Calle 23 Presents: Criollo El Dos — Tequila Reposado 100% Agave
Criollo El Dos: Limited Edition, 3,932 Bottles
Eight years. Two questions. One answer.
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico — July 2026
Some tequilas are made to a plan. Criollo El Dos was made to a feeling.
Calle 23 announces the release of Criollo El Dos Reposado, a limited-edition expression crafted from the rare Criollo variant of Blue Weber agave by founder and Maestra tequilera Sophie Decobecq, dedicated to her second son, Eliès.
Eight years in the making. 3,932 bottles in existence. We have DK's only allocation. Available from August 23, 2026.
At 00.00 AM the 23rd of August, Shoppen will do a Pop-Up at The Barking Dog until 01.00 AM, where you'll be able to get your hands on a bottle. If there are any left, we will release the rest on the webshop at 06.00 AM Sunday the 23rd of August.
A Second Birth
On the day Eliès was born, Decobecq's team filled a set of well-seasoned ex-whiskey barrels with a new batch of Criollo Blanco — the rare spirit that had introduced tequila enthusiasts to the extraordinary potential of Criollo agave with the 2018 Blanco release. The original intention was straightforward: a nine-month reposado, a nod to the pregnancy she had just lived.
The tequila had other plans.
The most important thing, when making tequila, is to listen to the spirit. The original idea was a nine-month reposado. What followed was years of intuition, tasting, questioning, and trusting what the tequila was revealing over time.
— Sophie Decobecq
Rather than following a predetermined schedule, she allowed the spirit itself to guide the process. Portions were drawn from barrel and preserved at the reposado stage. Others continued aging into añejo. A first blend emerged — reposado meeting añejo — before patience revealed a third possibility: extra añejo. Years of blind tastings and blending trials followed, not to build something new, but to find the perfect balance of what was already there.
The Same Agave. Two Different Questions.
You should never compare your children. I created a tequila for each of my sons — and just as you don't compare your children, I didn't want anyone comparing these two tequilas. So offering another Criollo Blanco was out of the question. I turned instead to a different approach: what could I explore in the production process to create a Criollo El Dos that was entirely its own — yet rooted in the same DNA?
— Sophie Decobecq
Criollo El Dos begins where it all started: with Criollo blue agave, a smaller yet remarkably expressive variant of blue agave, demanding the same patience of growth and harvest before ever reaching a fermentation tank, a pot still, and then a barrel.
Production methods were kept identical to the original Criollo Blanco: low-pressure autoclave cooking, the same yeast strain, the same fermentation and distillation approach — precisely so that any difference between the two expressions could be attributed to one thing only: Time.
Criollo Blanco showed me what this agave could be in its purest form. Criollo El Dos allowed me to raise and explore two obsessive questions as a maestra tequilera: what is the optimum moment to stop a tequila's evolution in barrel? And once that moment feels right — how best to blend them together without losing what made each one extraordinary?
— Sophie Decobecq
An eight-year sensory adventure that took Sophie Decobecq and her team to the very limits of patience, yielding along the way the long-coveted balance of nose and palate, while surrendering half the original production to the angel's share.
A Blend of Three Temporalities
The final expression is an assemblage of three distinct stages of the same spirit, drawn from barrels intentionally selected for their age and subtlety — old enough to contribute character, never so dominant as to overshadow the agave.
-
Reposado 9 months: vivid and alive, featuring cooked agave, freshly cut hay, fresh almond, green apple, and cumin. The entry point and the memory of where it all began.
-
Añejo: composed and generous, featuring nutmeg, orange marmalade, brandied morello cherry, toasted bread, dried apricot, and cacao. The heart of the blend.
Under tequila regulations, the inclusion of reposado determines the category designation: the label reads Reposado. The experience tells a longer story.
When asked what these three components represented beyond the glass, Decobecq answered without hesitation: "The vitality of adolescence, the knowledge and confidence of adulthood, and the wisdom accumulated over a lifetime."
The final bottling strength — 46.7% ABV — was selected after extensive tastings conducted by Sophie Decobecq herself and also with her team, during her now famous "tequila breakfasts": blind tastings held at 6 or 7am, when the palate is clean and the senses are at their most sensitive. Many of these mornings were dedicated to identifying the precise proof at which the blend best reveals its own identity.
How to Experience Criollo El Dos
Decobecq recommends enjoying Criollo El Dos neat, and allowing it time to evolve in the glass — following the same timeline as the blend itself.
Pour and wait one minute before your first nose and sip. As you explore those initial impressions, the tequila will already be opening. By around the fourth or fifth minute, a deeper character will have naturally emerged. At ten minutes from the pour, the full depth of the extra añejo takes over.
This tequila changes with time in the glass. This is what happens when a tequila is left to become everything it can be. The experience is about slowing down, observing, and allowing all of its personalities to reveal themselves.
— Sophie Decobecq
A Note on the Core Range
For those encountering Criollo El Dos for the first time, Calle 23's original Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo remain the essential foundation — and the clearest expression of what this brand has always stood for: agave character, zero additives, and the kind of transparency that only comes from having nothing to hide and a lot to experiment. Criollo El Dos is a chapter. The core range is where the story begins.
Availability
Criollo El Dos Reposado will be available from July 23, 2026, through a highly limited allocation of select retailers worldwide. Only 3,932 bottles exist from this unique batch.
A global retailer map will be published by Calle 23 prior to release. Select retailers may offer pre-orders at their own discretion — that said, no bottle will be delivered before launch day.
A launch celebration will take place on July 23, 2026, in Guadalajara's historic Las Nueve Esquinas district — the birthplace of the Calle 23 name and a place inseparable from the brand's origin story.
Sophie Decobecq is available for select media interviews surrounding the launch.
About Calle 23
Founded by French-born biochemical engineer and tequila pioneer Sophie Decobecq in 2005, Calle 23 is recognized internationally for its commitment to agave character, scientific rigor, and uncompromising production standards. Based in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, the brand has built a devoted following among bartenders, collectors, and tequila enthusiasts through its dedication to authenticity, transparency, and a refusal to take shortcuts — in the glass or anywhere else.
For Decobecq, every tequila begins with a question. Criollo El Dos is the answer to two that took more than eight years to reveal themselves.
