Caballito Cerrero Chato Blanco Mezcal

Made using estate-grown agave at the Santa Rita Distillery in Amatitan, Jalisco by 14th and 15th-generation Tequileros, this is not classified as Tequila. Instead, it is a "Distilado De Agava", made in the manner of Tequila. Agave Spirit is an overarching term that is used when Tequila cannot be due to the spirit being outside of the classified region or not being certified as Tequila for other reasons. That being said, Caballito Cerrero is as authentic as you can get regardless of what you call it.

The Caballito Cerrero brand dates back to 1950 when it was founded by Don Alfonso Jimenez Rosales. Before this, Alfonso co-founded Herradura, eventually striking out on his own after a family dispute. Herradura translates to "horseshoe", which is emblazoned on the bottles of Tequila they sell. Caballito Cerero roughly translates to "unshoed horse", which gives some idea to how Don Alfonso Jimenez Rosales felt in leaving Herradura to start anew.

Santa Rita is considered by many to be one of the top Tequila distilleries in the world. They do not contract distill for other brands, stick to small batch distillation and only focus on distillation a few times each year, which makes them very different from the monolithic distilleries that produced much of the tequila for a variety of brands out there. Santa Rita is committed to producing Tequila the traditional way and that sometimes means they butt heads with the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT).

Caballito Cerrero Chato is made with maguey Chato, which in this case is referring to an Agave Angustifolia, which is either related to or synonymous with maguey Espadin. The agave are cooked in a brick steam oven, milled in a double pass mill, fermented in open stainless steel tanks with both wild and proprietary yeast, and distilled in stainless steel and copper.​