Mexico's Most Expensive Tequilas

Rob Baedeker April 3, 2007

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See our slideshow of Mexico’s most expensive tequilas.

Those basics — like oak-barrel aging and the attendant, tiered system of classification — are essential to Herradura’s reputation. It was the first company to produce reposado and añejo tequilas for the commercial market, in the '60s and ’70s, respectively. Today, their extra-añejo brand, Seleccion Suprema, retails for $350 a bottle.

One sure way to gain some insight into this refined spirit is to visit its main source — the central-highlands state of Jalisco, home to the town of Tequila and many other small villages centered around the spirit’s production.

Herradura’s distillery, located in Amatitán, just outside Guadalajara, has been in operation since 1870, and is one of many in the region open to visitors. Cantu says Herradura’s Hacienda San Jose del Refugio is a picturesque “trip back in time.” Laborers live on the colonial hacienda, and an on-site chapel offers Mass.

See our slideshow of Mexio’s most expensive tequilas.

Gary Shansby, the CEO of Partida Tequila, a relative newcomer to the premium tequila realm, but one whose spirits have already garnered high praise from aficionados, is releasing an extra-añejo product, Elegante, this summer, which will retail at around $350 per bottle. He agrees that a trip to the source can enrich a tequila drinker’s understanding of such high-end spirits.

A tour of the Partida distillery in Amatitán, Shansby says, starts in the early morning in the agave fields, where visitors can walk among the jimadores, the workers who harvest the blue agave plants and strip them down to the piña, or core, to ready them for processing. In the fábrica, guests are led through the entire production process, from cooking to bottling. The tour, by appointment only, is limited to small groups and lasts about five hours.

Shansby and other frequent visitors to the small tequila-producing towns in Jalisco recommend that travelers seeking luxury accommodations and fine dining set up base in metropolitan Guadalajara, which is within easy driving range of the many distilleries and haciendas that dot the landscape.

And that trip between the big city and the outlying plantations is itself a rich experience. “Depending on the light of the sun,” said Herradura’s Cantu, “the agave plants will take on a bluish or greenish tint. The colors seem like they don’t belong there — the plants’ spikes shoot up out of the dark, volcanic soil.”

Like cognac or champagne, tequila is a denomination-of-origin product. And for the connoisseur or the curious, a pilgrimage to that place of origin can unlock some of the secrets of its richness.

Read on to see a selection of Mexico’s most expensive tequilas, along with luxury-travel tips for enjoying the spirits in their native environs.

See our slideshow of Mexico’s most expensive tequilas.

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