Spirited Discussions: A Podcast by Montgomery County Alcohol Beverage Services

Premium Sipping Tequila

• Jocelyn Rawat • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Discover the culture of Mexico and the nuanced flavors of premium sipping tequila.

ABS Community Business Engagement Specialist John Bowles and Clase Azul Mexico Global Brand Maestro Rubén Vargas join host Jocelyn Rawat to discuss tequila-making practices, tips for enjoying premium expressions, and traditional cocktail recipes. Guests examine tequila’s growth in popularity and how you can be the first to learn about masterclasses and other tasting events in  ABS retail stores.

Announcer:

Welcome to Spirited Discussions, a podcast by Alcohol Beverage Services, exploring alcohol products, trends, and policies in Montgomery County.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Thanks for joining us. I'm your host, Jocelyn Rawat, and today our guests are going to help us understand premium sipping tequila. From ABS, we have business community engagement specialist, John Bowles. John has been with ABS for two years, joining us after an extensive career as a manager for an alcohol distributor. And before that, he was a restaurant owner. Hi, John.

John Bowles:

Hi Jocelyn. Thank you for having me.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Joining us from Austin, Texas, we have Ruben Vargas, who is the global brand maestro at Clase Azul Mexico. In this role, Ruben shares his expertise around the world. He leads large-scale training sessions and masterclasses on tequila production and the unique qualities at Clase Azul. Welcome, Ruben.

Rubén Vargas:

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So, Ruben, I want to start with you. Can you tell us what Clase Azul is?

Rubén Vargas:

Clase Azul Mexico, it's a company that was founded 27 years ago, 1997. It was founded by Arturo Lomeli. And then like two or three years later, he invited his best friend, Juan Sanchez, to join him. So they are now the owners of Clase Azul Mexico. And it's a spirit company. We produce tequila, mezcal, and it's considered one of the most luxurious or high-end tequilas in the industry, which is great. It was two years ago with the 25th anniversary of the company that the owners decided that we don't longer want to continue being just a spirit company. So we're going into the other businesses like destinations and hotels and many other things. So we are now, we changed our name from Clase Azul Spirits to Clase Azul Mexico. And with that, we also changed the logo of the bottles. You see the old bottles have like the agave logo and the new one have like a four petal flower logo. So yeah, so that's what Clase Azul Mexico is.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So you recently visited Montgomery County and hosted two masterclasses with tastings of your products. One class was offered to Montgomery County residents and the other was offered to licensed establishments. And in those classes, you talked about the traditions of tequila making and the practices that contribute to the different expressions. So let's start there.

Rubén Vargas:

Sure. So something that many people don't really know is that in Mexico, we own what is called a denomination of origin. It's like you can make Champagne only in the Champagne region of France, or you can do bourbon and call it bourbon just in the States. For tequila, there's actually five states that are allowed to produce tequila. From those five states, the biggest one is Jalisco State in production. That's why it's the most famous one. But in reality, there's five states that are allowed to produce tequila. That's something that you have to follow in order to put the name tequila in the bottle. And then of course you have to use blue agave. There's in Mexico, we have around 190 different agave varieties. But the only one that you're allowed to use to produce tequila is the blue agave. So also depending on the region where you grow your agaves, could be highlands, could be tequila valley, could be other different altitudes, it's going to change the profile of your tequilas. It is kind of known in the business that when you produce tequilas in the highlands, for example, of Jalisco, you get more feminine notes. You get more like citrus, sweet citrus, hints of vanilla versus other parts which are like more... lowlands or lower lands, where you will find more earthy and mineral flavors. So depending on the region. And then you just have to follow the steps, how to, you need to cook the agave, you need to crush it, you need to ferment it, distill, and then you obtain tequilas.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So the Clase Azul decanters are so beautiful that people actually display them as they would any other piece of art. So what's the story behind that?

Rubén Vargas:

So Clase Azul tequila was born again, 20-some years. But the very, very first product of the company was a product called La Pinta, which is a pomegranate-infused tequila that we still have in Mexico. And after that, it was a success for Arturo. And that's when he created a different tequila called Te Por Ocho. And that didn't do that good. So what he did, he went back to school. He did a master. He started to research. He said, you know what? I want to create the best tequila I can create. So that's when Clase Azul started. Mexico was born, right? The thing is, he had the juice, but he didn't have any bottle ready to sell tequila. So he asked his sister to help him to design some molds for bottles, and she came with many different ideas. And at the end, the one that he liked is the one that looked like the leg of a table. If you turn around the clear as well, the idea came from the leg of a table where they were sitting on. And that's the history how the shape came from, right? And then what he did, he went to ask for people to make it in ceramic until he found someone that wanted to partner with him. And that's how they created the first ceramic plant, ceramic bowl factory that we have. And that's why everybody's handmade hand paint, because we made them. And we employ 1,500 people doing that in Mexico.

