Volcán CEO bets on UK as next big Tequila market
The CEO of Volcán de mi Tierra tells us why the UK is set to become the next major market for Tequila, as the brand launches a new £2,300 (US$3,100) marble Tequila bottle.
LVMH-owned Volcán de mi Tierra’s Colección La Gavilana bottle is now available in the UK.
The bottle made its debut at Art Basel in Miami last December. There are 1,774 editions globally, a number that pays tribute to the Gallardo family’s origins in Mexico having purchased the Hacienda La Gavilana estate, near Jalisco, in 1774.
Twelve of these bottles have been designated for the UK, of which were crafted from Bianco Carrara marble in collaboration with premium Mexican stonemason Arca.
“We started working on this in 2023,” Santiago Cortina Gallardo, CEO and co-founder of Volcán de mi Tierra, tells The Spirits Business at the UK bottle’s launch at Berry Bros & Rudd’s St James shop on Friday (29 May).
“It’s a commemoration of more than 250 years of my family at La Gavilana, and also of undiscovered Mexico, away from cliches.”
While the piece is positioned as a collector’s item and is available at Berry Bros and other select luxury retailers in the UK, it also aims to impress upon a different side to Mexico. “What exists in Mexico, but is not regularly showcased,” Gallardo says. “And what better way to do it than with Arca marble around the liquid?
“We wanted the bottle to be a showcase of contemporary art and design, which Mexico is very involved in. For instance Zona Maco, which is one of the main art fairs in the world,” he says.
“If you first look at the bottle, you might not think of Mexico immediately, but when you’re then told its Tequila, it makes you think of a more sophisticated Mexico, so in that, I think we’re achieving what we wanted with something disruptive like this. It’s a talking point.”
Inside the bottle is a lowland añejo, crafted from Blue Weber agave, that was taken from the brand’s cask programme. “It’s our añejo, but the one we do without tahona and the Champagne yeast, that was picked by Marcelino (Lucke – Volcán’s maestro tequilero),” Gallardo says.
“It was aged 18 months in the European oak and then 414 days in (PX) Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks. Don’t ask me why it’s so specific, but it’s almost 14 months more in the Sherry.”
Each year Volcán plans to release a new marble vessel with Arca – and not just with new marble, but with fresh liquid as well. Gallardo notes that this is not always the case with a limited edition bottle series. “We feel it’s also a good proposition because sometimes you can get new packaging, but with the same liquid. Here, it’s a liquid that once it’s finished, that’s all there is of it.
“It’s always a unique liquid that we won’t replicate, which evolves and is part of a collection.”
He also jokes that “you can buy a very expensive bottle of whatever spirit and as they’re crystal, you can see how filled the vessel is, but in this case it can be completely empty in your back bar and it still looks amazing.”
UK: next mature Tequila market?
Following the launch of Colección La Gavilana in the US last year, Gallardo explains why the brand came to London before anywhere else to next showcase the bottle.
“For me, there’s two mature Tequila markets in the world, Mexico and the US,” he says. “The next one coming is definitely the UK and you just see it in the amount of shelf space in retailers and in bars.
“I hadn’t been here [in London] since 2019, which was pre-Covid, and we just visited at The Twenty Two club in Mayfair, we were told that two-and-a-half years ago Tequila was 25% bottle service, but today it’s 60%.”
The brand has also refocused its strategy in the past year, having debuted in the UK in 2021 and then introduced its ultra-premium X.A (Xtra Assemblage) expression two years later in autumn 2023.
“We came in with the launch of XA and with that high-energy strategy,” Gallardo recalls, explaining that “today we’ve refocused in Blanco and Reposado, and that’s where we can drive scale.
“We can then complement distribution, where it makes sense with XA and BT (Blanco Tahona), which are magnificent liquids too, but not exclusively in that high-energy environment everywhere.”
Gallardo also feels that Tequila trends in the US are starting to appear in the UK.
“Craft brands are growing significantly in the US, while some of the industrial Tequilas are starting to fall a bit,” he says. “So there’s been a very clear movement over there, and the UK is where I feel that movement is beginning to happen too, with more craft brands on backbars.”
He also reiterates the brand’s ability to scale consistently, helped by its partnership with LVMH. “We don’t have the same constraint as other craft brands and we’re ready to go, which is also a big difference maker, as we’re able to service a lot more markets in a swift way through the partnership with MH [Moët Hennessy, LVHM’s wine and spirits arm].”
Of Moët Hennessy’s support, he adds: “We’re not ashamed to be partners with a large company, which is also sometimes in the craft world that can be frowned upon. I always say Moët Hennessy doesn’t sell anything, they wouldn’t drink themselves. It’s a ‘best-in-class operation’ applied to craft processes in Tequila.”
Last year, The Spirits Business visited Volcán’s state-of-the-art distillery in Jalisco, Mexico, to get a first-hand look at what the operation is all about.
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