Cincoro faces lawsuit over ‘100% agave’ claim
Michael Jordan’s Tequila brand, Cincoro, has been hit by a class action lawsuit that alleges it is not made from 100% Blue Weber agave.
Similar to recent legal issues faced by Diageo for its Casamigos and Don Julio brands, Cincoro is the latest producer to be confronted with a lawsuit that alleges it has falsely marketed its product as ‘100% agave’.
Florida resident Nabil Haschemie filed the class action lawsuit against Cincoro’s parent firm, Cinco Spirits Group, on 27 August 2025 in the US District Court, South District of California.
Launched in 2019, Cincoro is part-owned by former basketball star Michael Jordan and backed by ex-professional tennis player Serena Williams.
In August this year, Haschemie purchased a bottle of Cincoro Blanco from Total Wine & More, following an online search for brands made from 100% Blue Weber agave.
Haschemie claims that a laboratory test of Cincoro Tequila uncovered that it contained ‘material amounts of ethanol’ that did not come from Blue Weber agave.
As such, he believes that Cincoro has ‘misrepresented’ its composition and ingredients. Haschemie says that if consumers were aware of the ‘truth of the ingredients’, they would not buy a bottle, or pay less for it. Cincoro’s range is priced between US$89.99 and US$1,724.99 per bottle.
The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT), the regulatory body for Tequila, oversees the Tequila NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana), a four-digit number that is required to be classified as an official Tequila brand.
The NOM imposes strict documentation requirements to ensure that Tequila ‘has not been adulterated in the manufacturing stages of its production’.
The lawsuit cited a quote from Remberto Galván Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Mexican Agave Council, who said “when agave prices were high, large Tequila companies began mixing cane alcohol into Tequila that they sold as 100% agave”. The complaint noted that these practices have not stopped.
Cincoro’s bottles feature the words ‘100% de agave’ and its website claims that the brand is made with the ‘highest quality 100% Blue Weber agave from both the Highland and Lowland regions of Jalisco, México’, as pointed out in the lawsuit.
The bottle notes that Cincoro is distilled and bottled by Destiladora del Valle de Tequila, otherwise known as Casa Maestri (NOM 1438).
According to the complaint, Haschemie commissioned Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) laboratory testing to confirm, through carbon isotope ratio analysis, whether the Tequila he purchased had been adulterated with cane alcohol.
The lawsuit explains that NMR is widely known in food chemistry and identifies the plant origin of ethanol in a spirit by measuring the natural carbon fingerprint of the ethanol.
This fingerprint, which is known as a stable carbon isotope ratio, can be used to identify the plant source of the sugars used in fermentation.
The lab test showed that a sample of Cincoro Blanco was found to include ethanol derived from C₄ plants such as corn and sugarcane, Haschemie alleges.
Haschemie is seeking a jury trial and injunction to stop Cincoro Tequila from ‘continuing to engage in false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and marketing practices’.
A statement from the brand said: “Cincoro is, and always has been, crafted exclusively from 100% Blue Weber agave. We stand firmly behind the integrity of our brand and will vigorously defend it both in court.”
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