Brand Profile | Tequila · 100% Blue Weber Agave · Highlands (Los Altos), Las Pintas, Jalisco · Cavas de Don Max, S.A. de C.V. (NOM 1554)

Cantera Negra started as a hobby around 40 years ago, when Don Alberto Becherano began tinkering with his own method for making tequila. He spent more than a decade refining it before Lance Gildner, on the hunt for Cabo's finest tequila after a fishing tournament in 2006, spent nine years tracking the recipe down. The brand landed on US shelves in 2015.

Production stays with the family-owned and -operated Cavas de Don Max in the Highlands of Jalisco, where each batch is handcrafted from just three ingredients: 100% Blue Weber agave, water, and yeast.

Cantera Negra's origin story runs through a Cabo fishing tournament rather than a distillery boardroom. After tasting the local
tequila in November 2006, Lance Gildner spent nine years chasing down the family behind it, eventually bringing Don
Alberto Becherano's proprietary method to the US market in 2015 as Cantera Negra.

The brand has built a strong awards run since, headlined by:

• Best in Class and Double Gold for the Extra Añejo at the 2024
  San Francisco World Spirits Competition,
• Gold at the 2024 New York International Spirits Competition.
• The Añejo picked up Gold at both the 2024 SFWSC and the 2024 TAG Global Spirits Awards.
• Earlier expressions have medalled at
  SFWSC too, including a Gold, Silver, and Bronze sweep in 2017.

The name gives it away: Cantera Negra means "black quarry," a nod to the 200,000-year-old black volcanic rock in the soil
where the agave grows. Rather than picking a single region, the brand blends carefully selected highland and lowland Blue
Weber agave into one mash bill, aiming for a flavour profile that pulls character from both terroirs at once.

• What it brings to the shelf:
  100% Blue Weber agave, blended from both highland and lowland Jalisco fields
• Grown in 200,000-year-old black volcanic soil, the source of the brand's name
• Just three ingredients: agave, water, and yeast
• Family-owned and -operated distillery, Cavas de Don Max
• Aged tequilas rested in ex-cognac and bourbon barrels, well beyond industry-standard minimums
• Best in Class and Double Gold at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition

If you want a tequila that blends highland and lowland agave into one profile, and an Extra Añejo that drinks like a bourbonlover's dram, Cantera Negra is worth the pour.

A time-honoured, proprietary process built around the same three-ingredient mash bill. Same base for the whole range, aged
differently from there.

• Agave: 100% Blue Weber, a balanced blend of hand-harvested highland and lowland agave
• Fermentation & Distillation: Twice distilled at Cavas de Don Max using time-honoured, proprietary methods
• Tasting: Every batch is tasted against the family panel's own standards before it's approved for bottling
• Bottling: Handcrafted in small-batch quantities
• Ageing: Silver unaged. Reposado rested at least 7 months, and Añejo at least 18 months, in ex-cognac and bourbon
  barrell/ Extra Añejo aged no less than 36 months, blending bourbon-cask and cognac-cask aged tequila.

A blended agave base, twice-distilled, and rested well beyond industry minimums. That's what Cantera Negra is built on.