Another great find during Jacqueline’s Marie-Kondo-reorganizing-day in the garage, was a box of Louie’s long-lost collection of spirits he had received as gifts. Ecstatic, he thought they had been stashed away in our storage unit: two beautiful bottles of tequila from his cousin Guillermo in Monterrey, Mexico; a lovely bottle of Cognac Salignac; and Grey Goose vodka. Jacqueline was equally as happy because she is a trained mixologist and has created her own tequila-inspired cocktail recipes.
Some things are just meant to be. It so happens that next Friday, July 24, is National Tequila Day.
Tequila, the spirit, means a whole lot more to Louie and me after our visit last year to the town of Tequila, a two-hour train ride from Guadalajara, Mexico. Tequila, made from the blue agave plant, can only be called tequila if it is made in Tequila.
One of the tequila bottles from Louie’s cousin was from the Jose Cuervo family reserve presented in a hand-painted special edition wooden gift box. The family’s distillery is the oldest operating distillery in Latin America – and still managed by the family’s 11th generation. Each year, a small batch of the family reserve is released, and a Mexican artist is commissioned to design the gift box.
Then I had a lightbulb moment and quickly rummaged through the photos I had taken in the dimly lit Cuervo family cellar. I recalled spotting a guarded collection of painted boxes. Looking closely at the photo, there on the top shelf, was the 2001 red, black and cream box – the same box uncovered in the dark corners of our garage.
