Founding Story

Founding partners Jesse Fanning and David Lizarraga have been best friends since their late teens. Born in New Mexico, Fanning moved to San Diego, California, and was introduced to Lizarraga through a mutual friend and Fanning’s next-door neighbor, Pablo, whose uncle owns the brand El Amo Tequila.

​Fanning founded Henebery Spirits in San Diego in 2012, focusing on whiskey. In 2014, Lizarraga transitioned from the legal field to join Henebery’s social media team. “As a craft distillery, our unique selling proposition, because we can’t compete on price, is having a great product, packaging it the right way, and not cutting corners.”

The discovery of a mezcal from Durango furthered Lizarraga’s development in the beverage business. The desire to share the spirit with a broader audience and a background in law led Lizarraga to start an importing company with his Uncle, who was already in the business. The venture, done with Fanning’s assistance, developed an understanding of collaborating with Mexico’s distillers. Fanning shared, “We talked to a lot of distillers in Mexico to really understand what motivated them and what their obstacles were. It all came down to an underlying need to bring something to life that people can enjoy.”

In 2018, during a visit to Guanajuato to watch a TED Talk, Lizarraga serendipitously chatted with Sociosentation Agaveros De Huanimaro (translation Society of Huanimaro agave farmers). This collective of Huanimaro, Guanajuato agave farmers pooled resources to create a distillery that shared their rich culture, history, and heritage, and was seeking U.S. import help for their premium tequila brand, Huani.

As Lizarraga and Fanning considered importing Huani and discussed the idea with friends, including San Diego-based Chris Keech, who was then leading Jagermeister’s global trade advocacy program for the United States, the trio recognized the next career step was to create a tequila brand that leveraged their combined skills and met the market demand for, as Lizarraga put it, “a well-crafted, additive-free tequila that does not break your wallet.” “The market was being saturated with diffuser, additive-laden products. We believe you don’t need to go down that route to hit a certain price point. It comes down to your business model,” he added. The parts of the traditional business model the team believes they can improve are focusing expenditures on product quality rather than marketing and partnering with the agaveros to reduce agave costs.

“Tequila feels like a very sharing type of spirit that should be enjoyed by many people. It feels like it’s about celebration, parties, a good dinner, and getting together with the people you love. If a brand charges the end users for marketing or a celebrity takes a huge margin that could otherwise be passed on to the customer as a higher quality product, it is kind of cheating them out of something. We wanted to build a business that we could stand by with full conviction, a legacy-driven brand, and something we want to spend the rest of our careers on, and with a team that cares about the same mission” said Fanning.

Keech explained, “In 2018, when the brand was first developed, agave was 32 pesos per kilogram (kg), and we needed 7 kg per liter of agave, so a 1L bottle of tequila was $9-12 just for agave. By partnering with the farmers, in exchange for ownership, equity, and involvement in the brand, we could get creative on the price since we’re not buying agave on the open market where that price fluctuates all the time.”

Fanning added, “The farmers not only do all of our farming, but they also run our day-to-day down in Mexico. This makes us feel like we have a really strong pulse on the culture, the cities that we’re working out of, and that we’re doing things the right way because we know that these guys are in it for the long run.”

The partnership with the agavero also aligns with the brand’s philosophy of building community. “In the tequila industry, a transfer of value was not making it to the agave farmers. We wanted to make sure that the people who started the process were going to be part of it, help them monetize it in the US, and do it the right way,” said Keech.
Ultimately, the team told the agaveros, “We can work with you if we can create as a team, Real del Valle,” said Fanning.

​“We’re not just a contract or business transaction. We’re trying to accomplish the same goal, and I felt like we were destined to be family,” he added.

The Brand Name

The brand name, which translates to “Royal Valley” was conceptualized by the brand’s agavero partners in Mexico, and it was intentional by the U.S. founding team to have their participation prominent in the brand development process. “We wanted them to be part of the process because we own the brand together,” said Keech.

