Avión Tequila

Parent Company: Pernod Ricard

Location: Jesús María, Los Altos, Jalisco, Mexico

Master Distiller: Alejandro Lopez (maestro tequilero)

Elevation: 6,954 ft (2,120 m)

Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM): 1416

Founder Ken Austin, in collaboration with the Lopez family, spent years blending old-school tequila making techniques with a philosophy of never cutting corners.

Agave

In tequila, terroir is just as important as it is in wine. The agave used for Avión® Tequila is grown exclusively at the ranch in the small town of Jesús María, in Los Altos (The Highlands), at 6,954ft above sea level, the highest elevation in Jalisco. These plants take about 7-10 years to reach maturity, and develop a natural crisp and sweet characteristic due to the large temperature swings and nutrient rich soil. These lands are all owned or directly overseen by the Lopez family, who are fifth generation agave growers. Once harvest, each batch of agave is measured for sugar content, and only the ripest (but not overly ripe) agave are chosen for the next step in the process.

Cooking

The distillery slow roasts their agave in dedicated brick ovens for three days. On the third day, the agave are allowed to rest with the brick oven doors still closed, so that the juices settle for pressing. The low temperatures perfectly caramelize the agave, bringing out the natural sweetness and rich flavors.

Milling & Fermentation

Next, the agave is shredded, and the juice is removed with minimum contact with the fibers, then the juice is fermented in open stainless steel tanks.

Distillation

Avión® is 2x distilled in small pot stills (3,500L), which are handmade in Jesús María, and never commercially purchased. The distillery prides themselves on their inefficient process, removing a significant proportion of the heads and tails during the distillation process, and it takes up to 30% move agave just to make one liter of Avión®. After distillation, the tequila goes through a proprietary ultra-slow filtration system.

Maturation

Avión® is aged in 200L former American whiskey barrels. Each batch has different characteristics. It’s not uniform. Batches will vary in flavor due to the slight differences in terroir even though all come from Jesús María. Batches of Avión® will also vary in color based on the barrels that it is aged in. You will notice looking at bottles from different batches of the Reposado and Añejo the colors can vary quite significantly.

Sustainability

The Lopez family truly believes in the single source philosophy, so everything at the distillery is done in a manner to be self-sustaining. The distillery has a state of the art treatment plant for the water used in the distillation process, and they create their own organic compost from the agave waste, which is used as an organic fertilizer. The Lopez family does all of these innovations sustainability measures voluntarily.

Support The Spirits Educator

If you would like to support the content here, please click the button below to buy me a cocktail or neat pour through PayPal. You can also use Venmo @thespiritseducator.

Thank you for your support

Affiliate Disclosure

The links for product recommendations in this post are affiliate links. At zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. This helps support this channel so that I can continue to bring you new content.

Please Drink Responsibly.