As almost every corner store owner in Mexico knows, success breeds imitation, and tequila’s push into the Asian continent has brought a bevy of knockoffs sporting a minimal percent maguey juice, but proudly sporting the name “Tequila” on the label. Of particular ire to the Tequila Regulatory Board (Consejo Regulador de Tequila -CRT) are the 18 fake brands they found on Malaysian liquor store shelves. “They make it smell, taste and look like Tequila, but it isn’t,” said CRT director Ramon Gonzalez Figueroa.
Using an international agreement to protect brands, in 2014 the CRT was able to get 20 apocrific brands off the market and keep another 400 irregular brands of tequila from being launched. Last year 125,000 liters of fake tequila were destroyed and 1.2 million liters over the last decade.
“We now have knowhow to go into these countries and confront producers who want to take advantage of a reputation that generations of Mexican distillers have worked to build, using the collective right of Denomination of Origen,” said Gonzalez.
He noted that closer to home, Brazil and Argentina are the countries with the most fake tequila brands on the market. Some of these products are produced as “special products” in the United States using only 2 percent of agave distillate and the rest is grain alcohol and water, but when they are exported to Argentina the are labeled tequila.
The CRT has joined with ProMexico, which has 48 offices in 31 countries around the world, in order to battle the “pirate” tequila scourge, training ProMexico staff and providing information on all certified tequila brands.
Here in Mexico some 43 percent (80 million liters) of “tequila” is not produced to the CRT standards and is therefore illegal. The cost to the industry is some 20 billion pesos per year.
To be certified tequila with the CRT a liquor must be made of at least 51 percent agave webber distillate, have both production and brand registered with the CRT and be produced from agave grown in the Denominated zone of Origin, which includes 51 municipalities in Jalisco, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacan and Tamaulipas, among other standards.
Some 75,000 Jalisco residents make their living either growing agave or in the production and sale of tequila. Last year the CRT certified 242 million liters of tequila produced exported 171 million liters to more than 120 countries.
National tequila museum
The Museo Nacional de Tequila celebrated its 15th anniversary last week and inaugurated two collective expositions of abstract art that unite 13 artists. Sixteen artworks were donated by their creators along with a 50-year old wicker basket encased tequila jug. The National Chamber of Tequila Producers (CNIT) donated a Spanish-English booklet explaining the history and process of making the famous firewater. The museum includes temporary and permanent exhibition rooms and a historic archive of tequila. An old stone mill wheel decorates the patio. The permanent exhibition is comprised of photos, maps and items showcasing the evolution of the production process from prehispanic times to the present. Also on display is popular art and crafts related to tequila.
The current exhibits include works by Carlos Torres, Aristeo garai, Licia Maya, Rafael Lopez Castro, Paco de la Peña, Carmen Alarcon, Rafael Saenz Felix, Postof, Javier Malo, Alejandro brambila, Salvador Andrade, Marina Payares, Rocio Coffen, Pablo Rulfo, Olivia Campos de Gallo and Patrica Garcia. In another area the works of Chilean artist Sebastian Picker are on display.
The museum, located at Ramon Corona 34, corner of Sixto Gorjon, Colonia Centro in Tequila, is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tel. (374)742-0012.