The story of tequila begins in Jalisco. Here’s how to experience both.

Culture and tradition

A visit to Jalisco, where tequila is made (and mariachi-style music was born), provides an excellent peek into the centuries of tradition behind the process. Although tequila’s official denomination of origin commenced in 1974, its history stretches back for centuries.

Jalisco records hundreds of years of production, back to the 16th and 17th centuries, although pulque, the fermented juice of the maguey (agave) plant, was consumed by Aztecs and Nahuas as early as 250 A.D.

“It embodies everything that has to do with how we live.” Here, you won’t be drinking margaritas. Ease into things with a cantarito—a juicy mix of citrus and tequila, topped with soda and served in a natural clay jar rimmed with chili salt. “And of course,” says Villasuso, “sit next to a Mexican at a bar. Talk to us. We will give you some shots, and it will be done with love.” 

Agronomy and terroir

Soon after exiting the traffic of Guadalajara proper, you’ll start to see mesmerizing rows of blue agave plants stretching in every direction.

Fernando Pérez Ontiveros knows the valley, or lowlands, as the birthplace of tequila. A fourth-generation grower and distiller in Amatitán, Jalisco, Pérez Ontiveros recently launched a new brand, Laelia Tequila, an artisan tequila brimming with traditional lowland aromas and flavors like cooked agave, sweet potato, minerals, citrus, and lemongrass, with Grupo Solave and Casa Natima Distillery. This distinct profile starts in the agave fields. The minerality of the valley terroir comes not just from the volcanic soil, but also the volcanic water source from their own deep well. “We only use agave and water,” says Pérez Ontiveros, “at the end of the day, to make tequila, so they both better be very good.”

Eduardo Pérez Ontiveros, brother of Pérez Ontiveros, runs the farming side of Grupo Solave, and nurtures the baby plants once weaned. “We select the hijuelos, the young shoots, by size from the mother plant,” he says, “in the spring between the second and third year of the plant’s life, plant them, then wait six years to have the best quality agaves.”

These not-so-low lowlands, 3,500 feet above sea level, live at the foot of the dormant Volcán de Tequila. Here in La Valle, the soil contains lots of ash packed with minerals like iodine, calcium, magnesium, and sodium, the warm climate makes the agaves grow and sweeten quicker, and the tequila tends to show earthy peppery notes with a lot of pyrazine—the aroma compound that brings grassy, herbal, green aromas—in the glass.

Keep driving west towards Tequila, where the highland elevations climb to over 6,000 feet, and the red, iron-rich soil with its higher acidity work with cooler temperatures to stress the agave, slowly creating the sweeter, more tropical, viscous vanilla notes typical of the Los Altos terroir.

Sergio Mendoza, Co-Founder of Don Fulano Tequila, agrees that the most critical element in the terroir and artisanship in traditional tequila productions comes from the soil. “As fifth-generation agave farmers, we care for the ground, using regenerative farming practices. Through crop rotation and minimal agrochemical use, we nurture our land and handpick only selected mature agave plants for harvest. Maturity is paramount to quality.” Like the folks at Laelia, they grow their own agave, and walk the fields, testing brix (sucrose) level and “selecting plant by plant for optimum maturity.”

The timing for cutting each agave piña directly impacts the end result. Steffin Oghene, a vice president at El Tequileño, a heritage brand from the highlands, explains that “if you taste a green banana [versus] a banana with black spots, one is very green and fresh in flavor and lacks complexity. The other is rich, sweet, and has layers of flavor. The banana with black spots represents mature agave. You need mature agave not only for its natural sugar content, but more for the complex flavor profile that it will provide to artisanal tequila.”

Ancestral methods

The last task in the field is the work of the jimador, who harvests and trims the agaves using the same hand-sharpened tool created for the job three centuries ago, according to the specifications of the maestro, or master distiller.

Carlos Huízar, the maestro behind Laelia, says the jimador’s job is critical to the flavors and aromas in the final product. “In our case, at Laelia, the jima height is the key. We need to remove the most possible green parts of the penca, the agave leaf, in order to get that sweet potato aroma. For that reason, our jima height is smaller than normal.” 

After roasting low and slow for up to 36 hours in brick ovens, Laelia’s cooked agaves get crushed with two-ton mechanized tahona wheels made from volcanic stone. As the juice comes out, the “bagasse” (fibers) get separated by hand. Huízar’s team leaves some of the bagasse, which contain the native yeasts, in the juice, so that when they transfer the juice to the open-top stainless and wooden tanks, the bubbly natural fermentation process begins without any additional yeast necessary.

Next, after about 60 hours, it’s on to Laelia’s traditional copper stills for double distillation, then rectification to bring the spirit to the proper proof. Laelia Blanco then rests for at least 14 days in American oak barrels, while Laelia Reposado vacations for four-to-six months in toasty French barrels before bottling.

El Gallo Altanero offers a more modern, cocktail bar cantina style. Stop into this “North America’s 50 Best Bars” for a sexy, yet down-to-earth drink.

Nerd out on a selection of over 400 agave spirits at Axno while you relax on the terrace.

Don’t miss the sprawling Mercado San Juan de Dios, where local talabarteros (leather artisans) sell traditional belts adorned with agave fiber designs and worn by cowboys.

In Tequila:

Have a drink at La Capilla, where everyone downs the traditional Batanga cocktail of cola and tequila with a squeeze of lime in a salted glass, stirred with the knife they cut the lime with, just like at home

In El Arenal, on the way to Tequila, visit Tequila Cascahuín for a lowland example of artisanal production techniques like the tahona (wheel grinder) method.

In Tequila town, visit Tequila Arette Distillery for an intimate boutique distillery tour. The Tequila Fortaleza tour shows off the ancestral method step by step. Don Fulano offers the viewpoint of a fifth-generation agave farming family, and El Tequileño emphasizes heritage and traditional process.

On the way back to Guadalajara, for some pre-Hispanic historical perspective, take a tour of Guachimontones, an extraordinary, grass-covered example of the Teuchitlan circular step pyramids.