Logo Design

​The Real del Valle Montezuma quail (zolin in Nahuatl) was born from a jokingly fabricated tale by the agavero during brand development, which worked out due to its symbol for the community. Keech explained, “During the brand development, I asked if any historical context, folklore, or history could be tied into the brand. They’re like, ‘Oh yeah, there were different like tribes of people down in the valley, and they weren’t getting along, but there’s a ton quail down there, and they were able to bring them together and establish peace.’” Upon further questioning, it turned out the tale was fabricated, and the goal was to use authentic stories. However, Keech happened to be reading a book about Joshua Tree that noted that quails are a universal sign for the community, and this tied into the brand team’s development ethos, as all of them come from the bar industry and are developing a product to meet the industry’s needs. 

​Bottle Design

​The bottles were designed with the end user in mind.

750 ml premium bottle for retail
​The bottle was designed to help make it stand out in a higher caliber category and provide value for the consumer. It features a heavier weight glass and a lip for easy pouring without a pour spout.
​
1-liter bottles for the bartender
Ergonomics for easy repeated grabbing and pouring of the bottle were the focus of the design. “Tequila is the hottest thing in bars. Bartenders are pulling it out constantly, so it’s really important to make sure bottles are not heavy and efficient for bartenders to lift up using shoulders and elbows. A lot of our friends still in the industry are having problems with joints, muscles, and tendons. We wanted to keep in mind, especially with the 1L [for the on-premise], the bartender who will be using the product,” said Keech.

Approach to Tequila

Formulation of Flavor
We didn’t necessarily pick our flavor profile. We started with the agave from our farm partners, made that our priority, and sculpted our brand around that,” said Fanning. “Guanajuato agave literally won best agave eight years in a row, so we had beautiful agave which was ~35% higher in brix than anything you’re finding in Jalisco. We wanted to start at the basics, keep it as simple as possible, and let the earth and growth of the agave come to life in the bottle.”

While Fanning’s distilling background enhanced bottling and quality control processes, it also fostered a personal bond with the distillation team, especially through gatherings at Henebery distillery in San Diego. However, it has minimal influence on distillation. “These guys are pros, have done it for a long time, and make a really great product. I’ve done nothing but learn from them,” he said.

Fanning also noted the parallels and differences between tequila and whiskey production in that a few producers create most of the product. “I would say ~70% of the whisky on a back bar is from one of the three biggest manufacturers in the United States, then repurposed, rebranded, maybe blended with some alterations, but sometimes they’re just buying it and rebottling it. In Mexico, the CRT (Consejo Regulador del Tequila) does a really good job of following the legalities, taking you through the process of what batch of agave was brought into the distillery, then distilled, then bottled. In the United States, while the TTB (The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) requires filing the way the whiskey is produced, nobody’s watching me buy grain or making sure that my mash bill is appropriate. Anybody can make adjustments on the fly. While a lot of the United States customers think there’s corruption in the tequila space, I feel like there’s more in the United States whiskey space, to be quite frank”.

“We always keep the industry in mind. I came from Sidney Frank who launched Grey Goose, Jägermeister, and Casamigos. Their way to market was always to get product into bartender’s hands, then have the bartenders tell your story, and then the brand goes from there. We are focused on making sure that we do right by the industry on everything from the bottle to the juice, to the story, to the partners that we’re working with, to the quality and ingredients. That is very front of mind for us,” said Keech.
Increasing Production Capacity
​With the thesis of creating an additive-free tequila at a premium-well price point, and to keep aligned with their growth model, the team moved the operations from Socios Agaveros De Huanimaro to a secondary production partner to scale production capacity landing in the Jalisco/Guanajuato border town of Degollado at NOM 1514. While still sourcing agave from some of the original agaveros, Pepe, from Degollado, worked with Huanimaro during the transition under a vinculación (co-responsibility) agreement. This allows the different distilleries to work together on both distillation and bottling, with the primary being NOM 1514. This is similar to a chef having multiple restaurants that serve the same food but with different kitchen teams. Eventually, operations were consolidated to Productores de Agave y Derivados de Degollado for operational efficiency. Lizarraga noted, “Aside from being local San Diego friends of the owners of Degollado, the distillery has been around for some time but has shifted almost all of its focus to RDV.”

