Tequila Los Azulejos | Ultra-Premium Tequila | FOODIES WEST November 2016 Issue

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TEQUILA LOS AZULEJOS
ULTRA-PREMIUM CRAFT TEQUILA
November 2016 Issue | Vol. 4, No. 21 A work of art, inside and out.

5-Star/5-Diamond

Executive Chef

FAIRMONT SCOTTSDALE PRINCESS
DAVID MORRIS

Executive Chef
ASHLAND HILL & MARGO'S
SANTA MONICA, CA
GREG DANIELS

Sous Chef at Proof
FOUR SEASONS SCOTTSDALE
DELL MORRIS

Owner/Master Cicerone
THE BRUERY & BRUERY TERREUX
ANAHEIM, CA
PATRICK RUE

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Tequila Los Azulejos | The Art of Tequila | Ultra-premium craft tequila made the traditional way. When it comes to making tequila, there are shortcuts, and then there is the right way. Both ways show up in the sip of the spirit. “Tequila is the hardest spirit to make,” said Chris Quintanilla, VP-Sales for spirits distributor Mexcor in Houston, Texas. “A lot of magazines have claimed it’s the number one spirit in the world because it’s so difficult to make. There are many shortcuts along the way. “With agave,” Quintanilla continued, “it’s a ten-year process. With cognac, you make wine, you ferment the grapes and age the wine. With Scotch, you have the barley and the malt, you ferment that and then distill it and age it. With tequila, you have to actually cultivate the plant for ten years. A lot can go wrong. The prices go up and down. From the raw material standpoint, it’s way, way more difficult.” Quintanilla knows all this because he has a tequila lineage. His grandfather, Pedro Quintanilla, owned a hacienda and was a major grower of Agave tequilana Weber var. azul—the only variety of agave permitted by federal law in México for use in tequila production. Grandfather Pedro crafted his own tequila, which he reserved solely for his family and friends. The tequila gene got passed down to Grandfather Pedro’s son, Pedro, Jr. He, too, had a passion for tequila and made his own. When tequila started trending, Pedro, a successful entrepreneur, took the recipe to market. He started production of Tequila Los Azulejos in the early 90s, the same time Patrón came on the market. “Really,” Quintanilla said, “back then, tequila was Cuervo and a lot of low-end tequilas. Tequila kind of had a bad name. My father wanted to create tequila above all tequilas. A super-primo premium tequila. So he came up with this concept the same time Patrón came out. Basically, that’s how it started. Ultra-premium category tequila.”

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