Calle23

 

Calle 23 tequila is produced in the Mexican state of Jalisco and more specifically the Highland (or Los Altos region) town of Zapotlanejo. Agaves from the fields between Arandas and Tepatitlan are harvested for their fruitier characteristics compared to the Lowland areas of Mexico which produce more earthy, powerful herbaceous flavours.

Tequila can only be produced from the Agave Tequilana Weber (blue variety) and needs to be between 6 to 9 years to reach full ripeness. From this, there are two options for tequila – the first is tequila mixto which has to contain at least 51% of agave sugars, while the rest can come from another different raw material with sugar cane being the most common. The second is tequila 100% de agave which has to contain 100% of agave sugars and must be not only produced, but also bottled in Mexico. Calle 23 tequila is 100% de agave tequila.

The chosen one: Calle 23 tequila blanco

As written in the April 2011 edition of the Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine:

“New to Australia, Calle 23 tequila has the quality you’d expect of a $100-plus bottle.”

“Aromas of dried fruits, roasted peppers and root vegetables, and delicate spices. Soft and silky with a dry-yet-fruity light-to-medium body. Cinnamon bark, citrus zest, minerals, straw, and chili peppers twinkle on the long, warming finish. Nice vibrancy.” International Review of Spirits Award: Silver Medal

A little question and answer session with the “team captain” Sophie Decobecq:

1. Sophie, can you give me a bit of background on your history in the industry?

Fermentation has been my opening door to this industry: I got my diploma as biologic engineer in France in 2000, which included a 6 months working period in a research center in Mexico city in biotechnology , country that I straight away felt in love with. After doing some grape harvesting in the wine industry, an experience that I wanted to live for a long time, I got an interview for a job to resolve fermentation problems in a distillery in South Africa, moved there few weeks after and after 3 months got in charge of the full process of art and craft of agave spirit production. I came back to Mexico to work on some tequila productions as a consultant, and could not leave from there.

2. How do you get your start in distilling and who did you learn from?

I learnt in South of France, in a brandy distillery, just before leaving for South Africa. The distiller was very good, very patient to explain every detail. I loved his connection with the pot still: he could do his distillation cut looking at the pot still window, just by the way the liquid was moving and by the smell. I could take and retake measurements to check if he was accurate, and from then named him the Wiseman.

3. What attracted you to distilling and what continues to excite you about the job?

My first love is biology. I loved it since I started studying it at school. When I was 11 I decided to be either a biology teacher, or a researcher in Oceanography. I tried both experiences, loved the second one, but something was still missing. I decided to move to Mexico to work in a research centre on fermentation, an area I’ve always loved, so I could have in hands all the elements to take a proper decision about what I really wanted to do. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to smell that agave smell and work in a distillery, experience that opened to me the full process about spirit production. There I knew I was where I wanted to be. I loved the fact to see something building up from 0, from a plant to a distillate, to a bottle, to a glass.
To create something with what you’ve learned through your researches, and make it available and ready to share with many other people.There are so many aspects to experiment, like a game with no end. A dream with opened eyes.

4. Did you encounter any negativity due to not being Mexican and also being a female in a male-dominated industry?

I never liked to be treated according to my appearance, or to get a special treatment being a woman. So on the other side; it never even came to my mind that people would consider my work different because I am female and a foreign person. I had a few issues at the beginning and things have not always been easy, being told once by a Tequilero that this was not a place for a woman. To this I answered with more work and dedication. I acted according to my dreams, my targets, not as a foreign woman.

I guess I learnt this from my parents who were respectively a teacher and a nurse: to do your very best in order to get that happy feeling when you reach your goals, thanks only to your own passion and persistency.

So this is the way I have always been, kind of nerd in a way… so I can thanks the Agave God to have brought me to that amazing spirit and bar industry which both now allow me to express as well my other character after working: fiesta!

5. What have been some of your highlights and achievements as Master Distiller?

I am seeing right now 2 highlights: passion & eternal doubts. Passion that makes me wake up in the morning willing to triple the time available to do all the things I would like to do, and eternal doubts that makes me perfectionist and restarting over and over everything I am doing.

Calle 23 is a result I am proud about, a tequila that I love to enjoy and to share. Achievement is to see that friends and now people around the world are enjoying it too… Australia having the #1 bar aficionado of all the countries we are in: Salud amigos at Tio’s !!

6. Does Calle 23 engage with bartenders a great deal, and if so how?

We have our personality in Calle 23 and want to keep that integrity. We think the same of the bartender world: we like and respect their work, their passion. This is a sincere relationship, a sharing experience.

We do not offer trips to Mexico or amazing gifts, even if we would love to be a red Santa Claus for all people in the world. Instead, we do what we know we can do: produce Calle 23 with our good vibe, and offering it at an affordable price as we do not do a huge margin to do some crazy marketing campaign.

We are very lucky to have found distributors as James “El Charro” France who has accepted this and supported us in that way, and we have so much fun working with him and with Aussie bartenders like Luke “El Bigote” Redington that are more our friends that anything else. We like them because they are insanely honest, real and funny. Well, at least the ones we have met so far along the way…

7. What are your favourite cocktails or tequila based drinks?

I have been introduced to the cocktail world by Julio Bermejo at Tommy’s Mexican restaurant, and any smell of lime instantly brings me back to that wonderful place.
Tommy’s margarita is heading my short list, for his simplicity and perfect use of the ingredients.

Batanga from Don Javier Delgado Corona, who I have named with his permission “my dreamt godfather”, is a special drink to me as well. Tasting that drink is hearing the voices of the Capilleros, the laugh of Don Javier, his toasted cacahuetes and homemade salsa, and the trios singing and bringing your emotions on the surface of your skin. That drink is a catharsis! For those of you who don’t know him, Don Javier is an 87 years old very fine man, always smiling, owning the Capilla cantina in the town of Tequila.

In the cocktail world, having Stefano and Ago Perrone giving me the first steps of my cocktail education, I had to deal with their Italian thing: Campari. First hated it, and now I admit I often order a Negroni or the named Tegroni/Negrita when made with tequila instead of gin.

Other favorite cocktails would be the ones the bartender I am sitting in front of will feel and will want to share with me. I had the chance to taste that way many amazing cocktails that I enjoyed a lot, that made me travel into their universe, in the expression of their taste. I would need to ask those bartenders the recipes if they agree, put all of those together and share them as there are so many deliciousness there…