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GUILLERMO SAUZA

PATRIARCH OF FORTALEZA TEQUILA, ONE OF THE FEW FAMILY-OWNED TEQUILA HOUSES LEFT IN MEXICO, TALKS TO DRINKS TRADE ON THE TEQUILA IN HIS BLOOD, THE TEQUILA BOOM AND HIS LOVE FOR THE HARLEY DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLE.

What does tequila mean to you?

What it means to me is a lot; it is part of my life. It’s also a great source of revenue for Mexico and means a lot of jobs. The industry employs 70,000 people. Most people are introduced to the spirit, maybe in a bar when they are 18. We grew up with it. My grandfather owned Sauza at the time, and my great grandfather started that company, so you might say it was part of our persona. Sauza, at the time, was the number one brand in Mexico and the world in the 60s and 70s. My grandfather was a workaholic. The distillery was always in some state of growth.

Can you talk to us more about your family?

My great-great-grandfather, Don Cenobia Sauza was born in 1842 in a small town located south of Lake Chapala, named, Teocuitatlan and at 16, his father died. His father was a notary; he could read and write, and so could his children. We were under the rule of the Spaniards for over three hundred years, and they wouldn’t allow tequila to be made because they didn’t want tequila to compete with brandy or any of the products coming from Spain. In 1810 we had the revolution to throw off the Spanish rule, and in the 1850s, my great-great-grandfather through his ability to read and write, rare at the time, became an entrepreneur. In 1873 he starts Tequila Sauza. My grandfather, Francisco Javier Sauza took over in 1946 when my great grandfather, Eladio passed and ran the business until 1976, when he sold. When we grew up, Tequila Sauza was in its heyday. We had a lot of fun, and it was a learning experience. My grandfather was furious that my mother married a gringo because my father was of Norwegian/Swedish descent and my great grandfather was furious that my grandfather married somebody related to the Jose Cuervo family!

Was it true your family were responsible for the tequila appellation or Denomination of Origin?

Yes, my grandfather pushed the Chamber of Commerce for tequila makers, and for the appellation. This was in the 1960s. My grandfather would travel the world and understood the value of an appellation. Several other people participated in getting it done. Thank god we got it done because giving us the appellation means we can’t get copied. For example, my grandfather went to Japan in 1962 and found Japanese distributors making a product they called tequila, but it wasn’t tequila and wasn’t made in Mexico. He fought that. It has been a boon for all the tequila makers and for Jalisco and the other municipalities included in the appellation. It is a boon having that protection.

What is it about tequila?

For me, it’s a fantastic spirit made from the blue Weber agave. As you know, mezcal is made from any of the varieties. Some of them taste OK. Many of them don’t taste very good at all. Tequila always tastes good.

Who is drinking tequila?

The US is taking 85% of all the tequila, but the boom is due to the Millennials’ drinking age now. I’m a baby boomer, and we are on the tail end. We can’t drink as much as we used to. The ones that drank too much are dead already, and I am not in that category (chuckles).

They see the agave as healthier for you than a wheat or corn-base drink. The agave is dextrose sugars, not fructose sugars, so it’s a different sugar chain. The second reason is people see Mexico as a fun place, and culturally they associate tequila with fun. Perhaps a better experience for your body and a cooler experience because the Millennials parents drank vodka and rum, and both those categories are flat. It’s got a mystique to it as well because of the goddess of the agave. And it doesn’t have sulphites like wine because sulphites hurt.

Fortaleza is performing well in Australia, and is it due to Covid?

Some of it is due to that, but our client wants to buy something traditional, real and honest. We have our distillery open six days a week for tours. We have nothing to hide. There are distilleries you can’t get in to see, and multiple brands coming out of distilleries, and we make one, and that is where all our tequila goes, into our Fortaleza brand.

I think part of it is Covid. People are stocking up their bars in their houses. Before Covid, people would go to a bar so they

wouldn’t keep a lot of spirit in their home, but now with Covid, you are going to invite your friend over, and you’ve got to have a whole bar. People seem to be switching from other spirits to tequila, and Covid related payouts have also driven the purchase price up as people have a bit of money to spend, plus they are saving money not eating out anymore.

What about supply meeting this kind of high demand?

Where are these numbers coming from? It’s crazy. We can’t keep it in stock because our production methodology is using a stone crusher. We don’t use a mule anymore to pull it, we use an electric cart, but we can’t scale like big companies with automated production methodology. The supply is very concerning to all of us because two elements are occurring here. Tequila is allowed to be made in two ways. You could make a misto tequila with 51% agave and 49% cane sugar derivatives. That would take a kilo and a half of agave per litre. The boom has been in the 100% agave category. The misto category is flat with no growth. The 100% variety is about 50% of the sales now, and ten years ago it was 10% of the sales. Well, the 100% variety takes double the agave. With a diffuser, it takes about three and a half kilos, and with a roller mill, it takes five and a half kilos of agave per litre of tequila. The 100% growth and the category growth is chewing into the supply. Everybody is planting like crazy, but that is a negative because they are knocking down forests to plant. The price is currently US$1.50 per kilo. The lowest was 15 years ago at 60 cents per kilo. The agave is at an all-time high price. Agave usage is up 50% year to date, and it’s tough to find ripe agave at 6-7 years when it finally matures. Some companies are harvesting earlier. Last year they planted four to five times what the industry uses, so we will run into an oversupply at some stage, but that means we can build stock for a rainy day.

In a few words, how would you describe Fortaleza tequila?

Very tasty, very traditional, no burn. It’s what your grandfather and great grandfather used to drink because that is how we make it. It is a taste that is long gone. The industry people adopted us and recommended us all the time. We do it all through word of mouth from the industry people, and from the bottom of our hearts, we thank them. There is an old saying- you can’t bullshit a bartender.

Can we talk about the Margarita?

I think it’s the biggest cocktail in the world. Everyone is drinking the Margarita. I believe it was invented in Tijuana in the 1940s, but I prefer to drink my tequila straight, and I water up on the side. I always drink Anejo, and if you see me with a wine glass, it’s not Chardonnay.

Tell me about your other passion?

We go on four-day rides into the mountains. We stay at tiny motels in tiny towns. We don’t take our wives or girlfriends. It’s a guy thing, like being back at college. I’m 64, and we have four Harleys and KTMs. I prefer the Harleys; it’s like being on a sofa. We take two-lane roads with lots of curves, and we have the greatest time.