El Tesoro is a traditionally produced, 100 percent agave tequila made by the Camarena family in their La Alteña distillery, near the town of Arandas in the Los Altos region of Jalisco, Mexico. Don Felipe Camarena began producing the family’s own tequila in 1937, after having farmed agave for many years prior. In 1990, at a time when most tequila in the United States was mixto and consumed in margaritas, Don Felipe Camarena (the son of the founder) and visionary tequila importers Robert Denton and Marilyn Smith created the brand El Tesoro de Don Felipe. El Tesoro Silver (now called Platinum) quickly became a benchmark tequila for agave aficionados and helped to kick-start the modern premium tequila movement in the United States. See mixto. The reposado and añejo are equally well-respected amongst cognoscenti, and it was the Muy Añejo, a cult favorite of the 1990s, and the Paradiso, created with the assistance of cognac legend Alain Royer and aged in French oak barrels, that helped to spawn the extra añejo category that became law several years later. See reposado and añejo.
Don Felipe’s son Carlos now manages the family company, which makes El Tesoro under contract for Beam Suntory. La Alteña can still proudly claim to use (mostly) estate-grown agaves, which are baked slowly in adobe hornos (ovens), milled in a traditional tahona, and fermented in open-top wood tanks with ambient yeasts. El Tesoro is still distilled to proof (40 percent ABV) in relatively small copper alembic stills, and the Platinum version is always bottled immediately to capture freshness and aromatics.
La Alteña also produces the Tapatio brand. Long a cult tequila in Mexico and Europe, Tapatio bears a strong family resemblance to El Tesoro, although the distillery’s tahona is apparently reserved by contract for El Tesoro. Tapatio has recently been introduced to the American market, for which it is distilled to a higher 50 percent abv.
See also agave; tequila; and tahona.
Cutler, Lance. The Tequila Lover’s Guide to Mexico: Everything There Is to Know About Tequila … Including How to Get There. Sonoma, CA: Wine Patrol, 1998.
Estes, Tomas. The Tequila Ambassador. London: Diffordsguide, 2012.
Martineau, Chantal. How the Gringos Stole Tequila: The Modern Age of Mexico’s Most Traditional Spirit. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2015.
Valenzuela, Ana, and Gary Paul Nabhan. Tequila: A Natural and Cultural History. Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 2004.
By: Steven Olson