It’s not hard to find a premium beer, wine, or spirits during the holiday season. Booze is a popular gift and people want to buy something special for close friends and family. But a new pair of tequila offerings is raising the bar.
Patron and Casa Noble are both offering ultra-high end bottles to connoisseurs this year. Patrón en Lalique: Serie 2 will run you $7,500 per bottle, while Casa Noble Selección del Fundador Volume II is priced at $1,500.
Both bottles are extremely limited editions (Casa Noble is making 300 bottles, Patron has 299 available). And both are painstakingly made.
Selección del Fundador Volume II is a triple distilled extra anejo which was aged for eight years in French white oak barrels. It’s a complex, layered tequila that imparts rich, buttery vanilla flavors, followed by a spicy floral note.
Patrón en Lalique Seris 2, meanwhile, has spent eight years in a combination of American oak, French oak and sherry barrels before being packaged in a custom crystal decanter. It’s a bit fruitier than the Selección del Fundador, with an earthier, oakier finish.
Make no mistake: Both are incredible sipping tequilas (don’t even think about making a margarita with these), but you’ve got to be a top tier tequila aficionado to truly appreciate them.
Aged tequila is seeing a dramatic rise in popularity among spirits lovers, largely because (as is the case with whisky), the longer the drink stays in the oak barrels, the more dramatic the change on the flavor and color.
Tequila, of course, isn’t the only spirit to offer a rare release this time of year. The beer industry capitalizes on the season with the annual appearance of Bourbon County Brand Stout (which can run up to $25 a bottle) and Samuel Adams Utopias, a biennial offering that commands a $200 per bottle price tag.
