In 1989, two visionaries, Jean Paul DeJoria and Martin Crowley set out with a singular goal: produce the world’s finest and first ultra- premium tequila.
Since day one, Patrón Tequila has always started with 100% pure blue Weber agave – harvested, roasted, crushed, distilled and bottled – in the hills of Jalisco, Mexico. Employing traditional techniques and modern technology, Patrón has refined and perfected the art of making tequila.
Under the guidance of Master Distiller Francisco Alcaraz, Patrón has continued along the path of excellence, focusing on the liquid in the bottle, steeped in tradition and produced with steadfast dedication. Francisco, along with a group of dedicated workers, makes Patrón stand out amongst other high quality tequilas.
Master Distiller Francsisco Alcaraz
Growing and Selection
It all starts with blue Weber agave.
Patrón has long-standing relationships with the best growers in Los Altos, ensuring quality and quantity of agave supply for years to come. These long standing relationships with multiple suppliers allow Patrón to always pick from the best agave available from our growers.
Patrón only sources the finest agave from the “Los Altos” Highlands region of Mexico. On average it takes six to seven years for agave to mature and develop the natural sugar levels needed to make Patrón.
Harvesting the agave
Baking
The piñas are taken to the distillery where they are quartered, trimmed and cooked. Unlike other tequila producers that have automated to high-speed steamers called “autoclaves”, Patrón uses small brick ovens for slow roasting in small batches to maximise the flavour of the agave.
The agaves are slowly roasted in the ovens for 79 hours, during this time the starch, called inulin, unfolds into the sugars that are the basis of tequila.
Piñas ready for transport
Crushing the Agave
Uncommon to the industry, Patrón utilizes two crushing methods, one ancient and one modern, to create a more flavourful tequila.
In one method the roasted piñas are crushed in roller mills and washed in purified well water to create the first type of base juice for fermentation.
In a second method, the traditional Tahona wheel is used to crush the agave into fibrous pulp. The Tahona is a large hand-made volcanic stone that weighs two tons.
The combination of these two crushing methods adds to the unique flavour of Patrón.
Fermentation
Juice obtained from Roller Mill crushing is put into large wooden fermentation vats where special yeast and pure water is added; this mixture is called fresh mosto.
The juice and pulp from the Tahona process is fermented separately in wooden vats, creating a second fruitier mosto.
Patrón is only one of two tequila distilleries, among hundreds, to use only Wood Fermenters. Wood is better than steel, as it provides the best temperature and environment for fermentation to progress.
The fermentation process at Patrón takes approximately three days to complete.
Unique Distillation
After both fermentation processes are complete, the mostos are distilled separately in proprietary, hand-made copper pot stills.
The smaller size and shape of the stills, and the copper, add aroma and flavour to the distillates.
After two distillations, the fruitier tahona distillate is skilfully blended with the Roller Mill distillate to create Patrón Silver.
This combination of distillates gives Patrón Silver its unique smoothness, body and complex fruit forward flavour.
At Patrón every bottle is hand made and designed to be a work of art.
During bottling over 60 hands touch and inspect each bottle as it moves from person to person, each labelling, numbering, and wrapping the bottles to ensure quality 100 precent of the time.
Maturation
Ageing and blending is an art.
Both Patrón Reposado and Añejo Tequilas are blended by Francisco from a variety of barrel types, to achieve the same consistent flavour for each bottling.
At Patrón we use a combination of new French and American oak, and used American whisky barrels from leading producers.
Patrón Silver: Bottled without any age, retaining its crystal clear clarity, clean fresh agave notes and fruit forward flavour.
Patrón Reposado: Aged in oak barrels for more than two months. It blends the fresh, clean taste of Patrón Silver with the oaky flavour of Patrón Añejo.
Patrón Añejo: This is a delicate blend of unique tequilas aged in small, white, French oak barrels for at least 12 months.
Gran Patrón Platinum: Produced from only the finest, hand selected blue Weber agave, it is triple distilled and then slightly aged in oak to be exceptionally smooth and full-bodied.
Gran Patron Burdeos: It is distilled from the the finest hand selected blue Weber agave and aged in American and French oak barrels for at least 12 months. Then it is racked in Bordeaux wine barrels. An unparalleled tequila experience.