SAN ANTONIO – Deep in Jalisco, Mexico, Melly Barajas Cardenas’s crew of women plant the seeds for the next extra anejo that will grace the hand-beaded bottles of Leyenda de Mexico Tequila, a job traditionally left to men.
It’s been 25 years since Barajas took on the male-dominated industry, and now she’s considered a leader and mentor.
“It’s a man’s world and I was only 25 years old, so those men watching this little girl starting in the tequila world, it was hard,” Barajas said while introducing her tequilas to a crowd at San Antonio’s Bistr09 restaurant that hosted a tequila-paired luncheon. It’s another sign that top shelf tequila is joining the ranks of other coveted and collected libations like fine wine.
The decorated bottles of reposado, blanco, anejo and extra anejo displayed and served are the result of a unique take on how to make the traditional drink of Mexico. Barajas bought a parcel of the highlands of Jalisco called Valle de Guadalupe and built a distillery called Vinos y Licores Azteca. It features access to artesian waters that is coveted to nurture the blue agave grown for the first phase of tequila making.
Not only is it owned by a woman, Barajas only hires women in the farming, milling, distilling and packaging of her tequila.
“I am very happy to employ only women. They see it’s hard work, but since I’m a woman they know they can do it also. It’s a magical thing,” she said.
The agave is cooked in traditional adobe ovens in the earth, and no chemicals are added during the distilling process. It’s oxygenated as well, which Barajas claims adds to the health benefits that put tequila at the top of list of least harmful alcoholic beverages.
“Always natural, always, no chemicals,” she said as she lists the properties of the beverage on sleep, liver function, etc...
The pretty packaging on the aged anejo is a traditional Mexican hand-beaded piece of art, fitted over a bottle that will run you $350 or more at Alamo Liquors, which carries the brand along with Twin Liquors.
Bistro 09 co-owner Lisa Watel Astorga said it wasn’t until she saw video of the women in Jalisco cutting the agave by hand, hauling it to the mill and ovens did she realize this was something never seen before in the tequila business.
“Everything, from the seed, by women. It’s a beautiful story,” said Watel, in explaining why Barajas was invited to share her start in the business for the unique tequila lunch.
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