Tequila Distillery Visit: Patron
January 14, 2011
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to the Patron distillery in the town of Atotonilco.
(The distillery is on a huge plot of land. It's a huge distillery. This is the front gate.)
(This is the hacienda, which is the center of the distillery. Nice place.)
(This is agave going in to the rollermill. Patron is 50% rollermill agave and 50% tahona agave.)
(Fermenting tahona agave. Tahona agave ferments and is distilled with the fibers.)
(Outside the distillery they prepare the spent agave to be fertilizer.)
(They use a mix of barrels for Patron.)
- The distillery is actually 12 distilleries operating independently.
- Most of the agave comes from the highlands
- They recycle the first agave juice out of the ovens, don't use it for fermentation
- Ferment in pine wood, not stainless
- Have unusual stills designed by master distiller
- Tahona agave takes 2 hours to crush
- Patron silver is 75% of sales, reposado accounts for 10 percent and anejo accounts for 15
Pine barrels? Is that common for tequila, or is that unusual? (I'm more of a whisky dork than tequila, so I've never heard of pine barrels being used before.)
Posted by: Daniel | January 18, 2011 at 10:25 PM
It's the fermentation tank, not the againg barrels. So whatever kind of pine it is, it's very neutral.
Posted by: Camper English | January 18, 2011 at 10:44 PM
p.s. I think most wooden fermenters are made from very tall Washington State trees, I want to say spruce but I could be wrong.
Posted by: Camper English | January 18, 2011 at 10:45 PM
OH, that makes way more sense. Thanks.
Posted by: Daniel | January 19, 2011 at 01:08 PM
And that's what you said in your post... back to 5th grade reading comprehension for me...
Posted by: Daniel | January 19, 2011 at 01:09 PM
Patron Tequila sales supports solutions for community homeless:
Outreach for homeless city campers, a non-profit Hospitality Industry sponsored program. It's director is on loans from Brown Jug; Anchorage CHARR performs the scheduling and accounting for ARBRA. A community minded private sector program since 2000 for a cleaner, greener safe & secure city; With compassion for those that have no other shelter then camping in the woods. Thanking you for your support!
http://www.responsiblebev.org/
"The perfect way to enjoy Patrón is responsibly."
Posted by: Oneillalaska | February 09, 2011 at 01:05 PM
So you are saying Patron has it's own distillery??
Posted by: Jennifer | November 03, 2011 at 12:13 PM
Yes, that is what the post is about.
Posted by: Camper English | November 03, 2011 at 05:21 PM
Hello,
Does Hacienda Patron offer tours to the public? Or were you only able to tour as a journalist?
If public, can you post information on where to go? I am traveling in Jalisco and would like to tour if possible.
Thanks,
Avram
Posted by: Avram | February 08, 2015 at 04:48 PM
Hi - It is not open to the public. As far as I know, no distilleries in the Highlands are open to the public. Everything that is is near Tequila town.
Posted by: Camper English | February 08, 2015 at 04:53 PM
Hi,
is it possible to reach out to someone at this distillery?
Or set up a tour?
Thanks!
Posted by: Patrick | July 07, 2015 at 04:11 PM
The distillery is not open to the public, at least not for now.
Posted by: Camper English | July 08, 2015 at 10:53 AM