In the obsidian-tiled Casa Dragones tasting room, a small, intimate space inside San Miguel de Allende’s Dôce 18 Concept House, a group of twelve gathers together around a small bar. Standing before us, tequila expert and Casa Dragones sommelier Sandra Fernandez explains to us an unexpectedly complex art form: that of properly tasting tequila, the nectar of the blue agave plant and fruit of Mexico’s most volcanic regions.
Gingerly swirling her glass, she instructs us to breathe in softly with our mouths as we sip, taking care to think beyond the assertive taste of the alcohol in search of more complex flavors. Her palate clearly reigns supreme in the room—she is, after all, Mexico’s top tequila sommelier, a job requiring above average taste buds. But from the caring way she speaks, we never feel intimidated by her superior skills; she guides us warmly, happily, not unlike a parent eagerly teaching a child to ride a bike for the first time.
She describes to us the most difficult part of learning to judge tequila: often, Fernandez says, we connect smells and tastes to memories, which distract us from the spirit’s deeper flavors. But when she hasno need to be objective, she finds beauty in the fact that something as simple as an aroma or taste has the ability to conjure up such strong emotions. “The nose and the smell is just connected to the emotional part of your brain,” she says. “Whenever you smell something, you will think about something, or someone, or somewhere.”
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