Siempre Plata and Reposado Tequila (40%)

The Cinco do Mayo is coming up on Tuesday, and even though the event has much greater observation in the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada than it does in most of Mexico, its arrival will most certainly result in numerous Mexican-themed parties and celebrations continent-wide (and likely beyond), most of which will of course include copious tequila consumption.

And if you’re going to be drinking tequila, you might as well make it a good one!

I first came across the Siempre line of tequilas while preparing a tequila and food pairing story for Whisky Advocate magazine, to which I have contributed regularly since it was Malt Advocate in the early 1990s. Having researched its aroma and flavour profile on Agave Matchmaker and other tequila sites, I decided it very likely had the character I was in search of for a particular pairing, which was when I reached out to the brand owners and was delighted to discover that they were fellow Torontonians.

Siempre is the product of  Monica Sanita and Alex Lacroix, two ex-advertising execs who, in Sanita’s words, “built the brand bottle by bottle, often from our parent's basements or dining room tables, with 9,000$ and a couple of maxed out credit cards.” Today, she continues, they are “still independent, still doing things the hard (but right) way, still maxing out our credit cards, and still obsessed with making tequila that stands up both in a glass and on a plate.”

My personal journey into Siempre started with the Reposado, but since blanco or plata tequilas seem to be where most people enter the tequila marketplace, let’s begin with the Siempre Plata.

Crystal clear, of course, with a particularly agave-forward aroma that invites exploration, this has the vegetal-spice character of the agave arriving first, followed by notes of orange, lime, and a bit of lemon, a whiff of smoke, some herbal notes, including a hint of mint, and a slight touch of phenolics in the background, which serves to buoy rather than detract from the other aromatic notes.

The arrival on the palate is fairly fruity – clementine orange and sweet lime zest – but grows more agave and spice on the mid-palate, with peppery notes, grassy herbals, a hint of cinnamon, and a touch of cooked vanilla, finishing with a peppery flourish that dries out beautifully.

There are more complex plata tequilas to be found, but you’ll struggle to find one that is a more adaptable workhorse, equally splendid in a Margarita or paloma as it is on its own with or without a cube or two of ice.

As noted above, the Siempre Reposado is the expression that first caught – and held! – my attention. Its slight gold colour is made to seem darker by its rustic, thick-walled bottle and brown label, but really it’s not far from the Plata in hue. The aroma has a marvellous complexity that reveals itself slowly, first showing a light oakiness with vanilla notes, then adding peppery agave, baked apple, brown spice, and a note or two of freshly mowed grass.

The start is all caramel and vanilla, far beyond what the colour or aroma might have prepared you for, with a touch of Digestive biscuit apparent, as well. The mid-palate dries nicely, replacing the caramel with lightly toasted oak, adding a note of spiced buckwheat honey, concentrated agave, and a touch of bitter orange before the long, dry, peppery finish.

For a reposado, rather than and añejo or super añejo, there is a lot going on in this tequila, and I think it would be a shame to do anything other than sip it neat. That said, however, the flavour and complexity are such that I can easily see it replacing brandy or even whisky in any number of creatively constructed cocktails.

Plata 90 ($61 - $72)

Reposado 92 ($72 - $80)