This Man Makes 16 of Our Top 150 Tequila Brands

Sixteen brands in our Top 150 Tequila Brands are made by the same man. Ten of them are in our top 50.

His name is Sergio Cruz, and if you drink Highlands tequila you have almost certainly tasted his work.

Fifteen of those brands come out of NOM 1414, the revered Feliciano Vivanco y Asociados distillery located in Arandas, Jalisco, where Cruz is maestro tequilero. He works closely with the distillery owner Sergio Vivanco, very much a legend in his own right.

The Vivancos have grown agave around Arandas since at least 1929, and Feliciano Vivanco and his sons established the distillery in 1994. The estate owns roughly 2,000 acres of agave.

Cruz also makes Tierra de Ensueño, where he works as the brand's Tequila Maestro alongside master blender Oscar Vazquez.

Grab a bottle of the amazing, limited-edition, high-proof Tierra de Ensueño barrel-rested blanco that is a collaboration between the brand and The Tequila Report.

Siembra Spirits and ArteNOM produce at multiple distilleries, so only part of each range comes from 1414.

I’ve personally worked with Sergio to help develop the Cultura 100 brand, among other projects.

He has worked with the Vivanco family for more than 20 years and teaches distillation at the International Tequila Academy.

He’s half chemist, half artist, and lives in Arandas with his wife and three kids.

Cruz wanted to be an engineer, like his father, who ran a sugar mill crew in Nayarit.

"I would see how everyone would snap to attention for the engineer. 'The engineer is coming,' and everyone started working," he says. "And I thought, I want to be an engineer so I can achieve great results or have that kind of authority."

Tequila was plan B. He jokes about what pulled him in that direction: he shifted into the tequila sector, he says, "because at that time they were producing alcohol!"

Fifteen brands from one man could mean many versions of the same liquid with different labels. It doesn't, and the reason is mostly fermentation and barreling.

For ArteNOM Selección de 1414, Cruz ferments with wild yeast scraped off agave pencas in the Vivanco fields, then rests the tequila four months in third-fill ex-bourbon barrels scraped clean of their char.

For Los Dos, champagne yeast, stainless fermentation, deep well water drawn from 120 meters down.

For Yéyo's Reposado Rosa, champagne yeast again, fermented alongside classical music, then aged in a three-way split of Syrah, sherry and port casks.

Lost Lore gets long barrel time — up to 12 months for the reposado, up to 36 for the añejo.

Same ovens. Same mill, although a new on-site tahona is providing even more new flavor options. Same water. Different yeast, different distillation cuts, different barrels, different aging.

"If I use a specific yeast under certain conditions, it will produce certain aromas," Cruz says. "Today we have a good idea, but not exactly, because there are some variables that we haven't measured and that can spiral out of control, resulting in a totally different product, and we attribute it to things that may not be true."

That’s an interesting revelation. The man running fermentation for 16 of our Top 150 brands is saying the industry's flavor explanations are partly guesswork, and that some of what gets confidently attributed to a particular oven or yeast or barrel may be wrong.

What he wants instead is a record that can be checked.

"We talk about myths and things that might exist, but scientifically speaking, there should be more education so that in the future people can say that what the Master Distiller said was wrong or incorrect."

That is an unusual thing to ask for. Most category experts would rather not hand anyone the tools to contradict them.

Flavor-origin stories on labels and in tasting rooms are informed hypotheses, not settled fact. The people making the tequila are, in fact, a lot less certain about what causes what flavor than the marketing people are.

Sixteen ranked brands might seem like a distillery at its ceiling. Cruz doesn't think so.

"In 20 years, for another factory, the ecosystem or the buildings change completely," he says. "But here we have always been very careful, and also very patient when it comes to making changes."

Remarkable. Widely believed to be one of the very best tequila distilleries, the master distiller at NOM 1414 suggests they are still five years away from their best!

In a category where distilleries advertise expansion, new stills and higher volume, his pitch is that the distillery has deliberately changed slowly.

Highlands tequila is full of family distilleries, and family distilleries produce the category's best and worst stories. Cruz has a rule about it.

"In the world of tequila, we always have people who have worked in the industry out of obligation, rather than out of passion or pleasure," he says. "And that causes a dynasty, or a good family, to fall apart because they were not allowed to choose."

So his own children get the choice he is describing. "If they decide to follow that (tequila) path, fine, but I chose my path and they will have their power of decision. If you like it, welcome. And if not. Go out."

His son, Sergio Cruz Jr., appears to have made his choice.

His father's answer is three words. "This is family."

Asked what success means, Cruz gives an answer that has nothing to do with the brands or the scores.

"Success is what you have, like you've been breaking down all the barriers, even your mental ones, because sometimes there are many mental ones. I just don't want to do anything else, and for me, that's what success is all about. It's about you being a better version of yourself every day, compared to who you were before."

Alma del Jaguar
Blanco · Reposado

ArteNOM
Selección de 1414 Reposado

Cultura 100
Blanco · High Proof Blanco · High Proof Reposado

Juan Lobo
Añejo

Los Linderos
Still Strength Blanco · Añejo

Lost Lore
Reposado · Tahona Blanco · Valley Blanco · On Premise Blanco

Rimari
Blanco

Siempre
Reposado · Exclusivo Muerto Blanco

Tierra de Ensueño
Reposado Lot 1

Viva México
Tahona Blanco · Madera Blanco

Yéyo
Blanco · Rosa Reposado