Espolon Tequila Guide: Blanco, Anejo, Prices and Sizes

Espolon is the tequila people find on the shelf, pick up because the label is a skeleton on a rooster, and then keep buying because of what is inside. It is 100% blue agave, it is made in the Jalisco highlands, and the anejo is the least expensive anejo tequila we carry. Those three facts together are unusual enough to be worth a page.

Where it comes from

Espolon is distilled at Destiladora San Nicolas in Los Altos, the highland end of Jalisco, from blue Weber agave grown on the same red volcanic soil. Highland agave is the sweeter, more floral kind - the lowlands around the town of Tequila give you the earthy, peppery style instead. That difference is the single biggest thing separating one 100% agave tequila from another, and it is why Espolon tastes like fruit rather than like minerals.

The brand was started in 1998 by Cirilo Oropeza, a master distiller with thirty years behind him, and it is now part of the Campari group. The word espolon is the spur on a rooster's leg, which is where the bird on the label comes from.

The label is not decoration

Worth a paragraph because customers ask. The engravings are done in the style of Jose Guadalupe Posada, the Mexican printmaker whose calavera skeletons became the visual language of the Day of the Dead. Each expression carries a different scene from Mexican history. It is a real piece of design rather than a marketing skeleton, and it is the reason the bottle gets picked up in the first place.

Blanco - $33.99

Espolon Blanco is unaged, bottled clear at 40%, and it is the highland style undisguised: cooked agave and tropical fruit up front, white pepper and a squeeze of citrus behind it, a clean short finish.

It is a margarita bottle first. Lime juice does not bury it, and it has enough weight to survive orange liqueur, which cheap mixto tequila does not. It is also perfectly drinkable neat if you are the kind of person who likes blanco neat, though it is not asking to be sipped.

Where it sits on price is the point. Jose Cuervo Silver is $21.99 and is a mixto - part agave, part other sugars. Espolon is twelve dollars more and is entirely agave. That twelve dollars buys you the whole difference between the two categories, and it is the best-value step up on the tequila shelf.

Anejo - $45.99, and cheaper than every other anejo we have

Espolon Anejo spends a year in charred new American oak and then a short finish in heavily charred bourbon barrels. Campari also owns Wild Turkey, so those barrels do not have to be bought in - they come from inside the house.

What comes out is amber, thicker in the mouth than the blanco, and much more about vanilla, caramel and toasted oak than about agave. It drinks closer to a bourbon than most people expect from tequila, and it makes a genuinely good old fashioned.

Now the price. Here is what the rest of the anejo shelf costs: Herradura Anejo $47.99, Milagro Anejo $59.99, Don Julio Anejo $64.99, Casamigos Anejo $65.99, Zarza Anejo $69.99, and it climbs from there. Espolon at $45.99 is the floor of the category. If you have wanted to find out whether aged tequila is for you without spending sixty-five dollars to find out, this is the bottle that answers it.

Where reposado fits

Reposado is the middle rung - a few months in oak rather than a year, so you get some vanilla and colour without losing the agave underneath. It is the compromise bottle, and for a lot of people it is the only tequila they need. We laid out exactly what separates the three in blanco, reposado and anejo explained, and the reposados we carry are on the tequila shelf.

The 1.75L, and when it pays

Espolon Blanco in the 1.75L is $54.99. That is about 93c an ounce against $1.34 an ounce for the 750ml, so the big bottle is roughly 31% cheaper per ounce.

Two 750ml bottles cost $67.98 and hold 50.7 ounces. The one big bottle costs $54.99 and holds 59.2 ounces. If margaritas are being made in a pitcher for a kiddush or a sheva brachos, that is thirteen dollars saved and eight extra ounces in hand. The whole Espolon range is in one place.

How it compares to the names people recognise

Espolon Blanco at $33.99 sits above Lunazul at $30.99 and below Patron Silver at $44.99, Don Julio Blanco at $49.99 and Casamigos Blanco at $54.99.

All four of those are 100% agave, so what the extra twenty dollars buys is a heavier bottle, a longer rest, older agave in some cases, and a name the table recognises. Those are real things and there are nights they matter - we wrote up Don Julio, Patron and Casamigos in full. But in a shaker with lime, Espolon holds its own against every one of them.

Is it kosher?

Straight 100% agave tequila with no additives is the uncomplicated end of the kosher spirits question. The complications start with flavoured tequilas, cream liqueurs and anything with colouring or sweetener added after distillation. Which tequilas are kosher walks the lines, and tequila vs mezcal covers the wider category.

What to buy

• First bottle of real tequila - Blanco 750ml, $33.99.
• Margaritas for a crowd - Blanco 1.75L, $54.99.
• Finding out if you like aged tequila - Anejo, $45.99. Nothing else gets you there for less.
• Building a bar - start with the blanco and read how to build a home bar.

Prices across the whole category are in how much is a bottle of tequila.