Although some tequilas have remained as family-owned brands, most well-known tequila brands are owned by large multinational corporations. However, over 100 distilleries make over 900 brands of tequila in Mexico and over 2,000 brand names have been registered (2009 statistics). Due to this, each bottle of tequila contains a serial number (NOM) depicting in which distillery the tequila was produced. Because only so many distilleries are used, multiple brands of tequila come from the same location
In 2003, Mexico issued a proposal that would require all Mexican-made tequila be bottled in Mexico before being exported to other countries. The Mexican government said that bottling tequila in Mexico would guarantee its quality. Liquor companies in the United States said Mexico just wanted to create bottling jobs in their own country, and also claimed this rule would violate international trade agreements and was in discord with usual exporting practices worldwide. The proposal might have resulted in the loss of jobs at plants in California, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky, because Mexican tequila exported in bulk to the United States is bottled in those plants. On January 17, 2006, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement allowing the continued bulk import of tequila into the United States. The agreement also created a "tequila bottlers registry" to identify approved bottlers of tequila and created an agency to monitor the registry.
The Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico originally did not permit flavored tequila to carry the tequila name. In 2004, the Council decided to allow flavored tequila to be called tequila, with the exception of 100% agave tequila, which still cannot be flavored.
A new Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM) for tequila (NOM-006-SCFI-2005) was issued in 2006, and among other changes, introduced a class of tequila called extra anejo or "ultra-aged" which must be aged a minimum of three years
A one-liter bottle of limited-edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 in July 2006 in Tequila, Jalisco, by the company Tequila Ley .925. The bottle which contained the tequila was a two-kilo display of platinum and gold. The manufacturer received a certificate from The Guinness World Records for the most expensive bottle of tequila spirit ever sold.
In June 2013, the ban on importation of premium (100% blue agave) tequila into China was lifted following a state visit to Mexico by President Xi Jinping. The entry of premium tequila into the country is expected to increase tequila exports by 20 percent within a decade (exports totaled 170 million liters in 2013). Ramon Gonzalez, director of the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, estimates that each of the top 16 producers of tequila had invested up to $3 million to enter the Chinese market.[18] On 30 August 2013, the first 70,380 bottles of premium tequila from ten brands arrived in Shanghai. The arrival happened during an event held at the House of Roosevelt, a well-known club located on The Bund- an area with a long tradition of importing alcoholic beverages in China.
The latest version of the tequila standard (NOM-006-SCFI-2012) also updated the standard to specify that the silver class of tequila cannot contain additives, to allow the aging time for the ultra aged class to be displayed on the label, to prohibit the commercialization of bulk tequila through vending machines and required registering the agave during the calendar year of it's plantation and required annual updates.
Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1666. A fermented beverage from the agave plant known as pulque was consumed in pre-Columbian central Mexico before European contact. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North America's first indigenous distilled spirits.
Some 80 years later, around 1600, Don Pedro Sanchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco. By 1608, the colonial governor of Nueva Galicia had begun to tax his products. Spain's King Carlos IV granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila.
Don Cenobio Sauza, founder of Sauza Tequila and Municipal President of the Village of Tequila from 1884-1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States, and shortened the name from "Tequila Extract" to just "Tequila" for the American markets.[citation needed] Don Cenobio's grandson Don Francisco Javier gained international attention for insisting that "there cannot be tequila where there are no agaves!" His efforts led to the practice that real tequila can come only from the State of Jalisco.
This is tequila in it's purest form. It's the freshly distilled spirit without any oak aging at all. These tequilas show you the true expertise of the distiller, because there are no oak flavors or aging to hide behind. It's just the flavor of agave, freshly distilled.
This category of tequila is rare to find, but does exist. It's a Blanco that's been blended with something, whether that something is color, glycerine - both of which are permitted -or another category of tequila such as Anejo
These are tequilas that see two months to one year in oak. This is a tequila tha's perfect for Margaritas and other mixed drinks, as the slight amount of aging rounds and softens it.
A tequila aged for one-to-three years in oak. This is a sipping tequila, one that exhibits not only flavors of agave, but rich vanilla and floral aromas as well.
Any tequila aged longer than three years. Producers can do whatever they want here in terms of aging, and some are creating some pretty crazy bottles that are highly collectible. This category is for true tequila aficionados. Learn more about tequila in our video below where we’re taught all about this delicious spirit by the Master Distiller of Don Julio!