Hacienda Bañuelos

The story of Bañuelos ties together all the questions about spirits in Mexico. Zacatecas is traditionally tequila country. Geographically it shares a long border with Jalisco but the town of Bañuelos is just 10 kilometers outside of the Tequila Denominación de Origen (DO) and just inside the Mezcal DO, hence the legal designation. But historically Bañuelos would have been considered a tequila so add it to the Tequila In Name Only group that includes many labels and projects like Clayton Szczech’s recent initiative in Zacatecas.

The great irony is that Hacienda de Buñuelos may be producing spirts that more closely reflect the “Gusto historico” or historic taste of tequila because their production methods are much closer to what tequila used to be. While they only use Blue Weber instead of a diversity of agaves they steam roast and use wild yeast which may account for the very distinctive flavors in this label.