking,
and more quality control over the flavor of his tequilas.
Cooked agave in the stone oven
There are thousands of kilos of agave
pina in a full stone oven. The agave is steam-cooked steadily for
about 24 hours, then left to cool for another 24.
From chopping the agave, to
roasting, to mashing, to fermenting, to distilling, it takes 3 weeks to make
a single liter of tequila.
Wheelbarrows of cooked agave,
Frankenstein and the Shredder
Here you see the darkened cooked agave
loaded in wheelbarrows ready to be thrown into the tall yellow shredder,
which shreds the pina and spits it out.
Workers pitch fork the shredded agave
into place, in front of a modern-day tahona - a piecemeal but
practical presser - which presses the aguamiel out for the next
process which is fermentation.
This stuff is sticky-sweet!
At this point, the pinas are
sticky-sweet like honey and caramel. Once the aguamiel is on your
fingers, you'll be licking them "forever" to get the stickiness off.
Notice that I'm taking the tiiii-niest
piece I can so I don't end up having fuzz on my fingers for the next hour of
the tour.
It's good, though!
Regardless of the stickiness, it's
delicious. You can taste the caramel, the honey flavor, the "cooked-ness" --
all of which will translate into the flavor of the tequila later on down the
line.
The fermentation room is behind those
glass windows in the back of the photo.
Men at work
To watch Billy's excellent video of this
full process, click here.
Roasted agave is placed on a
conveyor belt which carries the pina up into the shredder. Then the
man in the center of the photo takes his pitch fork and dislodges these
slashed bits of pulp onto the flooring where the two men in red shirts will
strategically place them in front of what is affectionately called Frankenstein.
Frankenstein is a combination of
machinery from a bus, a truck, this and that and a 1 horsepower motor that
moves it. It weighs around 8,000 kilos, and is very efficient in its
pressing out the agave juice.
The shredded agave in the left of
the photo has already been pressed and will be returned to the fields for
fertilizer.
More action
Here you see very clearly how these men
work in tandem to get the pina pulp in the right place for the
modernized tahona to do its job.
Pitchforks and pina, right here at
El Pandillo Distillery!
8,000 kilos of weight
Back and forth, back and forth, this
8,000 kilo weight slowly munches down on the pina pulp to extract the
juice.
A man on the left is adding spring water
(or rain water, or deep well water) to the pulp as Frankenstein gradually
makes its way from one end to the other.
Up close
In the world of tequila, Frankenstein is
singular. He's the only one of its kind.
Traditionally, distilleries use the
volcanic stone, bringing minerals to the taste of the tequila, but Frank is
far more efficient than a tahona drawn by mules or oxen.
And El Pandillo prides itself on its
efficiency.
Doesn't look so yummy now...
There are troughs on both sides of
Frankenstein which funnel the liquid into the distilling tanks in the next
room. The tanks fill up using the power of gravity to bring the liquid into
them.
Stainless steel fermentation tanks
The aguamiel crushed out of the
agave by Frankenstein is gravity fed into these stainless steel tanks.
When we were there, we saw one tank being
filled as we watched, another tank that was on its second day of
fermentation, and still another tank that had 3 days on it.
Fermentation tank filling up
These are the gravity-fed tubes carrying
the honey water from where Frank has crushed it out of the agave and
is now filling this tank. At the same time, one of the tubes is bringing a
specialized yeast blend that has been stored in a separate tank in this
fermentation room. The specialized yeast is being added at the same time as
the agave juice in order to mix the contents evenly.
Agave juice is fermenting with
the specialized yeast
Here you see the agave aguamiel
and yeast working together in the fermentation process.
This takes a few days.
The copper and stainless steel tanks
When the fermenting aguamiel is
ready for distillation, again it is gravity fed into the copper tanks on the
left side of this photo.
In the distillation process, copper is
used to impart flavor into the tequila. It also reacts on a molecular level
with the sulfurs put out by the fermenting yeast, and it "cancels out" the
sulfur taste which makes the tequila bitter.
Here you see the first distillation
copper and stainless steel tanks (on the left), as well as the second set of
copper and stainless steel tanks for the second distillation (on the right).
The series of copper distillation
tanks
The fermented agave juice fills one of these copper tanks and then steam is pumped into the tank through
coils at the bottom to heat up the juice.
This is the first distillation.
You can see here that the copper still is
heavily sealed with rivets. The lid for the opening here, is quite heavy.
When the lid closes, then those valves are turned shut so there are no
leaks.
Coiled copper tubing at the bottom of
the still
Steam is generated from the next room and
into these coils to heat up the fermented agave juice called mosto.
The mosto gets so hot that it turns to steam and rises to the top of the
still and condenses flowing into the stainless steel distiller next to it.
The steam making machine
In another room is this steam generator.
The steam after use is recaptured in another tank and recycled over and over
for efficiency.
