Tequila Fortaleza is one of the denomination's most compelling arguments for the value of tradition, produced at a distillery that has been part of the Sauza family since 1873. Owned and operated by Guillermo Erickson Sauza, the great-great-grandson of Don Cenobio Sauza, the man widely credited with founding the modern tequila industry.

Fortaleza is made at La Perseverancia, the original Sauza family distillery in the town of Tequila, Jalisco, using a production method that has changed little since the nineteenth century. Tahona-crushed agave, open-air pine fermentation tanks, and small copper pot stills produce a spirit of uncommon depth and texture, bottled without additives and released in small batches that reflect the process's labour-intensive nature. The brand is known as Los Abuelos, The Grandparents, in Mexico, a name that speaks plainly to what it represents: the way tequila was made before industrial efficiency became the industry's primary objective. Fortaleza sources 100% Blue Weber agave from farms in and around the town of Tequila, with agave harvested at between seven and ten years of maturity. Guillermo works with agave farmers he knows personally, selecting piñas that meet the distillery's standards for ripeness and sugar content. The relationship between producer and grower is direct and longstanding, consistent with the small-batch, artisanal character of the operation as a whole.

Don Cenobio Sauza arrived in the town of Tequila in the 1860s and within a decade had established himself as the most consequential figure in the denomination's young history. He purchased La Perseverancia distillery in 1873, and it was from this facility that he produced the tequila he would export internationally for the first time — the first person in the denomination to do so. Don Cenobio also made an observation that would shape the category's legal identity for more than a century: he identified Blue Weber agave as the superior raw material for tequila production and began the advocacy for agave exclusivity that would eventually be codified in the denomination's regulations. By the time of his death in 1906, Sauza had grown his operation into the largest tequila producer in Mexico and had planted the flag for the category on international markets.

His son Don Eladio Sauza inherited the business and continued its expansion, and his grandson Don Javier Sauza transformed it further, building Tequila Sauza into a global brand and constructing a modern industrial distillery — La Perseverancia's larger, mechanised successor — capable of producing tequila at a scale the original facility could never match. The family sold Tequila Sauza to the Spanish drinks conglomerate Pedro Domecq in 1976, a transaction that ended the Sauza family's ownership of the commercial enterprise but left the original La Perseverancia distillery in family hands. The old facility sat largely idle for years, its tahona and copper stills preserved but not producing at any meaningful scale.

Guillermo Erickson Sauza, Don Cenobio's great-great-grandson, grew up with an awareness of what La Perseverancia represented and what its traditional methods could produce. In the early 2000s, he began the work of restoring the distillery to working condition, repairing or replacing equipment and returning the facility to full production using the same processes his ancestors had used. The brand launched internationally under the name Fortaleza — a reference to the fort-like walls of the old Sauza hacienda — with its first releases reaching the United States market around 2005. In Mexico, the same spirit is sold as Los Abuelos, the name Guillermo had used for the project from its beginning and one that anchors the brand explicitly to the generational legacy behind it.

Fortaleza has accumulated consistent recognition from the major spirits competitions and rating organisations over the years, with individual expressions earning Gold and Double Gold medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and high scores from Tequila Matchmaker, where Fortaleza Blanco and Reposado regularly appear among the highest-rated expressions in their respective categories. The distillery has also been recognised by Wine Enthusiast, Whisky Advocate, and other publications that cover the broader spirits landscape, and Guillermo Erickson Sauza is frequently cited in industry discussions of traditional production as one of its most committed practitioners.

The distillery's recognition extends beyond competition results. La Perseverancia was designated a Mexican Cultural Monument, an acknowledgement of its historical significance not only to the tequila industry but to the town of Tequila and the denomination as a whole. Guillermo offers tours of the facility, and La Perseverancia has become one of the most visited distilleries in the region for enthusiasts seeking to understand how tequila was made before industrial production became the norm. The combination of historical depth, visible traditional process, and the personal involvement of the Sauza family heir makes it a destination unlike any other in the denomination.

Style in the Glass

Fortaleza's house style is shaped by the convergence of lowland provenance, tahona extraction, wild-yeast fermentation, and copper pot distillation — a combination that is rare in the modern denomination and increasingly rare anywhere in the broader world of distilled spirits. The character that results is earthy, textured, and intensely savoury in the way that only traditional agave spirits can be: roasted piña, black pepper, volcanic minerals, and the distinctive oily weight that comes from fibre-contact fermentation. It is a style with no interest in smoothness as an end in itself, and all the interest in the world in depth, complexity, and the honest expression of the raw material and the place that grew it.

Across the range, from the Blanco to the Añejo, the core identity of the distillate remains legible beneath whatever the barrel has added. The Blanco makes no concessions to accessibility: it is a spirit that rewards attention and repays it with aromatic complexity that continues to develop in the glass. The aged expressions layer wood character over that foundation without obscuring it, producing tequilas in which the interaction between agave and oak is visible at every stage. And the Still Strength expressions remove the compromise of dilution entirely, presenting the distillery's output at the proof it achieved in the still, for drinkers who want the least-mediated version of what La Perseverancia produces. Running through all of it is the sense of a family making tequila the way their ancestors made it, in the same building, on the same equipment, and with the same unhurried conviction that quality is not something that can be accelerated.

Fortaleza's production is defined by its adherence to pre-industrial methods at every stage, making it one of a very small number of distilleries in the denomination that still uses a tahona as its primary extraction tool. The process begins with a slow cook in a traditional brick oven, where the harvested agave hearts are steam-roasted over two days. The extended cook converts the piñas' starches into fermentable sugars while developing the roasted, caramelised character that runs through every expression in the range.

Once cooked and cooled, the piñas are crushed by a two-tonne volcanic stone wheel — the tahona — which is pulled in a circular path around a stone pit by a motorised arm, breaking the fibres and releasing the sweet agave juice beneath. The tahona is among the oldest and most labour-intensive extraction methods in the denomination, largely abandoned by commercial producers in favour of mechanical roller mills that process agave faster and with less physical effort. The tradeoff is texture and complexity: tahona extraction is slower, less efficient in yield, and leaves behind spent fibre that the juice remains in contact with during fermentation, contributing body and a depth of flavour that roller-milled tequila does not produce in the same way.

Fermentation takes place in open-air tanks constructed from pine wood, using naturally occurring wild yeast drawn from the environment of the distillery and the agave itself. The fermentation runs for three to five days, a deliberately unhurried process during which the wild yeasts metabolise the agave sugars and develop the aromatic character of the wash. The spent agave fibre from the tahona remains in the tanks throughout fermentation, in contact with the juice, contributing additional extraction and texture before the liquid is separated for distillation.

The fermented wash is double-distilled in small copper pot stills of Chilean design, a style with a long history in the town of Tequila. Copper contact throughout the distillation removes sulphur compounds and softens the spirit, and the relatively small still size allows careful control over each batch. The combination of tahona extraction, wild-yeast fermentation with fibre contact, and copper pot distillation produces a spirit with a richness and viscosity that is immediately distinctive in the glass.