Fortaleza Tequila

About

Fortaleza is the tequila that got a lot of people to care about how tequila is actually made. When most large brands moved to roller mills and faster, higher-yield production, the Sauza family went the other way. They revived a shuttered 19th-century distillery in the town of Tequila, Jalisco and started making tequila the slow way again. Owner Guillermo Erickson Sauza is the fifth generation of the family that helped build the category. His great-great-grandfather, Don Cenobio Sauza, was the first person to export tequila to the United States. Fortaleza is the family's answer to what agave tastes like when nobody cuts a corner, and it has become one of the most sought-after bottles on any tequila shelf, including ours at The Liquor Bros. Why Fortaleza Tequila Tastes Different The flavor starts in the process. Fortaleza roasts mature Blue Weber agave in a traditional stone and brick oven, then crushes it with a two-ton stone tahona wheel instead of a modern mill. The juice ferments in open-air wooden tanks, fiber and all, which is where a lot of the earthy, mineral character comes from. From there it is distilled twice in copper pot stills and bottled additive-free, with nothing added to soften or sweeten what comes off the still. It is slow, small-batch work, and it shows up in the glass as roasted agave, citrus, olive brine, black pepper, and a stony minerality you do not get from industrial tequila. The bottles are hand-blown glass topped with a glass agave piña, which is part of why empty Fortaleza bottles tend to stay on the shelf as keepsakes. The Bottles in This Collection Fortaleza Blanco The unaged expression, bottled straight after distillation, and the clearest look at what the distillery actually makes. Bright cooked agave, citrus, a savory olive note, and white pepper over that signature minerality. A benchmark blanco for sipping or for a margarita that tastes like agave instead of sugar. Fortaleza Blanco Still Strength The Blanco taken up a notch, bott