Terroir

It all starts with the land. Our 3,000 acre estate sits in the highlands of Jalisco at an altitude over 7,000 feet. The region’s local climate and nutrient-rich red soil make perfect growing conditions for the highest quality blue agave.

Harvest

After the agave has grown to full maturity, typically at least five years, it’s time to harvest. Our skilled jimadores test the agave to ensure the highest levels of natural sugars before the hard work of harvesting each hand-selected pina begins.

Cooking

The pinas trimmed of their leaves are halved to ensure even cooking and to remove the cogollo - a cluster of shorter leaves in the pina’s center that can cause bitterness. Pinas are then stacked in traditional stone ovens where they are steamed at low temperatures for one to two days before resting for an additional 24 hours.

Extraction

The roasted agave goes through a roller-mill to extract the sweet juices from their fibers. Deep well water from hundreds of feet beneath the earth’s surface is added during the process to get the perfect level of sugars in our mosto - the liquid that will soon ferment into alcohol.

Fermentation

Our mosto is added to stainless steel tanks along with a proprietary yeast blend for a natural open-air fermentation process that lasts 3-7 days depending on the weather. Classical music plays (the mozart method) to aid the yeast activity during this critical process which helps develop the distinct flavor and aroma profile of Ensueño.

Distillation

Ensueño is distilled twice in small pot stills - first stainless and second copper. Our Tequila Maestros make “cuts” - for the different alcohol levels that come off the still, blending the alcohols from the different stages of distillation to achieve the desired flavor attributes and alcohol percentage.

Barrel Resting

After distillation our tequila rests in stainless tanks for several weeks to combine all the flavors. Unlike most blancos, Ensueño is then barrel-rested in extra-rare wheated bourbon casks that were previously charred. The first batch of Ensueño rested for 14 days in order to provide a unique flavor profile that still preserves traditional blanco characteristics.

Bottling

Ensueño uses minimal non-chill filtering to preserve its rich mouthfeel and robust flavor. The bottles are filled, inspected for quality and labeled by hand. Each bottle is inscribed with a harvest date and batch number. This is helpful for comparing the unique characteristics imparted from the terroir and artisanal production methods in each Ensueño vintage.