Taste Testing Patron's 100% De Agave Tequilas: Silver, Reposado, Anejo - Are They Worth It?

Much has been said about Patron - certainly many songs have name-dropped the Tequila - and yet what most can agree on is that Patron created the luxury Tequila market as we know it today. Over some four decades, Patron would go through a whirlwind of twists and turns, try every tactic in the book, and in so doing, would prove its point - that premium Tequila can and should exist. And so today, get ready to put aside your Tequila experiences and let's get into the Patron story!

For a start, many might know one John Paul DeJoria as the face of Patron. The ponytailed, big hearted serial entrepreneur (who notably appeared on the TV show Shark Tank and funded a farmer who had wanted to sell his water-saving device to other farmers at a lower margin so as to avoid price gouging, only to be criticised by the panel of other judges) is quite impressively the founder of two incredibly successful brands - the first being his haircare brand Paul Mitchell Systems, and the second being Patron Tequila. Till this day, DeJoria stands as a great example of a rags-to-riches entrepreneur who went from sleeping in his car and selling encyclopaedias door to door, to turning a $700 loan into multiple billion dollar businesses.  

Martin Crowley (left), John Paul DeJoria (right), with their spouses.

And so as the story goes, it was in 1989 that DeJoria had asked his friend Martin Crowley, an architect by training, to bring back some Tequila on his way back from his trip to Mexico. When Crowley came back with a hand-blown bottle of Tequila that DeJoria found incredibly smooth, the two would decide to start a brand together. The idea was simple: make a better Tequila that was smoother, wouldn't smell of regret, and price it at four times what was currently available on the shelf.

At the time, Tequila in the United States was dominated by mixto (only 51% agave, with the other 49% made from any other sugar, ranging from cane sugar to corn syrup) that were often heavily sweetened with additives that were of course the source of many hangovers. Tequila in 1980's was harsh, impure and most importantly, cheap. Also in the late 1980's, DeJoria was already beginning to find success with his haircare line, whilst Crowley had not been quite as lucky as an entrepreneur. And so wanting to support his friend, DeJoria would back the business, whilst Crowley was largely responsible for putting things together.

Francisco Alcaraz.

And so charged with this new venture, Crowley would begin his adventures about Mexico in search of who could help make their Tequila - after all, the duo at the time knew little about Tequila, and much less had any ability to make it. This of course turned out to be much more difficult than Crowley expected, with no one willing to produce his Tequilas, having had no faith that his 'crazy' idea for a premium Tequila could possibly work. As fate would have it, on a visit to the family-owned Siete Leguas (translated as "Seven Leagues") distillery, Crowley would chance upon one Francisco Alcaraz, who had been working for the distillery on commission for bringing in export orders. As it turns out, Alcaraz was no ordinary staff.

Having followed in the footsteps of his father Alcaraz had trained as a chemical engineer, one of only a handful in Mexico at the time, and thus would quickly move into the role of being a Tequila inspector working for the Mexican government's newly established governing body of the agave spirit. Having spent a decade testing and learning about Tequilas from across all of Mexico's distilleries, Alcaraz would learn a great deal about the various techniques to making Tequila, and perhaps most importantly, what 'good' Tequila was. Alcaraz was eventually brought over to the El Viejito distillery where he would finally get his first taste of actually producing Tequila. At the little El Viejito, Alcaraz would handle everything, from mopping floors to of course distillation, with his boss and also mentor heavily investing in his development, going as far as to send him to apprentice at a whisky distillery in the American mid-west and then later in Switzerland where he studied fermentation. Spending just over a decade more at El Viejito, Alcaraz would finally leave when his mentor had passed and the distillery became dissonant to what Alcaraz knew of the place. He would eventually establish his own business producing high quality yeasts for Tequila distillers, before eventually consulting for and subsequently joining Siete Leguas when he had helped to design and oversee construction of their new distillery in Atotonlco el Alto in Jalisco. Alcaraz would have an on-again-off-again relationship with Siete Leguas, with the distillery refusing to pay him more unless he had exported their Tequilas.

An early Patron bottle.

