If there’s ever a tequila brand that you can trust to deliver on experimental finishes, it’s El Tesoro. The Mundial Collection explores cask exchanges with other Beam Suntory brands —including Basil Hayden, Laphroaig, and Knob Creek. But for 2025, they’ve really outdone themselves with a coveted flavor partnership: Japanese whisky.
El Tesoro Mundial Yamazaki Edition is an añejo tequila finished for 12 months in Yamazaki Japanese whisky barrels. These particular Yamazaki barrels formerly held sherry and other wines before they moved on to the world of whisky for their next life phase. After their time in Japan was done, El Tesoro got their hands on them.
“Each time we release a new [Mundial Collection],” said Master Distiller and CEO Jenny Camarena, “we show another way tequila can take the shape of something new that can express ideas and flavors one would never expect. My brother Carlos began working on the Yamazaki Edition years ago, and it’s been my pleasure to see it come to its final stage.”
One of the biggest criticisms of aged and finished tequilas is that they stop tasting much like tequila at some point. Purists understandably detest tequilas that look, smell, and taste like bourbon, because that liquid inevitably spent so much time in old bourbon barrels that those agave flavors have been coated in caramel and citrus.
El Tesoro does not do this — while they incorporate the influences of those other products, they never let it overwhelm the distinct flavor profile of the tequila itself. As a result, Mundial: Yamazaki Edition is not a sweet tequila, not even in the ways that whiskey finishes typically sweeten up agave. No caramel, only a faintest hint of toffee, vanilla somewhere down the hall.
Incredibly, that telltale El Tesoro minerality — that dry, almost effervescent body character in their younger products — is present and front-facing in this tequila, which is not something you and I might generally think is desirable when Yamazaki is the finish.
We would, it turns out, be very wrong. This tequila is crazy good, with the minerality showcasing hints of dry oak. More prominently, however, bright and dark red berry notes come forward. There are hints of jammy raspberry, currant, fruitcake. Nutty notes, baking spices, and hints of dark coffee peak out here and there on the finish, but there’s never a full switch away from agave to whisky — it finishes citrusy and warm, with just a bit of caramel banana muffin.
For $200, it’s a fantastic sipping tequila with a gorgeous mouthfeel. It’s also a good representation of the finishing potential of ex-sherry, ex-Japanese casks. El Tesoro Mundial: Yamazaki Edition is kind of good at everything, though at 42 proof I’d personally advise against ice. This tequila deserves the respect of a neat pour — at least at first — so that you can enjoy the full spectrum experience of everything Camarena and her team have brought to the table and shoehorned into this bottle. And while you’re at it, restock your bar with El Tesoro Blanco ($50). Sip them side by side, just once, so you can see everything that they added to this tequila — and everything they didn’t lose in the process.
G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for tequila reviews and trends, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.