Jose Cuervo Tequila: Improving with each Next Generation

The Beckmann family who created the Jose Cuervo tequila company is one of the world’s leading examples of descendants of an immigrant keeping the original vision of a company while expanding it for two centuries.

Family-owned, the company today is run by the Beckmann family, direct descendants of Don Jose Antonio de Cuervo.    Juan-Domingo Beckmann, son of Juan Beckmann, is the sixth-generation leader of the company. Officially founded in 1812, it is the oldest active distillery in Latin America.  

We had a chance to try Jose Cuervo tequila again at RED O in both cocktails and in one solo drink in what could have been snifters for the brandy-like Family Reserve, so refined it was served with dessert.  The Passion Fruit Butter Cake (left below) features grilled strawberries, passion fruit custard, coconut crumble and coconut ice cream.

Reserva de la Familia, Cuervo’s first high-end offering is classified as extra añejo.    It owns the distinction of being 100% blue agave tequila,   matured in the La Rojeña distillery’s private cellars.  Reserva de la Familia is aged over three years in an oak barrel, giving it a deeper golden color with a richer flavor more typically tasted in scotch or brandy.  Reserva de la Family, introduced in 1995, its first edition sold out weeks after its release and earned a top ranking within four years

Red O restaurant paired Jose Cuervo cocktails from their bar list with their family appetizers.  Quesadillas, empanadas, and taquitos all worked well.

Our favorite was the Organic Skinny Cocktail with Sauza Tres Generations organic Blanco tequila, fresh lime, organic agave nectar on the rocks with a salt rim.  “Skinny” refers to nothing being added to the plant itself in the way of sugar.

Tequila must officially come from the blue agave plant, a species found only in Jalisco and four nearby regions in central Mexico.   All Jose Cuervo tequila continues to be made in the town of Tequila in the state of Jalisco.

Jose Cuervo,  the best-selling tequila in the world, sells over a third of the tequila sector worldwide and the US alone consumes a fifth of the world’s tequila by volume.

All Jose Cuervo are mixto tequilas.  Cuervo’s Tradicional has been produced since 1795.   Silver and Reposado and Platino varieties are 100% agave tequilas. The reposado achieves its amber color through six months of barrel aging.  Handcrafted Platino.  In 2013, Proximo launched Jose Cuervo Cinge, a cinnamon-infused 35% abv version of Especial Silver.

Jose Cuervo Labastida, who married into the family in 1900, was first to produce tequila under the Jose Cuervo label.   The company was also first in 1873 to package the tequila in damajuanas (rope-encased jugs), replacing wooden barrels, for transportation purposes to the US.