It was on this context that Alcaraz would find himself one day walking out from the Siete Leguas distillery and over to its offices that he would be stopped by the foreigner that was Crowley. Alcaraz has figured that Crowley could potentially be the export client he was just looking for and would convince Siete Leguas to allow him to produce Tequilas for Crowley. As Alcaraz tells it, Crowley was initially turned away just as usual by Siete Leguas, yet the hungry Tequila-maker was willing to take a chance on the project for which Crowley had named "Patron", taken to mean "the Big Boss". According to Alcaraz, as the discussions continued, Crowley had also been looking around the office when he had found a dusty, old handblown glass bottle that was tall, square and unlike what was used typically in the industry - Crowley knew that this new Patron Tequila had to come packaged in something distinctively different in order to demonstrate its outlying nature amongst a sea of mixto. Notably, Patron's bottles would feature a hornet on the bottle, paying tribute to DeJoria's time spent in the navy aboard the USS Hornet.

All of this would of course eventually become a hotbed for the lawyers when everyone from industry biggie Don Julio, who claimed to have first used the squarish bottle, to Tequilas del Senor, who held the trademark to the brand "Reserva del Patron", would come knocking on the doors of a fast rising Patron asking for their share of the stardom. This posed serious legal obstacles - and wouldn't even be the end of it - that would last years in court, and yet would at the same time demonstrate the steely resilience of Patron's founders in never backing down. Ultimately, judges would later rule that Patron was well entitled to use its now iconic bottle anywhere in the world, with Don Julio only able to use the same bottle in Mexico, whilst Crowley would also eventually move to acquire the trademark to the name "Patron" after years of paying steep royalties.

And so when Patron Tequila was finally launched in 1989, with much anticipation and 12,000 manually labelled bottles in hand that were priced at a premium US$37 each, it was much to Crowley and DeJoria's despondence that it was met with little success. Their traditionally produced, small batch Tequila - slow-roasted in small brick ovens, crushed using huge volcanic stone Tahona wheels, fermented using open air wooden vats with double distillation using small copper pot stills, and most importantly without the use of any additives - had hardly moved the needle nor stirred the sort of buzz the duo had hoped would become obvious with a premium, pure 100% De Agave Tequila set against much lesser peers. The following years proved a slow start for Patron, with Crowley eventually bringing the brand to several major distribution partners, first with Jim Beam and later to Seagram, both of whom made clear that a new, smaller brand should expect to modest outcomes and even more modest resources put into them. With little support from their distribution partners, DeJoria would decide to take things into his own hands. Tapping on the network that he had built with his haircare line, DeJoria would have bottles of Patron featured at celebrity chef and personal friend Wolfgang Puck's iconic Hollywood restaurant Spago, with many also being sent to Paul Mitchell Systems' network of high end customers, some of whom included singer superstar Bruce Springsteen who famously took cases of the Tequila on the road with him. At the height of DeJoria's branding efforts, he would even enlist audit firm Ernst & Young to officiate a high profile blind taste test of Tequilas, pitting Patron against the likes of Herradura, Sauza and Jose Cuervo, of which Patron came out on top. 

As things started to take off, Patron would hit yet another major obstacle that would be a confluence of multiple pressure points. On the one hand, Patron's distiller Alcaraz had begun to report of Siete Leguas' refusal to produce more for Patron - whilst Siete Leguas had claimed that it was not possible to produce traditionally at scale, Alcaraz would later state that even when he had found a way to do so without compromising quality, the distillery had simply not wanted to continue feeding Patron's growing success - whilst at the same time Seagram had begun to push for a distillery to be built for Patron that would dispense with traditional methods for industrial scale, a move that was motivated by an interest in widening profit margins. Alcaraz would thus decide to quit from Siete Leguas, and whilst reluctant, would aid where he could in Seagram's building of the new distillery. Ultimately when the dust had settled, Alcaraz was clear that the new Destileria Colonial de Jalisco, which was built to Seagram's own specifications, would be unable to produce the quality of Tequila that Patron had wanted, and that Patron had little option but to get out of the joint venture. Crowley's pulling out of the partnership with Seagram would inevitably find Patron in the courtrooms once again, this time with Alcaraz testifying against Seagram, the result of which found Patron once again in the right. 

The Hacienda Patron.

With now an accelerating brand that most needed to put bottles on shelves, the men had somehow found themselves right back at the start all over again. Yet this time, they would be joined by former Seagram executive Ed Brown. Brown had learnt of Patron through his father who was himself a liquor distributor and had very much liked the brand, and thus when Brown had begun working at Seagram, he would eventually get to know both DeJoria and Crowley, having stayed in contact even as the brand painfully broke off its partnership with Seagram. When the legal battle was over and the split from Seagram was finalised, Brown would find himself sent to Asia, whereupon he would decide to jump over to Patron's side. Sensing that Brown was the right man for the job, DeJoria and Crowley would appoint him as CEO. With the team assembled, Crowley would have Alcaraz build the now iconic Hacienda Patron - Patron's own distillery - whilst Brown would renegotiate distribution and imports, this time directly managed by Patron's own Patron Spirits Company, with its own sales team pushing for the premium Tequila to be in every major retailer. Brown is also credited with having pivotally revamped Patron's branding, dispensing with its edgy, salacious image for a more stylish, luxurious aesthetic. By 2002, the Hacienda Patron was finally ready, and within just half a year, the team had cobbled together the bare minimum needed to start their own production - critical as it no longer had the backing of Siete Leguas or Seagram, with just 7 months worth of stock to operate on.

