You could be forgiven for thinking half the new tequila brands coming out are backed by some kind of celebrity. In the case of Lobos 1707 Tequila, however, they’ve won so many blind tasting awards that you can be sure one of the best basketball players of all time didn’t lead it to success just through hype.
Celebrity tequilas have increased in volume, but they’re nothing new. You can go all the way back to Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo brand for the first stirrings, then George Clooney really made a splash with his Casamigos brand.
The floodgates opened wide when tequila passed vodka to become the number on spirit sold in the USA by volume and now there’s a celebrity owner or sponsor/investor for more than 50 of them. These are some quite varied tequila brand celebs that I can’t imagine tipping a glass together: George Strait, Justin Timberlake, The Rock, Eva Longoria, Elon Musk, Oscar de la Hoya, and two of the actors from Breaking Bad for a start.
But I’m here to talk about Lobos 1707 though, so let’s look past the marketing and focus on what I’m sipping while I write this, okay?
The Lobos 1707 Story
I bought this brand because I’m in the midst of updating an article about tequila brands that scored lots of medals at the most recent San Francisco World Spirits competition. The Lobos 1707 reposado got a double gold, so when I saw it on the shelf I snagged. (I came looking for Jaja reposado, which also scored the top prize, because I love the name, but they only had the anejo version.)
That latest prize isn’t even on their website yet because they’ve racked up so many others to show off in just a two-year span:
I was a bit puzzled about the 1707 in their name since this is clearly a recent brand, but apparently one of the founders has some tequila-making in his blood. Here’s the official explanation:
As Diego Osorio, our founder’s great-great-grandfather, learned about this liquid and transported it in sherry wine barrels to his native Spain, he discovered the liquid aged within this sherry-bathed oak created a smooth and elegant Tequila unlike any other.
It’s a nice tie-in on the sherry barrels because they’re using the same ones today. That could have something to do with the unique sweetness profile since most tequila is aged in barrels that held bourbon or other kinds of whiskey.
Lobos 1707 Reposado Tasting Notes
I’ve got to admit I picked this up at a liquor store before I even knew that LeBron James was involved with it. I learned that when I went to their website after I cracked open the bottle and drank some. I was really impressed with this one, so kudo to James for associating with good people who know what they’re doing.
This is a rather unique tequila in the sense that it’s a lot more powerful on the finish than it is at the start. When it first hits your mouth, there’s a pleasant sweetness akin to Clase Azul that really makes it go down easy. By the time it hits the back of your through though, it hits you with more heft and finishes with notes more like a lowland tequila than a highland one from the Los Altos region where it comes from.
Overall, this comes across as a complex, well-made tequila that’s a mix of herbal, sweet, and tangy. I could drink this Lobos Reposado all night neat, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, because it’s tasty enough from start to finish that it doesn’t get boring. I found my glass emptying faster than usual.
I also made a couple of cocktails with it and this tequila held its own better than some other brands do that get overwhelmed by the competing acidity or sugars. The price is reasonable enough that you don’t feel like you’re wasting it doing that: I paid less than $40 at a Florida liquor store.
Lobos Packaging
In an age where a lot of spirits bottles seem to be getting cheaper and more boring (unless you’re paying $200+), the Lobos ones stand out from the crowd. This is a heavy glass bottle with some nice curves and additional elements. The fact that founder Diego Osorio was a filmmaker probably doesn’t hurt.
It feels nice in the hand because it tapers in the middle, then gets wider again at the bottom. There’s a nice family seal emblem at the top front in relief, with wolves in it (lobos) plus the sloping line under it goes around the bottle. On the back is a compass design in relief, perhaps a nod to the connections to the USA and Spain. A wood and cork stopper is on top.
The company puts its añejo and extra añejo versions in fancier bottles at a higher price point and I haven’t tried those yet. The also produce a blanco/joven version that’s not aged and they have their own mezcal brand produced in Oaxaca state. The mezcal is in a black bottle.
All but the joven are aged in Pedro Ximenez barrels from Spain.
I haven’t ever seen this brand in Mexico, but that doesn’t mean it’s not available. You’ll probably have an easier time finding it in the USA though, the LeBron James name opening a lot of doors, especially in the cities where he has been on the local team.
See more at the official website here.
Article by Timothy
Timothy Scott is the founder and editor of Luxury Latin America and has been covering the region as a travel journalist since the mid-2000s. He has visited each country we cover multiple times and is based in a UNESCO World Heritage city in central Mexico, where he owns a home. See contact information here.
