By Porter Lang
The town gave the drink its name. And tequila production brings in the most revenue in the municipality.
Where it is
Wikipedia places Santiago de Tequila in the state of Jalisco about 60 kilometers from Guadalajara. The 2020 census recorded 44,353 people in the municipality and 31,115 in the town itself. It says the village was founded in 1530 by Franciscan friars and gained Pueblo Mágico status in 2003. The municipality covers 1,693 square kilometers.
A landscape on the World Heritage list
UNESCO inscribed the Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila in 2006. The property covers 35,018.852 hectares, with a buffer zone of 51,261.334 hectares, between the foothills of the Tequila volcano and the Rio Grande valley. UNESCO says it includes about 60 distilleries, many still working, and three urban settlements: Tequila, Arenal and Amatitán. It describes a fusion of pre-Hispanic traditions of fermenting agave juice with European distillation.
Older than the spirit
UNESCO says blue agave has been used since the sixteenth century to produce tequila and for at least 2,000 years to make fermented drinks and cloth. It also says the Teuchitlán culture, AD 200 to 900, left terraced fields, houses, temples, ceremonial platforms and ball courts in the region. That puts the spirit near the end of a long story, not at the start.
The distilleries
Wikipedia says that in 1600 Pedro Sánchez de Tagle decided to build a large-scale distilling operation, and that three of the major distilleries date from 1795, 1823 and 1873. We are not naming the companies, because we are not recommending any of them. We have not independently checked the older dates.
What the law says
Difford’s Guide says tequila was declared an appellation of origin by the Mexican government in 1974 and was the first Mexican spirit to receive that recognition. It says the Consejo Regulador del Tequila was founded in 1994 as a private non-profit body accredited by the government, and that it oversees 135 registered producers. We have not found a current figure. The guide describes two broad categories: 100 percent agave, and mixto, which it gives as a 51 percent agave minimum. It also says each bottler has a unique NOM number, which shows authenticity but does not necessarily say where the spirit was made or how good it is.
A living place
UNESCO says this is still an active cultural region, where the three settlements keep up traditional agave cultivation and production, and that the landscape is part of national identity for Mexico. That matters for a visitor. The fields, the stills and the towns are not a closed museum. People work there. If you plan to look, look the way you would at a working farm, from the edge, and ask before you photograph anyone’s rows.
Work and a train
Wikipedia says agriculture employs 47 percent of workers in the municipality and tequila production 25 percent, though tequila brings in the most revenue. It adds that a tourist train, the Tequila Express, has run since 1997, and that the national festival runs from the end of November to the middle of December. We have not checked current schedules.
What to ask before you buy
We have not profiled any maker here. If a bottle or a related craft is said to come from the landscape, ask where the agave was grown, where it was cooked and distilled, and what the label says about the category. Ask for the NOM number and what it refers to. A number tells you who bottled the product, not necessarily where, and that is worth knowing before you carry glass home. We are not recommending any producer.
Roam first. Shop later.
Jalisco makers can find out what’s involved at /sell-with-sephari/