In 2003, just a year after Patron had found its own home, the window had begun to open for Tequila companies to sell themselves to larger groups. With Crowley now having spent close to one and a half decades on the Patron project, Brown was this time tasked to put together a deal for its sale to Campari. In retrospect, Brown would admit his reluctance in following through with the plan, having believed that now fully equipped, Patron was finally ready to properly take on the world. In a bittersweet twist of fate, right in the midst of the dealmaking, Crowley would pass away, leaving DeJoria in charge of Patron's fate. Brown would as a result convince DeJoria that more could be done to fully establish Patron as the de facto luxury Tequila - this worked, and Brown would thus himself become an equity owner of Patron. The coming years would see Patron ride the tailwind of Tequila cocktails and celebrity Tequila, with the brand's name mentioned dozens of times in some of the decade's biggest hit songs - all of which Patron proudly admits to never having paid for its endorsement. By 2006, Patron would strike the million-case-sold milestone. But Brown was far from done.

Patron keeps the small batch process that is simply done repeatedly at scale.

Hacienda Patron, residing in Jalisco's Atotonilco el Alto municipality, was designed as an architecturally breathtaking Spanish Colonial Mexican estate that would encompass sprawling earth-toned courtyards flanked by stone archways - it even has its own chapel! - with within it the working distillery that produces Patron's Tequila. Built to produce Tequila according to traditional small batch methods, it is a distillery that very fascinatingly achieves scale by sheer multiplicity - that is, numerous units of the same small batch processes being done at the same time. If a single Tahona wheel made of volcanic rock can crush seven tons of agave in three hours, Hacienda Patron's has then 18 Tahona wheels working simultaneously to crush over 120 tonnes of agave in the same amount of time. It is for this reason - which is also the secret as to how Patron is able to produce its Tequila traditionally and also at scale, without compromising on quality - that Patron has more Tahona wheels and copper pot stills at its distillery than the rest of the Tequila industry combined! And so instead of industrial methods such as the use of gigantic steel autoclaves (essentially large pressure cookers), diffuser machines to mill cooked agave, or stainless steel vats for fermentation, Patron simply operates that much larger a traditional operation, achieving scale through sheer size. Stringing the entire Tequila-making process together, jimadors (agave farmers) first harvest minimally five year old Blue Weber agave (more mature agave are better saturated with fermentable sugars) that is then brought to Hacienda Patron. The agave is then hand chopped and slow cooked in traditional clay brick ovens for an extensive 79 hours before it is crushed either with the stone Tahona wheel or a roller mill. The juices yielded from the crushing is then fermented in small pine wood tanks with a proprietary yeast for up to a lengthy three days, and after which it is then distilled twice using small copper pot stills. What comes out is then either bottled unaged or aged in a variety of American, French or Hungarian oak barrels - but most importantly, always without any additives.

With now control over Patron's own production, Brown was determined to ensure that Patron would stay ahead of the game. Having learnt from his time at Seagram, Brown had saw that Absolut Vodka's - at one point the most popular Vodka in the United States - reluctance to move swiftly into the premium market allowed for competitors to one-up the iconic Swedish brand, wherein these new entrants would firmly entrench themselves allowing them to gradually take away valuable market share that was expensive and difficult to regain. And so with the classic Silver, Reposado and Anejo expressions established, Brown would see to it that Patron launched an ultra-premium Gran Patron line-up consisting of its Platinum, Burdeos, Piedra and Smoky expressions, with more recent additions such as the Patron El Alto and Cristalino, along with an Extra Anejo too. It would also expand into its highly popular and sought after Tequila Liqueurs that included flavours such as the Patron XO Cafe (Coffee Liqueur) and Patron Citronge (Fruit Liqueurs) which featured Orange, Lime, Mango, Pineapple and even Orange & Jalapeno. Brown would even have Patron's most expensive Tequilas be housed in Lalique crystal decanters carrying a whopping price tag topping US$7,500! 

Patron's "Censored Truth" campaign.

