Tequila & mezcal

The most useful finding in this week's tequila research is not about additives or celebrities. It is that the person pouring the drink has more say over the next bottle than the person stocking the shelf. If you run a small agave brand, I think your first marketing dollar belongs behind the bar, not in a paid campaign, and your second belongs wherever a curious drinker goes to look you up.

A new report from The Tequila Report, built on Nielsen data for the year to August 29, 2026, shows US off-trade tequila value fell 3.5% to $5.29 billion while volume rose 5.9% to 290.5 million units. The split inside those numbers is sharp. A group of 181 craft brands, defined as self-declared additive-free and selling under 200,000 nine-litre cases a year, grew 18.6% and now hold 9.7% of retail scan dollars. Conventional brands fell 5.4%, Casamigos dropped 21% to $305 million, and reposado was the only type to grow dollar sales, up 2.1%.

Brand Finance's Alcoholic Drinks 2026 report, covered by The Shout, shows tequila holding up while the rest of spirits slips. The combined value of the world's top 50 spirits brands fell almost 4% to US$161bn. Against that, José Cuervo's brand value rose 61% to US$1.6bn, the fastest growth in the ranking, and it climbed 12 places to 17th. Don Julio gained 57% to US$2.5bn and Patrón 36% to US$2.4bn. Both are now worth more than every Scotch brand on the list except Johnnie Walker.

G4 Tequila, part of the PKGD Group portfolio, is still growing fast. According to Shanken News Daily, the brand nearly doubled to 87,000 nine-liter cases in 2025, then added another 55% in volume through September 2026. Its points of distribution are up 43% this year, dollar sales per point are up 7.7%, and the 80-proof Reposado has nearly doubled its dollar sales in NIQ channels. G4 is made by Felipe Camarena at El Pandillo Distillery in Jalisco and sells in the $40 and up segment.

On October 16, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government intends to tackle the collapse in blue agave prices and build a plan to support the farmers who grow the plant. According to Mezcalistas, agave fell from 32 pesos a kilo in 2018 to as little as one peso by 2024, and farmer leader Remberto Galván Cabrera estimates that 42,000 families depend on the crop for income. Sheinbaum blamed over-planting during the pandemic-era tequila boom. Agriculture minister Columba López is in talks with producers, but no budget, direct support or timeline has been confirmed.

A federal judge in Seattle has thrown out a class action that used private lab tests to accuse Costco of falsely labeling Kirkland Signature tequila as "100% agave". Hagens Berman brought the case on behalf of 13 buyers under the federal RICO Act and state laws, including Washington's Consumer Protection Act. Costco argued that a U.S. court would intrude on Mexico's exclusive authority to define 100% agave tequila. The judge agreed in an opinion filed Friday, noting that Mexican authorities had already looked at similar claims and rejected them. Plaintiffs' lawyer Steve Berman called the ruling "dead wrong" and said they will appeal.

California farmers who built their businesses on wine grapes are planting agave, according to Bloomberg reporting summarized by Vinetur this week. Tequila sales at US retail were flat over the 52 weeks to September 9, per Circana data, while vodka, whiskey and other spirits fell at least 1.5%. In the Central Valley, grower Stuart Woolf has planted about 550 acres of agave over four years and plans to add 150 more. O'Neill Vintners & Distillers has spent about $300,000 on agave distilling equipment and expects to double or triple that over the next year.

IWSR data shows US tequila volumes have flattened, yet the ultra-premium tier grew 7% last year and is on track to reach about a fifth of US volume by 2030. Growth is also surging abroad, in India, Nigeria, Colombia and Japan.