More about Tequila Ocho

Tequila Ocho treats agave the way a winemaker treats grapes: each batch comes from a single field harvested in a single year, and both the field and the vintage go on the label. The brand calls itself the world's first single-field tequila, and tasting two estates side by side makes a convincing case that soil, altitude and exposure really do show up in the glass.

Ocho was founded by restaurateur and tequila evangelist Tomas Estes and master distiller Carlos Camarena, whose family has run the La Alteña distillery since 1937, and it launched in 2008. Since 2023 it has been made at its own distillery, Los Alambiques, outside Arandas in the highlands of Jalisco. The process is resolutely traditional: agave cooked for 72 hours in brick ovens, wild fermentation in open pinewood vats, and double distillation in pot stills.

The Plata shows the field most clearly; the reposados and añejos rest in ex-American whiskey barrels, adding spice and roundness without burying the agave.

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