For the next decade, Brown would relentlessly push Patron into the mainstream's consciousness, constantly hammering home its 100% De Agave no-additives mantra (which ironically saw the Tequila-maker forced to halt shipments by Mexico's Tequila regulator which banned the use of additive-free marketing claims as Tequilas are officially allowed 1% of approved additives). Notably even at the height of the 2008 Financial Crisis, Patron would daringly double down on its advertising budgets when all of its peers were quick to cut down on theirs. When Patron was faced with bans by the Mexican regulator, it would even devise a "Censored Truth" advertising stance that involved blacked-out texts, bleeps and redactions over Patron's signature 100% De Agave label. Through hell and high water, Patron was determined to strike out as standing apart from everyone else. This of course worked, and in 2018, it was announced that drinks giant Bacardi would move to acquire Patron for a staggering $5.1 billion - this would go down in history as the largest and most expensive deal for a single spirits brand to date. 

And so with all that said, it's time to get down to taste testing Patron's signature line-up of Patron Silver, Patron Reposado and Patron Anejo Tequilas to find out if they are truly worth the hype!

Let's go!

Tequila Review: Patron Silver, 40% ABV

Unaged.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Clear

Aroma: It opens aromatic and evocative, with immediate citrusy accents set against more grassy, vegetal tones. Bright fruitiness of orange peels, almost alittle bit tropical with some pineapples, with then a grassiness, pines, and a deeper cusp of sweet and earthy vegetal richness of lightly grilled zucchini and eggplants. There's a subtle floor of minerality, of wet stone and concrete pavements, with then a garnish of cracked black pepper and black tea, also just a waft of lavender. Light drizzle of honey that holds it all together. It's altogether bright, earthy, vegetal and mineral, and lightly sweet.

Taste: Medium-bodied, it has a plushness and creaminess to its textures, almost velvety robes that coats the palate, lightly chewy even. Bright confectionary and citrusy tones of vanilla, orange peels, and a herbaceous hit of oregano, mint and basil, at once dried and fresh. It's backed up by again a light drizzle of honey, with flashes of multichromatic, vibrant fruits of pineapples and green grapes, even a little bit of bubblegum. Cracks of black pepper, that wet stone and concrete minerality, wafts of lavender, with then the richness of the grilled zucchini and eggplants that is giving it this delicately sweet and earthy depth, with then also some spiciness of candied ginger. It borders on white chocolate sauce and licorice with its chewiness. Good punchiness for presence but with much restraint.

Finish: More of the same, here more creamy and rich, with that white chocolate, black licorice and candied ginger persistent. It gets alittle more spiced with some nutmeg, fragrant black pepper and a marzipan nuttiness. Understated hints of concrete floors. Seamless, clean, really plush yet firm finish. Good minty freshness.

My Thoughts

A very admirable Tequila that is undeniably well-made - this is without question - shows a good deal of complexity, has an almost understated elegance and quite the rugged charm. It has a really nice, almost chewy, richness to its body, really satisfying, and with flavours that are layered, some more forward, some more subtle, with even dazzles of vibrant fruits, a depth offered by the cooked vegetals, garnishes of herbs and spices, florals to booth, with also this floor of minerality. It shows an impressive nuance and flavour forwardness, with a nice punchiness yet without any sharpness or harshness - it is in fact really smooth and almost pillowy, and even finishes off plush and firm, with a minty freshness.

It's easy to see why when Patron was first coming out to the market, it was such a hit when compared to the mixto that was more widely presented then. That said, in the three decades since Patron's debut, it is obvious that many other artisanal Tequilas have come forth, in part thanks to Patron having paved the way, a good number of whom do show the same taste profile but with even greater detail and intensity. By comparison, Patron does seem milder and softer. Nevertheless, an overall really enjoyable blanco Tequila in and of itself, and one that's just as great for sipping as it is for shots.

Tequila Review: Patron Reposado, 40% ABV

Aged for at least four months mainly in American oak barrels, with some use of French oak.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Straw

Aroma: Initially alittle more muted but also more rounded, there's a delicate aroma of cooked zucchini and bellpeppers, just slightly roasty, with also some runny honey poured over it. Light twang of orange peels outline it with a thin base of minerality of concrete, mineral spring water, that's padded with alittle more butterscotch. Light grain of the oak grips the nose, with also a prickle of freshly sawn cedar shavings to go with the black pepper. With time a somewhat peculiar bit of sour funkiness appears, of bruised green apples and melted butter, almost alittle tart and mixed in with a sappiness of pine. 