Jocelyn Rawat:

1,500 people?

Rubén Vargas:

1,500 people in the bowl factory. Yes.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Wow.

Rubén Vargas:

And every bottle takes seven days to be done, actually, from the beginning to the end. It takes seven days because you have to use, you have to create the formula for the ceramic, you need to have a mold to make the shape, and then you have to cook it for the first time. Once you have strained the ceramic, you have to paint it, you have to glaze it, and then you cook it again so you can glue all the colors and all the glaze to the bottle. And finally, you have a bottle ready. But it takes seven days for each bottle to be done. And that's why if you compare there's no two bottles that are alike.

John Bowles:

That is correct.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Exactly. So in the two classes, you also provided some guidance on how to taste the tequila for the most enjoyable experience. Can you go over that?

Rubén Vargas:

Sure. So... There's so many different brands of tequila with so many different profiles. I won't say this is for everything, but what you want to do if you want to have a nice experience, you want to really taste what you're drinking, we suggest to use sipping glasses, right? Like tequila sipping glasses, which are very similar to the champagne flutes, just a little bit shorter. Or you can use also a tulip glass, which are mostly used for whiskeys, right? You want to use these kind of glasses so you can have more of the flavors and the aromas and the taste you can get from a tequila. So normally what you want to do is you want to follow a couple steps, four steps. You want to look for the color. The color, that's why you want to use a clear glassware so you can see it through the glass. And what you want to see with the color is, let's say, the quality of the water or the filtration process they use or we use, anybody in the industry, so you can see how clean it is, let's say. Then you want to move your glass around a little bit until the tequila touched the wall of the glass. And then you will appreciate the body of the product, right? The body tells you mostly the quantity of alcohol inside your tequila or your mezcal or your rum or whatever you're drinking. So normally when you have more body, it means it has more alcohol and also tells you a little bit of the quality of the sugars from where it came from. So we want to be with a lot more body or full body as possible. And that depends for each tequila. And then the aromas. So you want to take your glass, open your mouth so you can let it pass as much alcohol in gas without affecting your perception of the tequila. And then you want to breathe in, sip into your mouth, pass it through your mouth, swallow, and then exhale. With that, what you do is you release more alcohol in gas and you keep mostly with the flavors from the liquid. That's a trick you can do. But that's how important it is to have the proper glassware and to kind of follow step-by-step so you can really enjoy something. I'm not saying this is for every tequila. Again, there's some tequilas that smell like you don't really want to stay that much time, but it depends on each company.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, thank you for that. John, you have a unique role at ABS. What exactly is a business community engagement specialist?

John Bowles:

I get that question a lot. Basically, I'm going out into the field, visiting all the establishments that we have in Montgomery County, or try to, And just communicate with them, figure out what's going on with their business. What's moving? What's not moving? How can we improve our service to the licensees, whether it's inventories, deliveries, order from the iStore? Just trying to get their feel for what's going on, whether it's working or it's not working. And then just reporting back any trends or anything to upper management and see what we can do to try to improve our services to these licensees, who's basically the backbone of our business.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So when you say licensees, you mean any licensed establishment in Montgomery County, anyone who can sell beer, wine, or spirits either in a store or in a restaurant? Is that right?

John Bowles:

Yes. Yes. Any business establishment that serves any type of alcohol. Those are the people that we want to try to reach out to.

Jocelyn Rawat:

And about how many of these licensees are there in Montgomery County?

John Bowles:

There's a little over 200 independent beer and wine stores and roughly about 900 or so restaurant establishments in the county.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, that's interesting. So, ABS keeps over 35,000 products in active inventory. That's a lot for these businesses to keep up with. How do licensed establishments get educated about available products?

