Desert Door Texas Sotol Original is produced using sotol plants harvested in the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas. This sotol is herbaceous, creamy, and the vegetal notes reflect it's desert terroir.
About this sotol
Desert Door Texas Sotol Original is produced using sotol plants harvested in the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas. Dasylirion Texanum, or green desert spoon, has thinner leaves than Dasylirion Wheeleri. The plants are transported to the Desert Door distillery in Driftwood, Texas and cooked in a large custom steamer (similar to a pressure cooker). Next, the plants are machine-shredded and then fermented in stainless steel tanks for 5 days using an organic, proprietary yeast. The resulting mash is distilled in their custom-build still. The spirit is adjusted to 40% ABV using purified water before being bottled. This sotol is herbaceous, creamy, and the vegetal notes reflect it’s desert terroir.
Desert Door Texas Sotol
Desert Door Texas Sotol was founded by three US military veterans who met at the University of Texas Austin while pursuing MBAs. The idea for the company began in a class called “New Venture Creation”. A few years later Desert Door had produced it’s first batch of unaged sotol in their distillery in Driftwood, Texas using sotol plants harvested in the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas.
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Average José
54 reviews* I have bought several bottles of this due to its low price and constant availability; never a lot or batch number to be found.
* ABV: 40%
A stripped over-distilled spirit that is still better than it’s higher proof aged counterpart. Main notes are rubber racquetball and rubbing alcohol with slight light vanilla and all-spice flavor. Very oily. Mixes ok but not something I would repeatedly buy to mix with.
I think if this were only distilled 2x and left to rest in glass for 90+/- days (and kept out of aging barrels) that it would possibly be a nice drinkable Sotol. I think DD is missing an easy opportunity here to capitalize on this by making a “premium” version by doing less work but that is just my opinion.
* I have bought several bottles of this due to its low price and constant availability; never a lot or batch number to be found.
* ABV: 40%
A stripped over-distilled spirit that is still better than it’s higher proof aged counterpart. Main notes are rubber racquetball and rubbing alcohol with slight light vanilla and all-spice flavor. Very oily. Mixes ok but not something I would repeatedly buy to mix with.
I think if this were only distilled 2x and left to rest in glass for 90+/- days (and k
jackstraw
33 reviewsmaple syrup and vanilla, sugar-dusted pancakes with sage and orange zest
review #7
AdrianM
19 reviewsThe bottle tells you more than the juice. Wanted to like it, but fell flat among others. Slight sweetness that fades away quickly, burnt rubber taste, herbaceous, but distant in flavor compared with other sotol brands with similar abv.
Cy Bister
26 reviewsVery herbaceous, slightly sour, with asphalt. Taste is curiously underwhelming and almost nondescript other than it’s clearly a sotol. Not sure how they accomplished this! Definitely desert tires/tar, grass, with just a hint of sweetness. 80% doesnt cut it, in my opinion, and I’m not sure a higher ABV would improve this too greatly. I certainly wouldnt push a glass away if poured, but I wont be buying this again.
Firesidesipper
39 reviewsLike other reviewers I could not resist grabbing a 50 ml bottle off the shelf. This sotol is very vegetal and grassy on the nose and creamy on the palate. At 80 proof it tastes a bit diluted; and lacks the distinctness and punch of south-of-the-border sotols.
El-Dawg
209 reviewsIt was finally time to knock this one out of my sotol list. It’s OK. Actually it doesn’t take much of the sotols I’ve had (and love). There is a creaminess to the taste, which might be the best thing it has going for it. Signs of ‘burnt rubber’ or uninteresting related notes, which come from the production.
50ml sample was a perfect purchase to try this one…and thus no lote number. I love sotol (this doesn’t taste like one), and as someone pointed out, it almost taste more like an industrial tequila.
Review #138
It was finally time to knock this one out of my sotol list. It’s OK. Actually it doesn’t take much of the sotols I’ve had (and love). There is a creaminess to the taste, which might be the best thing it has going for it. Signs of ‘burnt rubber’ or uninteresting related notes, which come from the production.
50ml sample was a perfect purchase to try this one…and thus no lote number. I love sotol (this doesn’t taste like one), and as someone pointed
TrogdordeFuegoanator
40 reviewsDisgusting.
Fancy lookin’ bottle you got there sir.
Tastes like bad gin.
Zack Klamn
542 reviewsNose – Swampy. Raw sour dough – extra sour. Old flower water left in a vase.
Palate – Floral and medicinal sweetness. A minty heat in the finish. Even for 40% this is a tad weak/watery tasting although it has some viscosity to it. I’m usually not into sotol but this is better than others at the price point. 2.75 stars but I’ll bump it up. This was a 50mL bottle sample, no batch info.
meserole
73 reviewsI’m mildly interested in the politics of an American “sotol”, but don’t have any particular opinion on the issue. I was able to stop by the distillery after an Austin visit recently to taste a flight of their sotols, where the server proudly explained how the spirit was 6 times distilled (?!)… and, as expected, the result is a smooth and rather flavorless, tequila-adjacent beverage with a touch of honeyed sweetness.
It was ironic to me that the other offerings in the flight — and oak-aged sotol and a strawberry-basil infusion — were both more flavorful and interesting, because it seems they had the impulse to add back flavor that had been distilled out of existence in the original. Anyway, my cocktails were very tasty, and I’d be willing to give this place another shot in a few years — I’m sure they’re experimenting quickly with their production.
I’m mildly interested in the politics of an American “sotol”, but don’t have any particular opinion on the issue. I was able to stop by the distillery after an Austin visit recently to taste a flight of their sotols, where the server proudly explained how the spirit was 6 times distilled (?!)… and, as expected, the result is a smooth and rather flavorless, tequila-adjacent beverage with a touch of honeyed sweetness.
