ABSTRACT: formostChineseconsumers, tequila-a distinctiveproductfromMexico made from the fermented juiceof agaveplants-is anexoticliquor compared with foreign rivalscognacand whiskey.
Such sensitive souls tend to crunch apples with names like Honeycrisp and Royal Gala and leave the fermentedjuice of Broxwood Foxwhelp and Somerset Redstreak to a hairier variety of human.
Schoener ferments the juice right along with the grape skins for three weeks, extracting every last flavor out of them--pleasant and harsh alike--then ages the fermentedjuice in new oak barrels for 10 months.
Perhaps he, like many of us, shared the sentimental view espoused on the back label of a million bottles that wine is a simple agricultural product, the fermentedjuice of grapes that is maybe aged for a time and then bottled.