John Bowles:

There's a couple ways they can do it. One is through the iStore. The iStore gives a list of what products we do carry in the county. They can easily access that and figure out what products they would like to carry. We also do a lot of in-store tastings that are similar to what Ruben did, the Taste and Tell programs, where we'll have someone come in and just talk about the story of the brand. Give people an idea of what's out there. We can also do in-store tastings in the county stores, the Oak Barrel and Vine. They will do tastings pretty much every weekend. You can go on the website and find out. They usually have what their tasting schedule is for the weekends. And also the independent stores will have tastings available to them. They'll reach out to their sales reps regularly. from different suppliers, and they'll arrange tastings on their own.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, so that's a couple of different types of ways to taste and learn about the program. So as you said, the ABS stores have tastings in the store. So if you're shopping, you just go and you get a taste, which is different from the type of master class that Ruben offered. So we're talking about two different programs. One is just kind of incidental while you're shopping, and the other is what we call a taste and tell program where you get more of an in-depth education. And ABS's largest tasting rooms can hold about 20 people. So that means that the classes fill up pretty fast. In fact, in Ruben's two classes, they filled up in about 15 minutes from the time that they were posted. So for anyone who wants to be the first to know about these opportunities, what should they do?

John Bowles:

I would recommend going on the ABS Facebook page. That is usually the first one that you can reach out to. Of course, you'll probably have to check that multiple times during the day. especially on some of these cases like Rubens, you don't really see a tasting open to the public at no charge for that expensive bottle of tequila. So there are all opportunities out there for you to taste products that you may have seen, but you don't think you can afford. But once you try them and you can realize how they can play, not just sipping tequila, but what they can mix with, I mean, you have like the Reposado, you know, you can use that in place of whiskey for an old fashioned or Manhattan. The profile of these tequilas over the years has really changed. It's not the tequila that we, well, that I grew up with, a little older than most people. But yeah, so we're, I mean, at first it's like, no, I'm not really in the tequilas, but after you try them, The difference in the quality is unbelievable.

Jocelyn Rawat:

John, as you travel around the county and meet with businesses, what are you seeing in terms of tequila?

John Bowles:

You're seeing more of the expensive tequilas moving. It's similar to the case with Ruben's product, the Classe Azul. It's on the back bar. And as soon as someone at the bar orders a drink, it sets off an alarm to the people around them saying, look at that bottle. What's going on? And you see that, and then everybody else would want to try it. So they'll have a mixed drink. Tequila sunrises used to be a very popular drink. You don't see that too much anymore, but you're seeing only tequila and soda with a lime or an orange slice in it. It's really incredible, the different profiles of some of these tequilas that you have out there. And the package helps a lot on sales on the tequilas. There are some beautiful bottles out there of all brands that just stand out on the back bar. And people, you know, they want to be part of the in crowd. So when they see that, they'll reorder. You know, they'll place the orders on it. But they're just, it's really just a category that's been on fire lately.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So Ruben, John said that when people order a premium tequila at a bar, that it sets off an alarm. And I think he was speaking figuratively when he said that. but it's literally true, right?

Rubén Vargas:

It is, yes, for sure.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Your bottles have a bell on them, is that right?

Rubén Vargas:

Well, the thing is, because of the shape of the bottle, the owner, when he was designing the bottle, he had some, let's say, complaints from clients. It was too hard, too pour, because the upper part of the bottle, we call it the mouth, it was like a hole, actually. It was going down, not up, as right now. So he started to change the shape of the cap and he made the mouth go higher to be able to put the spout to pour tequila. And because of that reason, he changed the shape of the cap. And because it was made of metal, which is actually a metal called samac, when you hit it by accident, the actual bottle of ceramic, it will make a sound like a bell sound. So people sometimes ask us if we put a bell on the top as marketing, for marketing purposes, but we didn't. We just how the bottle evolved just because we needed to be better. That became to have what we call the bell on the top now.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, so John also talked about other ways that people are enjoying tequila. So do you have any guidance about how to mix it or how to sip it or what food to pair it with?

