Leggy, like the best women.

We do so love a good mystery. Especially when it’s the mystery of the missing tequila style.

Casa Dragones is a newcomer to the ultra-premium market that blends pure agave platinum with a hint of extra anejo. It’s not going to come cheap — at $275 a bottle and $45 a glass at Mesa Grill — but then, mysteries usually don’t.

“Most tequila makers do a blanco, reposado, anejo, extra anejo. But there is one other style, joven, that’s the forgotten style of blue agave,” said Casa Dragones rep Robert T. Pittman.

Dragones has been around less than a year and is just starting to push into the Vegas market after initially setting up in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. It’s currently available at Vanity at the Hard Rock Hotel, B&B Ristorante and Carnevino at Venetian and Palazzo, and Mesa Grill.

It’s only the third tequila Mesa has added in the five years it’s been open, after Partida and Siete Leguas. It made enough an impression on management to make the cut, even in comparison to high-end stalwarts like Don Julio’s 1942.

Even with extra anejo in its pedigree, Dragones is as clear as water. It’s leggier, though, and holds the glass all the way to the top. You get vanilla notes even with your nose far away from the glass, but they give way to strong agave botanicals. It’s a tequila that clings to your mouth as the spice and heat builds. It has a very tactile sensation, and it finishes warm and bright. There’s a little bit of pear in the finish, which we’re going to go ahead and count as one of our fruit servings for the day on the food pyramid.

Now if only we can find more mysteries that end like this, we’d start traveling the country with a nerdy girl and a redhead in a van.

By Jason Scavone

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