Review: Espolon Tequila Extra Anejo

For years, Espolon has been the tequila you reach for when you want something to use to make a huge batch of margaritas: Good enough, not expensive, 100% agave, something you can hold your head high that shelled out for an ever-so-slightly premium spirit for cocktails by the pool.

Lately, Espolon has been pushing the brand upmarket, with both a marigold-infused offering and a $99 six-year old extra anejo called Anejo X. Now, perhaps even more confusingly than using an X to represent VI, Espolon is back with another Extra Anejo, this one aged three years but also clad in a matte black bottle. The aging is particularly unique: Two and a half years in American Oak, finished for six months in French Chardonnay casks.

Wait, this is Espolon, right? Well, let’s see what this other extra anejo expression tastes like.

Espolon Tequila Extra Anejo Review

Right away, this does not strike as an extra anejo. Tough on the nose, it is aggressively peppery and quite green. If it weren’t for the fairly dark color, you might expect this to be a young reposado expression of a punchy, Lowlands tequila. Time in glass only amplifies those notes, showcasing green pepper and, especially, green bean. After just a few minutes, any semblance of sweetness has vanished from the nose.

The palate doesn’t diverge much, if at all. After a quick burst of citrus, woody, root vegetable notes wholly dominate, an initially earthy, almost muddy quality building quickly to a crescendo. It’s all quite one-note, though ashy creosote soon creeps in, only amplifying the vegetal nature of the spirit. Any sense of fruit or sweetness is, again, quite fleeting and soon forgotten, the finish almost acrid with bitterness, raw vegetation, and freshly cut grass.

80 proof. NOM 1440.

C+ / $70

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