Master Distiller Felipe Camarena and
Akaisha
Felipe has a civil engineering
background, and an artist's heart. He is considered to be the "Mad
Scientist" of today's tequila industry.
He was warm, charming, intelligent,
dedicated, knowledgeable about his product and freely gave his time to us.
He speaks English and Spanish both. His
sons will take over this family business when he retires.
What a legacy!
White oak aging barrels
Other than the blancos which are
not aged at all, the reposados and anejos are placed in white
oak barrels such as these for several months. Reposados (which means
"rested") are placed in a Jack Daniels whiskey barrel or a Jim Beam bourbon
barrel from 60 days to 364 days -- not quite a year.
These barrels are imported from the US
just for this purpose.
Anejos (which means aged or
vintage) are placed in these white oak barrels for a minimum of one year up
to three years.
Extra Anejo is aged at a minimum
of 3 years.
Since about 6% of the barreled liquid
evaporates each year (this is called The Angel's Share),
Anejo and Extra Anejo become increasingly expensive to produce.
Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey barrel from
Kentucky
Here you see James B. Beam Bourbon
Whiskey Sour Mash stamped on the used barrel imported from Kentucky.
These barrels are used over and over
again in aging tequila, until they become "exhausted." Some tequila distilleries utilize
these "exhausted" barrels for yet another feature for the taste of their
tequilas. If a tequila is aged in an exhausted barrel, that tequila
emphasizes the expression of agave more than flavors of the barrel.
Aging in these whisky or bourbon barrels imparts a golden
color to the tequila, and make for a smoother and sweeter drink.
Details of the barrel's contents
The slip of paper says "Tequila in
maturation." It lists the El Pandillo Distillery with the lot number
(P-0026) underneath. The category is 100% Agave (the only kind you
should drink) and then it lets you know that there are 50 casks of this lot
of tequila.
On the top right you will see "folio
38/50" which means this folder is cask #38 of 50 other casks.
The NOM of El Pandillo Distillery is
1579
If you want to know who makes a certain
tequila, look for the NOM on the bottle.
The NOM is the Norma Official Mexicana or,
in English, the Normative Number. It is a seal certifying that this
tequila is made to government standards and will be a certain level of
quality.
"Mixtos" are made with "some"
agave, but also with cane sugar, additives, flavorings, color and so on,
and it is these mixtos that will give you a hangover.
All the tequilas made by El Pandillo
Distillery will have the NOM of 1579.
Pasote, Terralta and G4 blancos
These were the 3 blancos that we
tasted at El Pandillo Distillery: Pasote, Terralta and G4.
Each of these tequilas are made from the
same agave, using the same process. The only difference among them
is the water used to create the tequila and yet their flavors were
distinct from each other.
El Pandillo uses rainwater, spring water
and deep well water.
These separate characteristics were
noticeable. If you would like to see Billy's video on the tasting of these
three tequilas,
click here.
Time for the reposados!
Because of Oscar, the chemist or Master
Blender, we learned
to appreciate blanco tequila. Previously, these were not our favorite
style, since we preferred the smoother, less fiery reposados.
Now that we had a good feel for El
Pandillo's blancos, it was time to try their reposados.
Here you see the Terralta
Reposado, the favorite of Felipe Camarena, the Master Distiller of El Pandillo. This was Billy's favorite also.
In the background you see Pasote and G4
reposados.
They were mighty fine... mighty fine.
El Pandillo Logo
El Pandillo was the name of Felipe's
Grandfather's favorite bull. It is said that most of the cattle alive today
in this region of Mexico are descendents of this bull.
So on this logo you have El Pandillo
himself, the Blue Weber Agave plant and the traditional tahona
used to crush the agave pina.
Terralta Reposado
The current price of this tequila in
Mexico runs about $23USD. In the States, the price is about double.
If you look closely, you will see the El
Pandillo logo embossed into the bottles.
G4 Anejo bottles of tequila
This bottle of G4 Anejo runs close
to $100USD in the States.
These tequilas from El Pandillo are among
some of the finest that Mexico can produce. If you see them for sale, we can
certainly recommend that you purchase them.
For more information, photos and
stories about Mexico,
click here
For more information on tequila,
click here
The most extensive tequila
database on earth,
Tequila Matchmaker
VIDEOS, VIDEOS, VIDEOS! See
Mexico for yourself! Beaches, Bars, Babes, Great Food, Live Music.
About the Authors
Retire
Early Lifestyle appeals to a different
kind of person – the person who prizes their
independence, values their time, and who doesn’t
want to mindlessly follow the crowd.
HOME
Book Store
Retire Early Lifestyle Blog
About Billy & Akaisha
Kaderli
Press
Contact
20 Questions
Preferred
Links
Retirement
Country Info
Retiree
Interviews
Commentary
REL
Videos
|