Annual Fortaleza Winter Blend Showcases Challenges of Cask Finishing
The result in Winter Blend 2023 is the still-strength blanco is nearly outgunned by all the varied wood influences. Francavilla has made a blend that’s undeniably Fortaleza, but in the glass, there’s a lot going on that keeps it from becoming a unified whole.
And so it begins: December’s annual weeping, wailing and gnashing of tequila fanatics’ teeth when they see pictures of Fortaleza Winter Blend 2023 bottles online. Some of the howling stems from knowing they can’t get a bottle now, or perhaps ever, and some of it’s aimed at the fortunate few who find it and hoard multiple bottles. (Sound familiar, bourbon fans?)
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Since Fortaleza’s baseline of blanco, reposado, anejo and still-strength blanco are hard enough to get, this year’s 1,100 9-liter case release of Winter Blend reinforces the scarcity of these bottles. This tiny distillery in Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico, produces only 36,000 9-liter cases of spirits yearly for North American markets and, increasingly, Europe. Despite working round the clock six days a week, its twin 250-gallon stills don’t make enough tequila to quench the public thirst for it.