In the midst of my insanely busy Spring of 2013, two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity by my amazing employer, Dulce Vida Spirits, to travel south to the State of Jalisco, Mexico to visit “la tierra de tequila,” aka the land of tequila, the incredible fields of Weber blue agave from which tequila is made and the distillery where we produce our tremendous organic tequila.
Following arrival into the metropolitan city of Guadalajara, after a two hour plus flight from Dallas, the Dulce Vida team and I grabbed our ride and ventured into the rolling hills and gorgeous southwest Mexico countryside of Jalisco, around Lake Chapala and to the incredibly quaint village of Mazamitla.
The next day, our Dulce Vida posse aimed an hour and a half northeast of Guadalajara for the Los Altos region and the small towns of San Ignacio Cerro Gordo and Aranadas, near where the Campanario Distillery is located, the home and production site of our prized Dulce Vida Organic Tequila.
En route, however, we were treated to an absolutely phenomenal and rare experience in one of the plentiful agave fields in Los Altos – witnessing a group of “jimadores,” the men who harvest the properly aged agave plants and their trusty horses and donkeys, who are responsible for transporting the large “pinas,” the base of the agaves ultimately used for the production of both tequila and agave nectar. An amazing experience I won’t soon forget!
At Campanario, I was treated to a thorough tour of our facilities, including catching the awesome delivery of roughly 20 TONS of harvested agave pinas to our receiving area, observing our fermentation and distillation tanks in action and perusing the massive barrel aging room, where much of our Dulce Vida product currently resides inside hundreds and hundreds of charred whisky barrels stacked nearly to the roof. An incredible sight, to say the least. Lastly, our Dulce Vida team was treated to a tasting of a special version of our Anejo tequila that’s currently aging in unique barrels from another part of the world. Impressive, thus far, but gonna be even better soon!
All in all, my travels and experiences in Mexico a few weeks back were simply outstanding…beyond words, to be honest, although I’ve tried my best to “paint the picture” for you here. To take’er a step further, however, I felt obligated to share many of the shots I captured along the way. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.
Many thanks to my outstanding company, Dulce Vida Spirits, for the opportunity!
Salud, my friends!
Randall Metting 
[…] Read more here: South of the Border: My Journey To “The Land of Tequila” – Randall … […]