Aroma: cooked agave, stone fruit, peppery oak, light caramel

Palate: full flavored cooked agave, barrel aging is present, toasty, and spicy but very light and rounded with notes of vanilla, cinnamon, and roasted spices

Finish: lasting, pleasantly oily with a slight funk and fermented sweetness

Central to the flavor profiles created at El Pandillo is the source of water used and in the case of Terralta, it all comes from a deep well, 150 meters down in the earth. What does this mean for flavor? To answer this question, we will first have to talk about the two other water sources at the distillery for contrast.

First, there is the harvested rain water, and secondly, a fresh spring. These two sources are used in a close to 50/50 ratio for 3 of the 4 other brands made at El Pandillo - Pasote, G4, and ArteNOM. The flavors here are clean and crisp, as one would expect from rain water, backed by floral and herbal notes. Volans, the 4th brand produced at 1579 is a blend of spring and well water, and it’s here where the minerality of the earth encasing the deep well begins to come through. But in Terralta, as it’s only source for water, the soil and earth are king.

Where the other profiles are lofty and light, you’ll find Terralta firmly secured in the ground from which the agave grow. The soils of Los Altos are rich in iron, giving them a red coloring, and softness compared to the rockier soils of the Valley of Tequila.