Lost Explorer pioneers multi-cask ageing for reposado Tequila
Maestro tequilero Enrique de Colsa has pushed the boundaries of traditional cask ageing for The Lost Explorer’s second small batch Tequila release.
The Lost Explorer Tequila Reposado has been shaped through a unique blended resting process that has utilised Sauternes wine casks, Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks and Bourbon barrels, and is a first for the category.
Speaking exclusively to The Spirits Business, the former master distiller for Don Julio shares what led him to choose these barrel varieties for this expression, and how working with a small distillery such as The Lost Explorer has allowed him to maintain complete control over the process from start to finish, and make a Tequila he believes in.
“I met David [de Rothschild, founder of The Lost Explorer] about three years ago in Oaxaca,” he shares. While the meeting was “for advisory reasons”, by the end of their dinner, de Rothschild had proposed they make a Tequila together.
“He said: ‘You are going to make Tequila, why don’t we make it together? Come with us, come to our brand,” de Colsa continues.
“My plan at that time was to make a Tequila for myself, using my knowledge, using my contacts, using my more than 30 years’ experience working with the biggest brands in the world. I said: ‘OK, let’s try to do it together.’”
De Colsa’s priority when signing on to the project was to be able to control everything in the Tequila-making process, from choosing the yeast variety (Champagne) through to the double distillation and the ageing, and he knew having this complete autonomy was available to him with The Lost Explorer.
This allowed him to be more experimental, and approach crafting this reposado in a way that has not been done before: via multi-cask ageing.
In the past, de Colsa says his primary barrel choice has always been ex-whiskey casks, as Bourbon is the standard in Tequila ageing, with about 70%-80% of Tequilas aged using ex-Bourbon barrels.
Bourbon, he says, supports classic cooked agave’s sweetness, honey and rounded notes without erasing the agave core. Therefore, to preserve the identity of Tequila, he chose to keep this element within his recipe to maintain consumer familiarity.
But, he says: “I wanted to make something new – something that is not common.”
He started to trial a selection of barrels he imported from the US and Europe, as well as a few sourced from across Mexico. This led to the trial of 11 different cask varieties, with different woods and different former contents, including Sherry and other wine varieties he had never worked with before.
He purchased two barrels of each type and cut them down to convert them into three 20-litre barrels of each to allow him to accelerate the ageing process and witness how each cask behaved with his Tequila. Subsequently, his home became a kind of laboratory, with multiple barrels running simultaneously for about a year to allow him to closely assess all variables.
Throughout, his approach was methodical, experimental, and focused on preserving agave character while adding complexity from the wood.
For each of the 11 cask types, he created a timeline of flavour development, ageing, and testing every month for up to 11 months – the limit before a Tequila becomes an añejo. This gave him a matrix of cask type versus time versus agave presence versus wood/previous-content character, allowing him to determine the best combination for the reposado he was aiming to create.
He settled on the trio of Sauternes, Pedro Ximénez Sherry and Bourbon as his perfect combination based on the flavour qualities each barrel brought to the final composition. The Bourbon barrels from Kentucky provided structure and balance, anchoring the profile with notes of vanilla, light smoke, and toasted oak.
In contrast, the Sauternes wine casks from Bordeaux, France, gently shape the spirit, lending a soft, rounded mouthfeel and a lifted aromatic profile that brings subtle floral and honeyed nuances.
Finally, the Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks from Jerez, Spain, add a delicate layer of sweetness and nutty richness, introducing hints of dried fruit and warm spice that complement the agave’s natural character.
Together, they result in an agave-forward Tequila described as rounded, expressive, and beautifully balanced.
He also tested two approaches: sequential ageing and parallel ageing with blending at the end. He settled on the blended combination following four months of maturation, which allowed him to layer the cask influences while ensuring the agave notes remained present.
Doing this at such a small scale, he says, reinforced the level of control he had over the entire project.
He notes that ultimately, a multi-cask concept such as this is realistically tied to small, highly controlled distilleries, as it means that hands-on production, such as full control over fermentation, distillation and barrel handling, is entirely possible. He explains that big brands would find this scale and level of complexity very hard to replicate: “I was for many years at one of the largest brands, and I know that to do that is very, very, very hard – to blend millions of litres is another animal.”
Innovation without imitation
De Colsa reiterates that at the heart of this release was his desire to make a Tequila that tastes like Tequila, deliberately resisting turning Tequila into a flavoured or fashion-driven spirit.
“To try to copy or make something that doesn’t come from the same product, for me, that’s a kind of disrespect to the people behind it,” he says.
“Over the years, as I’ve grown, I’ve realised more and more that this has been something very deep in my soul, in my beliefs. When you go to the harvest, you see the people working at four in the morning in the cold, or at midday under intense sun, cutting everything by hand. And then you know that what they produce is being shown in places like Japan or Australia, on the other side of the world. If it doesn’t truly taste like what it is, you lose respect for all the people who made it.
“I understand that sometimes with Tequila there’s an effort to adapt to what consumers like, and that can be OK. But in a certain way, you lose respect for the origin of the plant. For me, the more you can maintain the flavours and aromas that come from the raw plant, the more successful and the more real it is.”
The Lost Explorer Tequila Reposado joins the brand’s blanco expression, which launched in 2024.
However, The Lost Explorer is primarily a mezcal brand, which boasts Espadín, Tobalá, and Salmiana mezcal varieties.
The new expression will be available from 8 May at Amathus and through its website for £59.99 (US$81.75).
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