Taste: Medium-bodied, it's richer and alittle more confectionary, with warming tones of butterscotch, nutmeg and cinnamon spices, and honey over vanilla cream. There's still that slight twang of green apple sourness, and also that prickle of cracked black pepper and pencil shavings. The alcohol does come through somewhat beefy, with then also an almost chewy, herbal bit of anise candy and black licorice. Slight herbaceousness of dried oregano, with then the base of grilled zucchini bringing that earthy, vegetal sweetness. Wafts of that dusty concrete pavements.

Finish: Shot of caramel and oak grains, that's then followed by the herbal and chewy anise and black licorice. It's short on the rather peppery finish, with then this longer running, almost earthy, woody bitterness, akin to biting on dried anise or licorice sticks. Bit of that melted butter funk that comes through too.

My Thoughts

This was quite the peculiarity, and alittle jarring to be honest. It starts out soft but aromatic, with a nice roundedness to the cooked vegetal notes here steeped in honey, which was also given a nice touch with that ring of citrusy brightness. The woodiness then begins to come through alittle more sharp and prickly, yet what threw us off more was that sour funkiness that began to show with some air time, a rather eclectic mix of green apples and melted butter that felt alittle more out of place. On the palate, the warmer confectionary tones of butterscotch and baking spices over cream opened nicely, yet towards the back a more chewy, herbal and herbaceous hit of anise and black licorice began to come through, almost reminiscent of Absinthe or traditional Turkish Raki. It's an interesting development, although must surely be divisive. The finish was then short, prickly with lots of pepper, followed by an extended spiced bitterness that carried through before more of that melted butter funk showed up again.

We were at odds with the Patron Reposado which showed some nice, warm confectionary tones, yet at the same time also came with some rather angular and dissonant flavours that felt awkward and punctuated the more luscious richness. Nevertheless, there are signs of its complexity that seemed buried beneath, with perhaps the oak influence just alittle out of place.

Tequila Review: Patron Anejo, 40% ABV

Aged for at least 12 to 15 months in oak barrels including ex-Bourbon American White Oak, French Oak and Hungarian Oak.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Gold

Aroma: Whiff of almost nutty rancio, of nougat and marzipan, rather quickly showing those woody accents. As it eases up, a body of honey, brown sugar, creme brulee crusts and even some burnt butter begins to come through over swaths of vanilla cream, all fairly soft if not broad, firmer and richer. It's garnished with a slight prickle of cedar sawdust, black pepper and baking spices, with then the more vegetal layer of cooked zucchini and pine, just lightly roasty. There's a delicate outline of orange zest, here alittle burnt, with also little flecks of sugared pineapples. It's soft yet at the same time more compact and saturated.

Taste: Medium-bodied, burnt brown sugar and dark honey comes through first, with little nuggets of dark chocolate that leads into chocolate coated honeycomb that's dotted with dried pineapples and orangettes. Tones of vanilla cream, with still that lightly zingy freshly shaved cedar wood. Machine smoke, oiled leather, grilled capsicums, woody anise and black licorice, oversteeped lemon black tea; the agave is essentially absent here. It's showing a good saturation, although comes through lighter than expected, yet at the same time pretty smooth and polished. With the lightness in its concentration, it almost seems more spirit forward, although with little harshness.

Finish: Those chocolate covered honeycomb carries through, here over lacquered wood, sharper pencil shavings, with then a dried herb savouriness into the shorter finish. Light bitterness of charred wood, sprinkle of black pepper, with then a slight tanginess of oversteeped lemon tea.

My Thoughts

The Anejo certainly shows a distinct aged quality to it, with more tannic tones, deeper and darker flavours, although at 40% ABV it does seem to have thinned out its body somewhat. There's a clear step up from the Reposado, with the Anejo much more cohesive and rounded, with better integration and more polish. It still comes through rather gentle on the nose, although this time with some more burnt bits to it, which combines really nicely with the fruits and spices. Really delightfully, much of the fruits here have developed a candied character, with the confectionaries now creme brulee and chocolate coated honeycomb. It seems like the herbal anise and black licorice have also properly evolved, this time more woody and dried, and accompanied by well steeped black tea. Into the finish, the woody grains really come through yet still showing some restraint, with the herbs also now dried and much more savoury.

Overall, the Patron Anejo is compact and well saturated, and is much better developed as compared to the Reposado, giving it better integration, polish and detail, although at 40% ABV it might have come at the expense of a richer and more plush body, and could have gone on longer on the finish. Still definitely well made and with a nice old school charm to it. This is a more than decent sipper.