Rubén Vargas:

Of course. And this is depending on everybody's taste, right? I like very fresh drinks, cocktails, not so sweet, but fresh, like for summertime and that kind of stuff. So I prefer the plata. Plata will go very nice with the paloma, with the margarita, with different... You can even make a Moscow mule, but let's say mezcal or tequila mule. So you can do that too. So you can have traditional drinks and then you can just replace... bourbon or tequila or whiskey, I mean, bourbon or vodka for tequila, and you will create a different drink. So it's very interesting. Then when you move to more aged tequilas, like older tequilas, I would suggest to have something more refined or elegant, like an old-fashioned or like a martini. You can do also that with aged tequilas. And then when you go more like older tequilas, like añejos or extra añejos, I will just keep it just for sipping. If you are drinking the good stuff, you should enjoy by itself just a tequila. And as John mentioned, a very common thing to do in Mexico is you just add mineral water or sparkling water to it just to create bubbles. And then you have the perfect cocktail. You have tequila, you have water, no more sugars on it, and just a nice piece of lime on top and you're good to go.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So sometimes simpler is better, right?

Rubén Vargas:

It is, yeah. Many people, if I may, many people complain about hangovers with tequila the next day, but they don't realize that it's as important as tequila is the quality of the sugars or syrups you add to the cocktail that will make you feel worse or better the next day.

John Bowles:

Yes, some of the people that complain about the hangovers are also the people that do the shot with the... salt and the lime after 12, 14 beers. So that would give the hangover. Very true.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Yes, we do. We do always encourage people to consume responsibly. And part of that means drinking water, too. So when you were here, you also offered a taste of mezcal. And I'm normally a wine drinker, so I was a little bit skeptical about mezcal. I thought it was going to be too bold and too smoky for my palate. But I couldn't have been more wrong. I really enjoyed it. So what do you recommend for people like me who are trying to branch out into new experiences?

Rubén Vargas:

Well, I will say, first, you need to know what you like, right? If you are already somebody that loves bourbon, or maybe trying tequila, which has been aging in whiskey barrels, will be something that you will like because you will share those vanilla and caramel notes that come from the bourbon barrels. And if you love, let's say, smoky scotches and beer, Maybe you will love mezcal because mezcal is, the way we cook the agave for mezcal is using underground pits. And that will change the flavor from being, in tequila business, we use steam. So that's why there's no smoke involved. In the mezcal business, we use underground pits using smoke, right? We just fire the firewood and we cook with the smoke for three days. So it becomes very smoky. Now, depending the type of wood you use, depending the region where you have your distillery, that's where it's going to change the profile. And you have a beautiful universe in the mezcal business because you have, in the mezcal business, there's nine states that are allowed to produce mezcal, but you can choose any agave plant that we have in Mexico. And again, we have around 192. So tasting different mezcals from different regions, from different altitudes, with different rain patterns is going to change the profile for each of them. So if you ever try one mezcal and you say, you know what, it's not for me, it's too smoky, you need to try a different one because maybe the next one won't be. And there's even mezcals, as we have one, it's called mezcal San Luis, that it is cooked using steam, as we do with tequila. So it is not smoky, but it's a mezcal, because it's made in a different region, in San Luis Potosi State, made with a different agave called agave salmiana.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, thank you. I'm really glad I got the opportunity to work with you at that class, and I learned a lot from it. So I'm going to let John have the last word here. So what does it mean when ABS says that its customers are pouring back into the community when they buy a Clase Azul or any type of alcohol in the county?

John Bowles:

Basically, what it's telling you is that any profit that is made through the sale of the alcohol is going back into the community. It's not going into some corporation or an independent supplier or distributor. It's going back into the county's coffers to help offset some of the costs of running our services throughout the county.

Jocelyn Rawat:

So is that true just if you shop at an ABS retail store at an Oak Barrel and Vine, or is that true wherever you buy your alcohol in Montgomery County?

John Bowles:

That's true wherever you're buying the alcohol in the county. Everything comes through the county warehouse. The county sells it to the beer and wine stores, restaurants, and the money from those sales help offset costs of other services in the county.

Jocelyn Rawat:

Okay, pouring back into the community. Thank you, John Bowles and Ruben Vargas for participating in today's Spirited Discussion.

Rubén Vargas:

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for having us.

Jocelyn Rawat:

If there's a topic you'd like us to cover on the podcast, email us at abs.spiriteddiscussions@ montgomerycountymd.gov.

Announcer:

Alcohol beverage services is the alcohol wholesaler of beer, wine, and spirits for Montgomery County, and it operates neighborhood retail stores. ABS also manages alcohol licensing, enforcement, and education for more than 1,000 businesses. Its profits are used to pay for resident services that otherwise would be funded by county tax dollars. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County Government. Connect with us via cable, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube by searching for County Cable MoCo.