Ingredients

Agave
  • Growing Regions: Huanimaro and Cueremaro in Guanajuato
  • Elevation: ~5,600 ft
  • Soil: rich soil that is nutrient-laden
  • Age: 5-6 years old
  • Brix: >35 ° minimum.
  • Agave weight: 45-60 kilograms with some pina up to 140 kg
  • Penca removal: The penca is removed to the extent that the agave is basically white.
  • Penca quartering: Quartered at the distillery as close to cooking as possible.
​The harvest age and brix are directly correlated. Fanning explains, “Generally a Brix content of 35+ only happens when the plant reaches 5-6 years of maturity. We then quarter (cut to cooking size) the agave at the palenque as close to cooking as possible to retain the sugar content of the pina,” Fanning noted. Additionally, “Huanimaro, Guanajuato’s elevation is similar to the Highlands Jalisco but with very different soil and climate makeup. It is not as hot, but it has consistent rainfall and rich soil that is nutrient-laden, which is ideal for farming,” Fanning added.
Water
Fermentation Water
Well water is used. While not always done by tequila brands, the water has received CRT approval. 
Yeast
​Commercial strain of Saccharomyces yeast with other fermentation microbes derived from the Chilean mill crushing and open-top fermentation.
Other Ingredients
​No additives are needed, including yeast-assimilated nitrogen (YAN).

Production Process

Crushing
​Chilean mill
​Similar to a tahona, but with two stone wheels instead of one, this technique maximizes the amount of agave juice that can be extracted in the most economical amount of time. It also remains similar to the traditional process by providing a unique source of flavor as the porous stone inoculates the agave with fermentation microbes.
Cooking (Hydrolysis)

Agave is cooked in both horno (brick oven) and autoclave.
Blending agave from both cooking styles helps to maintain a traditional horno-cooked agave flavor by providing some volatile phenol aroma of smoke and bitterness but maximizing the yield of fermentable sugars. It also allowed the brand to increase production capacity so they could meet market demand at a competitive price point.

​Initially made exclusively with traditional horno-cooked agave, the tequila recipe has adapted to fulfill its mission of: being extremely cost-competitive, having sufficient production capacity to meet demand, maintaining flavor, and remaining additive-free. Fanning explained, “While we were proud of doing everything as traditional as possible, to fulfill our mission of giving the world a value proposition that they deserve, we made the tough decision of moving [a portion of cooking] to autoclave.”

Lizarraga further explained, “It makes sense for us to be conscientious of how much agave we’re using and yielding because the taste is still phenomenal, we are going for volume, people still love it as a sipping product, and it’s predominantly used in cocktails.”

“We, [however], would never cross the line of using a diffuser or putting additives into our product. None of that is ever going to be a part of our DNA. I’m not saying it’s bad that people do, I’m just saying that we will not,” Fanning added.
During the redevelopment phase, about six different batch variations were created to find a match as close to the brick oven flavor profile as possible. As autoclaves are large pressure cookers that allow for more fine-tuning of temperature compared to brick ovens, developing a flavor profile involved paying attention to the cooking parameters and incorporating horno-cooked agave. Fanning noted, “Our agave is so potent that we were getting very similar flavor characteristics with slight differences in the roasted agave flavor that almost has this pop to it, a little kiss as I call it.

We wanted to make sure we still had that roasted flavor, and it was really just a matter of the right amount of agave and attention to detail. And while it tastes slightly different, I would say that the average drinker or even the very professional drinkers would have a hard time noticing the difference”.
Fermentation
  • Vessel: Open-top tanks of medium size (relative to the industry).
  • Temperature: Ambient
  • Duration: 5-7 days.
Fermentation is initiated with inoculation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae; however, external yeast from the Chilean mill and open-top fermentation result in unique flavor dynamics. Fermentation then goes to completion with key indicators being the lack of CO2 being released and significantly decreased sugar levels. “We initiate fermentation with Saccharomyces, but open fermentation can have minor effects on the fermentation process based on seasonality,” said Fanning.”
Distillation
Tequila requires double distillation, with the initial distillation being a stripping run to remove most of the water and undesired components and a spirits run to refine the flavors. During the distillation run, the “hearts” are kept, with the remainder being re-distilled or discarded. In the Real del Valle process:
  • Stripping run: Hearts are kept between 80% and 50% on the first run.
  • Spirits run: hearts are kept at ~55%

