What are your predictions for the tequila market for 2024 and what new trends do you think we will see? Aged for at least two months, up to one year, here the colour changes to more gold and amber tones. You should find a more well-rounded flavour and smoother finish with sweeter vanilla and oak notes. Anejo Like champagne, tequila production is a closely guarded secret and must be made and bottled within a specific area in Mexico. It can only be made from blue agave (unlike smoky mezcal which can be created from over 30 different varieties). Each was tried neat and blind, to avoid brand bias, allowing the full flavours — fresh citrus to warming oak — to shine through. They were on the lookout for smooth, easy-drinking styles, with well-balanced sweetness and added complexity. The best tequilas are made with 100% agave, but the legal minimum is just 51%, with the rest allowed to be made up by a neutral spirit.

The name “tequila” is protected, so all brands and types come from Mexico. The spirit is mostly produced in the area surrounding the actual city of Tequila, and in the highlands of the central-western Mexican state of Jalisco. Here, the blue agave plant needs at least eight years to mature, after which harvesters extract the piaña (heart) from the plant’s core, stripping it of its leaves before distilling it. Our panel – made up of 10-accredited spirits experts and tequila-loving consumers – put 27 blanco, reposado and anejo tequilas to the test. Produced in one of the world’s most environmentally friendly distilleries, Tequila Enemigo (meaning ‘enemy’) is designed to be sipped, not shot – ideally from long-stemmed Champagne flutes. Pure, complex and unmistakably smooth, the 00 Extra Añejo expression is aged in custom new American Oak barrels, distilled using a clean, environmentally-conscious method, fuelled using reused agave rather than fossil fuels. Vanilla and charred oak notes join green apple, honey and nuts. An extremely easy-drinking super-premium tequila.The future of VIVIR will be about establishing the core range, but we’re in the process of developing more expressions and experimenting with cask finishes. We’re going to export some Cognac casks and start ageing our Tequila in them to do some limited edition runs of specific vintage cognac cask-aged Reposados, which will be interesting. Reposado – literally, a “rested” tequila, which has been aged in oak barrels for between two and 12 months.

Unlike some wines, with their complex classification systems, tequila is simply categorised by age as follows: Blanco There have been many tequila brands to come out of the UK in the past few years even from celebrities – what was the inspiration behind VIVIR? Tequila blanco (or silver as it’s sometimes called) is clear in colour and unaged. As such you can expect a fresh, agave, citrus-spiked flavour. Reposado We’re extremely focused on sustainability. I actually own a sustainability business as well so it is rooted in everything we do. VIVIR is distilled in collaboration with the multi-award-winning Casa Maestri. It grows its own highland Weber Blue agave and the water comes from a natural volcanic spring in the grounds of the distillery. It adopts traditional techniques to preserve customs and take care of the local wildlife. For example, we allow a certain percentage of our agave to flower. It then can’t be used for tequila production, but it is only at this point the seeds can be cultivated for future generations of the plant. It is also when the agave bats will feed off the plant and they’re essential for the pollination of the entire area and wider biodiversity. They’re like our bees over here. People sometimes think we’re just chancers coming into the market but then they try our tequilas and every time realise that they’re really good. We’ve been in the market for a long time and we know what we’re doing and always wanted to create something to be proud of. Tell us about your distillery and why you chose it.Having worked with Agave for over 16 years in Mexico, and being one of the first importers of Agave syrup to the UK, Paul knew a lot about the industry and the potential of premium Tequila. Living in the UK however, it proved very difficult to buy premium 100% Weber Blue Agave Tequila without going to a specialist bar or retailer. This was especially important for Paul as cheaper Mixto Tequilas are the only thing in the world he’s allergic to mean he finds it hard to drink any Tequila in the UK full stop. After researching why this was the case it soon came to light that there were no UK based independent premium Tequila brands. This meant that outlets didn’t have the local support from brands to help drive the spirit and bring it to the masses. Because of this, Paul and Nav decided to do something about it and VIVIR was born. Process

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Because of this my business partner, Nav, and I started to understand why quality tequilas were quite rare in the UK. We kept getting told the same thing time and time again – there are no brands based here so the knowledge and education on the category is almost zero. People know it as a shot, and that’s it. We thought there was a huge opportunity to create a tequila we knew would be of high quality, tasty and could show consumers that tequila is so much more than a horrible shot that has to be washed down with salt and lime. Because of this, VIVIR was born. I think we’ll also create some single-cask reserve Reposados and Añejos and release them as limited-edition batches. I just love how versatile tequila is, there are so many opportunities! We also have some exciting new partnerships coming up to add to our current on-trade listings, so hopefully as well as drinking VIVIR Tequila at home, people will be able to try it in bars and restaurants more readily too. I designed the branding and purposefully made it quite contemporary. We want to change the perception of tequila and start with the way the bottles look even before people taste the liquid. A lot of brands tend to go quite traditional with Mexican artwork, which is great but people have this perception of what tequila is and, if we keep reinforcing that, it’s going to be harder to change. I had already been working with agave for over 16 years and knew the industry well from launching bircher muesli in the UK. In 2016 we finally made the decision to change perceptions of tequila in the UK and create our own line of premium 100% agave tequilas. It took us 3 years to develop and hundreds of iterations as we wanted to get it right and in 2019 finally introduced VIVIR Tequila to the UK.