It was ironic to me that the other offerings in
brian.minnesota
2 reviewsI’ve been curious about this American agave product for a little while now. I saw a tiny 50 ml bottle and bought it. Today my girlfriend and I tried a sip of this (among 4 other expressions new to us). This was undrinkable. The nose was sour, almost with a rotting scent to it. We both took a sip at the same time and (without discussion) we simultaneously stood up to spit it out in the sink. I won’t be sipping this, I won’t offer it to friends, I wouldn’t put it in a cocktail, I wouldn’t recommend you have anything to do with this.
I’ve been curious about this American agave product for a little while now. I saw a tiny 50 ml bottle and bought it. Today my girlfriend and I tried a sip of this (among 4 other expressions new to us). This was undrinkable. The nose was sour, almost with a rotting scent to it. We both took a sip at the same time and (without discussion) we simultaneously stood up to spit it out in the sink. I won’t be sipping this, I won’t offer it to friends, I wouldn’t put it in a cockt
JoplinHam
1 reviewReally approachable spirit if you are looking for something in the tequila, sotol, or mezcal category. Incredibly smooth, definitely earthy, but also pretty refreshing with citrus and minty notes. As a tequila drinker, I was recommended this as something different and it was almost a gateway to a more elevated category in full. Just so many layers to the flavor profile but really smooth. I drink it straight nowadays but like to use it as a replacement for tequila in my palomas.
TzotollineRaramuri
75 reviews?- Clear.
?- prickling and warming impact; aromas of raw under ripe pineapple, mandarin, caraway, aloe vera, menthol, hay, lemongrass, eucalyptus, terracotta, clay and ash.
Adequate & complex production, average length and ordinary character.
?-coting, warming and astringent effect; smooth sufficiently generous alcohol; medium body.
Primarily sweet/sour/bitter taste, buttery smoothness.
Flavors of tamarind, terracotta, clay, cooked aloe, roasted artichoke, orange zest, smoked almonds, black pepper.
Concentrated flavor intensity, complex, harmonious balance.
Pleasant very long finish.
Very good overall impression.
Learn more about organoleptic evaluation at the International Wine & Spirits Guild’s seminar in Fine Spirits,
or more on Agave Spirits certifications through the Agave Spirits Institute.
?- Clear.
?- prickling and warming impact; aromas of raw under ripe pineapple, mandarin, caraway, aloe vera, menthol, hay, lemongrass, eucalyptus, terracotta, clay and ash.
Adequate & complex production, average length and ordinary character.
?-coting, warming and astringent effect; smooth sufficiently generous alcohol; medium body.
Primarily sweet/sour/bitter taste, buttery smoothness.
Flavors of tamarind, terracotta, clay, cooked aloe, roasted artichoke, orange zest, smoked almonds, black
spasta
22 reviewsVery mediocre but I would drink this over many tequilas.
WestTexasCowboy
1 reviewAt an event March7th at the distillery, now my palate from growing up in West Texas and living on the Border(Laredo) for 5+ years and drinking my way from Brownsville/Matamoras to Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras. (Herradura Tequila, Mescal from the Mexican Moonshiners and more recently Hacienda de Chihuahua Sotol) with a Large fatty Liver to attest to the years of continual consumption.
I was way underwhelmed by the Desert Sotol spirit. Too close in taste to Tequila with a petroleum aftertaste. Has a ways to go in refinement. Sotol should not taste like mediocre Tequila.
At an event March7th at the distillery, now my palate from growing up in West Texas and living on the Border(Laredo) for 5+ years and drinking my way from Brownsville/Matamoras to Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras. (Herradura Tequila, Mescal from the Mexican Moonshiners and more recently Hacienda de Chihuahua Sotol) with a Large fatty Liver to attest to the years of continual consumption.
I was way underwhelmed by the Desert Sotol spirit. Too close in taste to Tequila with a petroleum aftertaste. Has
Rorschach
43 reviewsBought a bottle directly from the distillery in April 2019.
Grassy and a little thin, like maybe a low fat tepextate mezcal. To me this is a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc if compared to wine. There is plenty of mezcal/sotol from Mexico for less money I’d buy every time before this.
Tyler
643 reviewsTried a few different batches and they’ve all been a bit different. Enjoyed it most the first time when I toured the distillery right after they opened; it was really herbal, grassy, and soft. A later batch tasted like burnt tires. The one I’m tasting now (no batch number) is very mediocre – it is watery with some soft wood, sour white grapes, and vanilla custard. It’s about $50-$60 for a bottle which is a bit expensive for an “industrial” sotol. I’m looking forward to trying the aged version because it’s 50% ABV.
Tried a few different batches and they’ve all been a bit different. Enjoyed it most the first time when I toured the distillery right after they opened; it was really herbal, grassy, and soft. A later batch tasted like burnt tires. The one I’m tasting now (no batch number) is very mediocre – it is watery with some soft wood, sour white grapes, and vanilla custard. It’s about $50-$60 for a bottle which is a bit expensive for an “industrial” sotol. I’m looking forward to trying t
GreenspointTexas
385 reviewsExcellent sotol, especially considering it’s the first commercially produced American Sotol. May be a little overly herbal, but other than that, no complaints.
TheAgaveFairy
169 reviewsUnsure lot numbers, tried three batches.
Sweetish from afar, and more sour as the nose goes in. Quite sour, with peppermint and spearmints, mild pork, decently aromatic. Seems bigger so far than 40% would suggest. Sour limes, pink peppercorns, sage, hint of thyme, hyssop, toffee, tiny touch of minerality/ozone. More sour than I’d like on the midpallete, with a musty finish. Good toffee sweetness on the entry.
EDIT: Will update soon. Things have gotten better.