By Richard Thomas
Rating: B
(Credit: Richard Thomas)
For several years now, Mexican whiskey has been gaining prominence, albeit just a little bit at a time. It was back during the Pandemic that I became acquainted with Abasolo Corn Whiskey, and I discovered more Mexican whiskeys during a trip to Oaxaca a couple of years ago. The introduction of a new brand named for Mary Dowling and a historical novel about her has also drawn some attention to the history of Mexican whiskey making, because it was to Mexico that Dowling decamped to after Prohibition forced her to shutter his Kentucky bourbon business.
Mexican whiskey also draws on some of the features that make craft whiskeymaking special, such as the use of heirloom corn grains instead of yellow distiller’s corn. After all, corn originated in Mexico and that country is still home to the most diverse selection of grain stock in the world. Another feature of Mexican whiskey-making is exotic climate, since every Mexican whiskey I’ve ever heard of was aged in a place that has more in common with Colorado or Arizona than Kentucky, Tennessee, Ontario or Alberta.
This is where newcomer Olta Whiskey comes in. Made and bottled in Mexico, it comes from a mash that is 80% “ancestral” Mexican corn (no other details available). It’s aged in used agave spirits barrels for three years at an altitude of 7,000 feet in Michoacán (think Santa Fe, New Mexico for climate cues, only perhaps not as dry, due to proximity to the Pacific Coast). If it were made in America, the combination of 80%+ corn and used barrels of any background would make it a corn whiskey, so it fits into the prevailing pattern for whiskey from Mexico. Olta is bottled at 40% ABV.
The Whiskey
The liquid is a clear, bright and solid yellow, which is quite the unusual way to start. The pour is too yellow to call it gold, but nowhere near pale enough to be described as white wine either, so it really is in a place all it’s own. It streams legs, too.
(Credit: Olta)
The nose leads with corn oil and pineapple, plus hints of ginger and wet clay (that earthiness from the agave spirits–tequila and mezcal–barrels, no doubt). The palate is sweet and creamy, with only the slightest hint of the corn husk that so often accompanies real corn whiskey. All that is accompanied by a pinch of cookie spice. The finish opens a bit woody, before turning to a vague agave spirit note (not distinctly anything beyond that), but overall that finish is gone so fast I need a couple of sips to really come to grips with that twist at the end.
Olta bills itself as a young whiskey and it drinks like one, but it certainly has some exotic character despite its youth. Moreover, it has none of the harsh or rough qualities that so often attend a corn whiskey of any description, young or no. I could easily see it serving as the base for some interesting cocktail riffs, and its novelty makes it worth trying in its own right.
The Price
I’ve seen this bottle listed for $50-55.
