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Join the Blue Agave discussion forum to ask questions, make comments, vote in polls, rate your favourite tequilas or simply meet other tequila aficionados.

 

 

Tequila sips:

Mezcal faces the same problems with its monoculture as tequila: with emphasis on the espadin agave as the source for 95% of all mezcal, a weakened gene pool from decades of cloning is exacerbated by the growing demand for product. In the 1960s, pinas averaged 200 kgs - today they average only 50 kg. Some companies, like Scorpion, are cultivating other agave for production, including the rare tobala and the massive aruqueno.

 

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Denomination of Origin

Jalisco State

Tequila & Los Altos

Visiting Tequila

Tour 2006

Tour 2007

Map of the Lowlands

Map of the Highlands

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Updated May, 2011

In Tequila Country

 

Agave leavesHorno with cooked agave

On the first segment of the road joining the cities of Guadalajara and Tequila, there is a convergence of contrasts, not unlike the dialogue between thirst and water.

Vicente Quirate, in Tequila: a traditional art of Mexico.

 

The blue agave used to make tequila can legally be grown in only five areas in Mexico: The entire state of Jalisco, plus small parts of Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Guanajuato and Michoacan. This is Tequila Country.

 

Blue agave may be grown elsewhere, but not for use in tequila production.

There are more than 90,000 acres of blue agave under cultivation in Mexico, but the greatest concentration of pastures (potreros) are near the town of Tequila, about 60 kms west of the capital, Guadalajara.

Highway 15 from Guadalajara to Tequila and beyond is a scenic drive highlighted by fields of spiky blue agave that cover the hills and reach to the roadside, and dotted with small towns where tequila is made. This has become a tourist destination, called The Tequila Route.


More than half of all the tequila is produced in or around the town of Tequila. There are producers in nearby communities such as Amatitan and Arenal, both between Tequila and Guadalajara, and some is made further west in Magdalena.

 

The second-largest producing area is Los Altos, or the highlands, centred  around the town of Arandas, about 135 kms. east of Guadalajara. the highland city of Tepatitlan and the town of Atotonlico both have tequila producers, as well.

Today almost 40,000 workers are employed in the tequila industry, the great majority of them farmers and field workers, with others who work as technicians, or in factory positions (bottling, distillation, shipping, etc.).

 

In this section you will read about getting the the lands of the blue agave, things to look for, where to stay, and about the forum tours in 2006 and 2007. As Douglas Menuez calls it in his book, Heaven, Earth, tequila, This is the heart of Mexico. It is not a tourist resort, not a Disneyworld for gringos to play and drink then go home thinking they actually had a Mexican experience. This is the real Mexico.

 

2009: World Tequila Conference, Sept. 13-18, Guadalajara. Click for more information.

 

 

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