Fanning explained the differences between the whiskey and tequila distilling processes. “When making a bourbon, I do a pretty aggressive heads cut. Depending on how long I’m aging it, I cut a little deeper into the tails because the whiskey becomes more flavorful with the American oak. Tequila needs to be absolutely perfect right out of the still, so we’re really precise about our cuts.”

The team tasted tequila at various cut points to select the specific heads, hearts, and tails cuts. “We wanted those cuts to be based on preference. It was fun because as a predominantly whiskey distiller, [tasting new make] is not great because I need to imagine it on oak for a certain amount of time. For the tequila tasting, we just find what’s best out of the still to enjoy it immediately. [During the process] we had, the bulk of our team down there doing it, and we just pretty much had a consensus,” Fanning said.
​Resting
In stainless steel, it is used for 3-5 days minimum, and sometimes it goes longer depending on available tank space.
Filtration
​Cellulose filtered for any residual particulate. No chill filtration.

Maturation

Barrels
  • One-time fill, Quercus alba (American white oak) ex-American whiskey barrels are purchased by the distillery, scraped, and re-charred to a No. 2 before initial usage. “We scrape and re-char the barrels to let the agave and wood influence the flavor profile with the latent sugars from the whiskey rounding out the “dessert-esque” notes,” said Fanning.
  • Reused: 2 to 3 times.
  • Cleaning procedure between usage: Rinsed with water.

​Fanning’s background as a whiskey distiller, where whiskey’s flavor is driven by barrel maturation, has allowed Real del Valle to capitalize on barrel programming. Fanning explained, “In the whiskey industry, we taste our barrels at different points of the aging process. In Mexico, a more typical approach is to just put a timer on it. I think that’s a mistake because there are times when that timer is not quite right. It could be really delicious two months later or really bad two months later. Coming from the whiskey space, we are very meticulous about making sure that we’re watching the product a little bit closer because barrel aging is everything in whiskey.”

Up Next

Fuego overproof Tequila
  • Timeline: 2024 Q4.
  • Style: Overproof tequila with the category being 100-110 proof

Production Notes
The distillate will be identical to the Blanco with the only difference being bottle-proof. Fanning explained the idea was consumer-driven. “A lot of our partners, especially in the Midwest, want a higher proof tequila for not only their cocktail program, but also to have something with a little bit more zazz and a slightly unique experience. Since the smoothness of our tequila is through the roof, and we have been drinking it at over 100 proof when we gather together in Mexico, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to bring that to the rest of the world.”

The Tequila

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Blanco
  • The tequila’sflavor profile is agave-first tequila in that it has the sweetness and terroir of Guanajuato with more nuanced aromas of pepper, mint, and green bell pepper notes to round out the flavor profile.
  • SRP: $25 for 750 ml

Reposado
  • 4-6 months in American oak to provide aromas of “Toast, toasted nuts, baking spice, a little bit of vanilla.”
  • The goal of oak maturation was to add aromas of toast, toasted nuts, baking spice, and a little bit of vanilla while preserving the base Blanco’s character instead of covering it with barrel-derived aromas. “Because we love the distillate so much, we really want that distillate to still shine. With the single-use barrels, if we go the full length of a reposado and pull it right before it becomes an anejo, we’re going to lose a little bit of the beauty of the Blanco, and we did not want to do that with our high volume product. We also wanted consistency,” said Fanning. Tequila in second-fill barrels is allowed to age for longer due to the lower concentrations of barrel-derived aroma compounds.
  • SRP: $29.00 for 750 ml