When you look at the map of the tequila producing regions, it's noticeable how the state of Tamaulipas is isolated from the others. The question I want to answer in this article, is how this happened. In my opinion, it's an interesting piece of tequila history. Tequila will always be linked to the state of Jalisco. Partly because the town of Tequila is located there, partly because Jalisco is the biggest producer of agaves and tequila. There is a long history of mezcal production; from vino mezcal (de tequila) to raicilla. It then doesn't surprise anyone this has spilled over into parts of neighbouring states Michoacan, Nayarit and Guanajuato. Looking at the map of the current Tequila Denominacion de Origen though... you often get the question why Tamaulipas, on the other side of the country, is included in that DO.

According to the current DO; tequila can only be made in (parts) of these 5 states.





To understand how this happened, we need to look back in history to the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. Under president Porfirio Diaz, wealth inequality increased dramatically leading up to this revolution. After the revolution, new expressions of nationalism originated, where tequila got a massive boost in popularity. It was the tipple of choice in a new Mexico. While this happened, from the 1920s on, massive land reforms were enacted, which lasted up to the 1940s. Large estates from haciendas and land owners were redistributed to cooperatives called Ejidos, empowering a mostly poor and indigenous population. These ejidatarios were not always planting agave on their new lands; because they either could not wait 8 to 10 years for the income or they had no experience planting them.





from 1920 onwards, the neighbours in the USA developed a taste for Tequila as well during Prohibition.

That means demand was up, but the raw materials to make tequila were dwindling. Almost half of all distilleries had to close their doors and production fell from 10 million liters in 1900 to just under 2 million by 1930. By the end of the 1930s , things were approximately under control due to the measures that were taken by tequila producing companies. However, Americans needed their grains to support the war effort instead of whiskey production so another surge in demand for tequila happened. All of this had a massive effect on an already heavily strained system. A lot of the bottlers and traders that purchased tequila started adulterating the product, watering it down or blending with other distillates to make sure they could keep up with demand on the northern side of the border and maximising their profits at the same time.

Mexican smugglers carrying Jose Cuervo bottles across the border caught in the act by Prohibition Agents.





Tequila producers asked the Mexican government to step in and create a standard, which it did in 1944. Tequila could only be made from 1 species of agave, Agave Tequilana Blue Weber, harvested in Jalisco. Tequila was also supposed to be 100% agave. Several more agave shortages in the 1950s and 1960s led to the biggest companies lobbying the government for several more changes, one of which was that tequila could also be made from agaves harvested in other regions, another that tequila could be made with up to 30% other sweeteners (mixto), later lowered even more to 49% other sweeteners.





In Tamaulipas, a state bordering the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane Beulah had decimated the plantations throughout the state. Residents and landowners alike started looking at other more lucrative crops to plant, since they got to start with a clean slate. The only plants that had seemed to survive the storm were wild agaves. Blue agave seemed like a good idea since it fetched a good price, the soil and the climatic conditions were perfect and Guillermo Gonzalez, being Mexico's Secretary of Agriculture, had connections to the big tequila companies in Jalisco, so he made a deal to plant agaves for the tequila industry. He encouraged fellow landowners and farmers to start planting blue agave for the tequileros from Jalisco. 8 years later, the agaves had matured, the producer did not want to pay the agreed upon price. The lobbying from the tequila industry had changed the regulations by then so that 49% of other sweeteners could be used in the production process. This meant they had no real need for Guillermo Gonzalez's agave anymore. The Gonzalez family, one of the state's wealthiest, started a distillery called La Gonzalena and applied to be included in the original DO in 1973. It was rejected on the grounds that merely the presence of agave blue weber plants and no real presence and culture of distillation was not enough to be included in a DO, but a new appeal was brought forward in 1976. Again, the Jaliscan tequileros objected, but the Federal Government concluded that investment in the industry had been considerable, the state of tamaulipas had been promoted to grow agave on the request of the tequila industry in Jalisco and the quality of agave met the requirements set forward by the standard.

Tequilera La Gonzaleña.





Right after this highly controversial decision, Jose Cuervo and Sauza tried setting up distilleries in Tamaulipas but retreated by 1982; the different water and the growing conditions of the agave produced a different flavour of tequila than what they were producing back home. Whereas Jalisco is mainly volcanic soil; loam, sand and clay are what can be found in the soil of Tamaulipas. Despite their retreat, producers like Cuervo and Sauza kept buying agave from Tamaulipas up until the mid 1980s to supplement their own agaves. Meanwhile, Guillermo Gonzalez started producing Tequila Chinaco and became the first premium 100% agave tequila to be exported to the United States in 1983. The distillery shut it's doors in the late 80s but reopened in the mid 90s. There are currently two tequila distilleries in Tamaulipas: La Gonzaleña and Tequilera 8 Mesas.