Escalón Selección Tahona Blanco

Some dreams fade with time. Others wait patiently for the right moment.

More than a decade ago, Alex Jones was completing his master’s degree when a final assignment challenged him to build a company from the ground up. Drawing on his love of tequila and experience in hospitality, he created a tequila brand.

The project earned the highest grade in his class, but something more important stayed with him: a promise to himself that one day he would make it real.

That promise eventually became Escalón.

Bringing the dream to life wasn’t as simple as finding a distillery. Jones and his team explored more than 30 distilleries across Mexico before finding what they were looking for at the Vivanco distillery (NOM 1414) in Arandas, Jalisco.

There, relationships with Sergio Vivanco and maestro tequilero Sergio Cruz provided the confidence that their vision could become reality.

For Escalón’s debut, Jones chose a traditionally produced Tahona Blanco.

Made with brick-oven-cooked Highland agave, tahona extraction, open-air wooden-vat fermentation, and copper pot distillation, the tequila reflects an approach Jones calls the “cost of depth”—accepting a slower, less efficient process in pursuit of character.

But tradition wasn’t the only consideration.

Jones wanted an elegant, approachable tequila that could appeal to experienced enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Rather than relying solely on his team’s preferences, he gathered feedback from tequila aficionados, bartenders, and everyday drinkers to help refine the profile.

Escalón’s striking bottle may invite skepticism from aficionados, but the tequila inside challenges expectations. The bottle commands attention. The tequila earns it.

To my palate, tahona-produced blancos often bring pronounced vegetal, grassy, and mineral characteristics. Escalón takes a different direction for me.

While some grassy notes remain on the nose, the flavor emphasizes an expansive, delicate cooked-fruit sweetness, with banana, pineapple, citrus, and gentle mint taking center stage. The vegetal and mineral elements are present but restrained, allowing a refreshing, fruit-driven personality to emerge.

The name Escalón means “step,” representing a deliberate climb toward excellence. Its golden triangle symbolizes Land, Man, and Spirit, reflecting the relationship between the agave’s origins, the people who craft it, and the tequila itself.

Nose: SWEET but gentle fruitiness / vanilla / earth / vegetal-grass / banana / cooked pineapple / hint of melon / lime / grapefruit / hint of spearmint / hay

Taste: essence of sweet cooked agave* / vanilla / hint of cinnamon / vegetal / earth / touch of minerality / banana / grilled pineapple / green apple (but not tart) / hint of melon / lime / hint of orange / anise / spearmint / very light baking spices

Finish: very light viscosity covers the palate quickly and then dissipates quickly as well / a really nice minty and light fruit-tasting sweetness blends in and out with touches of banana and citrus / the vegetal tone is not grassy on the flavor / not-tart green apple and gentle spearmint leave an incredibly refreshing final taste on the last swallow

For Jones, the first step took more than ten years. With Escalón Tahona Blanco, that long-held promise has finally found its way into a bottle.

*To this reviewer, cooked agave smells and tastes like a blend of roasted sweet potato and pineapple. Cooked agave often has a boldly sweet and caramelized taste that incorporates unique citrus notes and a light vegetal quality unlike any single flavor typically familiar to palates in the United States.

More from Escalón: All of our Escalón coverage, including reviews, lists, scores, and more.