How Tequila Is Made

1800® Tequila’s Blue Weber agave is grown in estate fields and with select third-party growers across Jalisco, Mexico – the mineral-rich region that has shaped tequila for centuries. The farmers take care of the fields, tilling, composting, and planting.

The agave matures for 6-8 years before harvest, long enough for the plant to concentrate the sugars and minerals that define tequila. At peak maturity, the agave hearts – known as piñas for their resemblance to a pineapple – are hand-harvested by our jimadores to remove the spiky exterior and extract the sugar-rich core. Theirs is a tradition passed down from generation to generation.

After the agave piñas are harvested, we move them to our distillery in Jalisco, Mexico.

The piñas arrive at the reception floor of the 1800® distillery, where they’re hand-cut into halves and thirds, then carried one by one into traditional masonry brick ovens to steam-roast for 36 to 40 hours.

Slow-cooking over this extended time converts the agave's starches into fermentable sugars, drawing out the roasted, earthy depth that carries through every 1800® Tequila expression.

Before the cooked agave can move to fermentation, its fibers must be carefully broken down to release the concentrated juices. The 1800® distillery uses a four-step roller mill, passing cooked agave through a sequence of rotating rollers to separate fermentable juice from the remaining fiber — known as bagasse.

Throughout milling, protected well water drawn from a local aquifer carries the sugars forward.

Fermentation begins with a proprietary propagated yeast strain, developed and maintained at the distillery. Rather than masking the agave's natural character, the yeast influences it, reinforcing the flavor compounds the plant spent years developing and ensuring consistency in 1800®'s house style. This occurs in closed stainless steel tanks for 40 to 50 hours.

Double distillation in copper pot stills is standard at the 1800® distillery, and a deliberate holdout when most of the industry has moved to stainless. Copper naturally strips harsh compounds from the spirit, preserving the clean, agave-forward character that carries through every expression in the portfolio.

Once distilled, our aged expressions follow their own path through oak. At 1800®, our expressions are aged in a variety of barrels with different toast levels to achieve a registry of flavor. Some of our expressions are aged in high-char New American Oak, which contributes sweetness and warmth, while others use high-toast New French Oak for spice and structure.

Time in the barrel determines the rest.

After aging, expressions are blended or finished across barrel types, stacking complexity that no single cask could produce on its own. Some of our tequilas, like 1800® Cristalino, use charcoal filtration as a final step to strip the color and achieve the smoothness of a blanco and the complexity of an añejo at signature clarity.