818 Tequila - Grupo Solave, NOM 1607

818 Tequila is one of the most closely scrutinised celebrity spirits launches of the modern era - and one of the few to have silenced its critics with the liquid itself. Founded by Kendall Jenner and officially launched in 2021 after nearly four years of development, the brand is named after the area code of Calabasas, California, where Jenner grew up.

Production takes place at Grupo Solave (NOM 1607), a Mexican family-owned distillery in Amatitán, Jalisco, where traditional methods - stone-oven cooking, Tahona crushing, copper pot distillation - are paired with modern sustainability infrastructure and rigorous additive-free standards. With 43 blind tasting awards accumulated across 13 international competitions, 818 has made a compelling case that its credentials rest on the tequila rather than the name on the label.

From Calabasas to Jalisco

The story behind 818 begins not with a celebrity whim but with an extended personal obsession. Jenner has described spending close to four years immersed in the process before the brand went public, travelling repeatedly to Jalisco, sitting through dozens of blind taste tests, and entering early batches anonymously into competition to benchmark quality without the distraction of her profile. The brand name is a nod to the 818 area code of the San Fernando Valley and Calabasas, grounding what is a deeply Mexican product in the personal geography of its founder. Distribution was secured through Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits at launch in 2021, giving 818 immediate national reach across the United States.

Location and Provenance

818 is produced at Grupo Solave in Amatitan, a municipality in the lowland valley region of Jalisco that sits within the Tequila Denomination of Origin. Amatitan lies close to the town of Tequila itself and is home to some of the oldest agave-growing land in the denomination. The distillery draws on 100% Agave tequilana Weber var. azul, with plants matured for a minimum of seven years in the field before harvest, allowing for the slow accumulation of sugars and mineral character that defines quality lowland fruit. In 2022, 818 formalised its support for agave-growing communities through a partnership with S.A.C.R.E.D. (Saving Agave for Culture, Recreation, Environment, and Development), funding infrastructure and economic development in the rural communities whose families cultivate the raw material the brand depends on.

818 entered competition anonymously from its earliest days, and the medal haul that has accumulated since launch is the clearest rebuttal to any suggestion that the brand's reputation is built on celebrity alone.

Across 13 international competitions the brand has collected 43 blind tasting awards, including a:

• Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition for the Reposado,
• Chairman's Trophy from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge,
• Platinum Award at the SIP Awards,
• Top 100 Spirits citation from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge, Best Reposado Tequila at the World Tequila Awards,

818's production at Grupo Solave is built around slow, traditional extraction paired with a meaningful commitment to environmental accountability.

• Harvested agave hearts are cooked in conventional ovens for over thirty hours, a long, gentle bake that converts the agave's starches and inulin into fermentable sugars without the industrial speed of autoclaves.
• Once cooked, the agave hearts are crushed in stone Tahona pits, the circular millstone method that yields a fibrous, expressive must with a textural richness that roller mills tend to strip away.
• Fermentation runs for over forty hours, an unhurried pace that allows the yeast to develop complexity in the wash rather than simply racing through the available sugar.
• Distillation is carried out twice in copper alembic pot stills, with the all-copper construction playing an active role in stripping sulphur compounds and refining the spirit's character.

The distillery's energy comes from biomass waste, a system that combusts agricultural residue rather than fossil fuels, extending the life cycle of the agave and significantly reducing the facility's carbon output. Process water is reclaimed and recycled on site, and the spent agave bagasse is composted rather than landfilled. The finished product is bottled without additives: no glycerin, no sugar, no colouring, no artificial flavouring of any kind.