Most tequila distilleries and distilling teams today produce multiple brands, some distillery-owned but the majority of which are contract distilled and externally owned. Using variations in production methods, distillery teams guided by master distillers attempt to develop flavor profiles that are unique to each brand they produce across like expressions, for example blancos and reposados.
Distillery El Pandillo (NOM 1579) located in Jesús María in the Jalisco Highlands is one of the most highly regarded artisanal tequila producers and its master distiller oversees the production of several brands, two of which are distillery owned, Terralta and G4, the latter of which is much more widely known due to a robust marketing campaign while Terralta remains a bit of a sleeper craft brand. Both are high-quality brands that have very unique, very different flavor profiles.
Both G4 and Terralta reposados are made using Blue Weber agaves grown on master distiller Felipe Camarena’s own estates which are cooked in stone/brick horno ovens, G4 for 28 hours and Terralta for 22 hours. The agave sugars are extracted for both brands using “Igor” and “Felipestein,” a shredder and mechanical roller. Both brands use open-air stainless steel tank fermentation using a family yeast strain, 2x-distillation in copper pot stills, and are bottled at 80 proof (40% ABV). G4 proofs down using 50% natural spring water and 50% filtered rainwater while Terralta across all of its expressions uses exclusively volcanic mineral-rich deep well water drawn from 150 feet underground.
While both brands use usually very used Tennessee whisky barrels from George Dickel and Jack Daniel’s, G4 reposado is made using a blend of barrels aged 3-6 months while Terralta is a blend of 6-9 month aged reposados.
Both G4 and Terralta reposados have prominent, though different, fruit notes and cooked agave sweetness as well as earthy and herbal qualities. Terralta reposado, though, has a much punchier grassy/vegetal set of notes and minerality than its sister brand, clearly demonstrating how variations in production and raw materials, in this case the water used to proof down, affects final flavor profiles. G4 and Terralta are both brands worthy of a try if you like artisanal tequilas made by families with rich distilling histories.
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