Don Julio Debuts Bourbon-Inspired Toasted Tequila — But It’s Only Available in This Country

(Photo: Don Julio)

Don Julio Tequila is back in the headlines with an ashy twist on its formula.

Last week, the Diageo-owned brand unveiled Don Julio Ceniza, an añejo aged for an undisclosed time in toasted and charred barrels. The brand claims that it boasts a dark, sweet and smoky flavor profile, designed to pair well with “Mexican dishes of intense flavors and robust preparations.” If you’re a Don Julio fan based north of the border, don’t get your hopes up just yet — the tequila is limited to Mexico for the time being, with plans to expand to Colombia by year’s end.

The repeated mentions of smoke in the product description call to mind tequila’s trendy predecessor, mezcal. However, the brand likely took inspiration from an entirely different source.

Bourbon, by definition, is required to age at least two years in newly charred American oak barrels. The charring process delivers a short blast of high heat directly to the wood, imparting all those delicious caramel and vanilla notes that we know and love in America’s favorite whiskey genre. Around 2014, brands like Michter’s expanded their scope with toasted barrels, which are exposed to lower temperatures over a longer period of time. Toasted and charred whiskey has since become an enormously popular option on the market, picking up traction among established names like Penelope, Elijah Craig and St. Augustine.

Jesus Valdelamar, marketing director at Don Julio, says that Ceniza is the brand’s first “dark añejo.” Though Don Julio isn’t the first tequila brand to age its liquor in toasted barrels (Paladar’s recent Experimental Series comes to mind), it is the first distiller to rechristen the technique with a name unique to the agave spirits world. Valdelamar hints that it may be the beginning of a trend.

“Just as we created the world’s first luxury tequila with Don Julio Reposado, and the first cristalino añejo with 70, now with Don Julio Ceniza, our first dark añejo, we once again reaffirm the importance of elevating and respecting our traditions while maintaining a disruptive and modernoutlook; because just as Mexico reinvents itself, Don Julio Ceniza does as well,” Valdelamar remarked in a news release.

Whether or not other brands will adopt the dark añejo phrase is yet to be seen. It’s worth remembering that extra añejo tequila was only recognized as an official category in 2006. Cristalinos, now a ubiquitous sight on the shelf, were invented a few years later, and originally called “añejo claros” before the industry coalesced around a catchier term. All of that’s to say, if Don Julio thinks it can invent a new type of tequila, chances are, it can.

Don Julio has yet to reveal whether or not Ceniza will be made available in the United States. The version unveiled last week is bottled at 35% ABV — 5% lower than the legal minimum in the United States, though more or less the average for spirits sold in Mexico. If the tequila powerhouse does have plans to expand Ceniza into new markets, it may have retinker the recipe, if only slightly.