Two of the world’s great spirits-producing regions, Scotland and Jalisco, are being represented together for the first time, supposedly, vis-a-vis a unique product hitting the shelves this week: tequila aged in single malt scotch barrels.
UWA Tequila is the brainchild of Michael Ballantyne and Ross Davidson of Aberdeen, Scotland, who together form the Scottish Tequila Company. To create their liquor, tequila from its eponymous region of Jalisco is aged in Speyside scotch barrels.
Speyside, to the uninitiated, is one of the main scotch-producing regions, together with Highland, Lowland, the Islands and Islay. While the second smallest scotch region after Islay geographically, Speyside has the largest number of distilleries, including Macallan, Glenlivet and Glenfiddich. The whiskies produced in the area are often mild and smooth, in contrast to the famously smoky Islay brands.
Ballantyne and Davidson say they use only blue weber agave plants in the production of their distillate, and are proud to say they’ve taken an “innovative approach in doing something completely different to the norm” by using scotch barrels – instead of the more commonly-utilized bourbon barrels.
Their inventory includes a blanco (which sees little to no aging), a reposado (aged from two to 12 months) and an añejo (aged at least a year). Apart from the añejo, which will be on the market sometime in 2018, UWA products are available for order online on their website, uwatequila.com.