El Tesoro / Tapatío (La Alteña)

At a glance

La Alteña, registered as NOM 1139NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1139: La Alteña — Tequila Tapatío, S.A. de C.V. (Arandas, Jalisco). Camarena family. Tapatío, El Tesoro, and historically Tequila Ocho., is the historic Camarena-family distillery in Arandas, in the highlands of Los Altos. It is one of the most-respected traditional tequila houses in Jalisco, and it is the rare distillery that operates two beloved labels under genuinely different ownership structures from the same production floor: Tapatío, owned outright by the Camarena family since its founding in 1937, and El Tesoro de Don Felipe, the export label owned today by Beam Suntory (Suntory Global Spirits) but contract-produced at La Alteña under the Camarenas' own methods. It is also the original home of Tequila Ocho, the family's vintage-dated brand, which moved most of its production to a second distillery, Los Alambiques (NOM 1474NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1474: Cía. Tequilera Los Alambiques, S.A. de C.V. (Arandas, Jalisco, Cerro del Gallo). Built 2021; Tequila Ocho's primary distillery since 2021.), in 2021.

The Camarena family

The Camarenas have made tequila in Arandas for three generations. Felipe J. Camarena founded Tequila Tapatío in 1937 and established the distillery on Calle Camarena that would grow into today's La Alteña facility. His son, Felipe Camarena Curiel, expanded and modernized the operation through the second half of the twentieth century. The current Master Distiller is Carlos Camarena, the founder's grandson, who has run La Alteña for decades and is also the co-founder (with the late Tomas Estes) of Tequila Ocho. A cousin, also named Felipe Camarena, operates the separate El Pandillo distillery (NOM 1579NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1579: El Pandillo (Jesús María, Jalisco). Felipe Camarena. G4, Pasote, Volans, Terralta, ArteNOM 1579.) in Jesús María, where the G4, Pasote, Volans, and Terralta brands are produced. The two Felipes are related but the distilleries are independent businesses.

Two brands, one distillery

La Alteña is unusual in that the same crew, the same hornos, and the same copper pot stills produce two brands with very different commercial structures.

Tapatío is the family's own label. It has been owned, made, and sold by the Camarenas since 1937 and remains independent. In Mexico it is one of the older continuously-produced tequila brands still in family hands.

El Tesoro de Don Felipe (usually shortened to El Tesoro) was launched as the export-facing label, and its trademark and brand assets are today owned by Beam Suntory (now reorganized as Suntory Global Spirits). The Camarenas do not own the El Tesoro brand. They do still make it: El Tesoro is contract-produced at La Alteña to the Camarenas' own specifications. That is an important nuance for readers used to thinking of acquired tequila brands as "lost" to corporate ownership. The brand owner sets sales and marketing strategy; the distillery decides how the liquid is made. At La Alteña the methods for El Tesoro and Tapatío are essentially the same.

Production: tahona, open ferment, copper pot

La Alteña's production methods are the textbook reference for what "traditional Los Altos tequila" means.

The agave is Agave tequilana Weber azul, grown by the family across ranchos in the highlands around Arandas. After harvest, the piñas are slow-cooked in masonry hornos (brick ovens), the traditional method, rather than in the pressurized steel autoclaves most large producers use. An autoclave is a stainless-steel pressure cooker that finishes the cook in roughly seven hours and produces a more uniform but less caramelized result; a masonry horno takes thirty-six to seventy-two hours and lets the agave develop the cooked-fruit aromatics that come from slow Maillard reactions. The choice of horno over autoclave is one of the clearest signals of an artisan-revival house.

The cooked agave is then crushed in part by a tahona, the stone wheel pulled in a circular pit that mortar-and-pestles the fibers into a sweet pulp called mosto (the liquid that ferments into the wash before distillation). La Alteña uses a tahona for a portion of production and a roller mill for the remainder, blending the two streams. Fermentation is open-air in wooden vats, which lets ambient yeasts and the distillery's own house cultures contribute to the flavor profile. Distillation is in copper pot stills, twice, with no continuous-column shortcut. The result is the rich, vegetal, slightly sweet Los Altos profile that has made the Camarena house a reference point for two generations of producers.

Production is artesanal in the strict sense: traditional equipment, slow cook, open ferment, copper pot. No diffuser is used at NOM 1139NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1139: La Alteña — Tequila Tapatío, S.A. de C.V. (Arandas, Jalisco). Camarena family. Tapatío, El Tesoro, and historically Tequila Ocho..

The sibling brand: Tequila Ocho

Ocho is the third Camarena brand and it deserves a sentence of clarification, because its NOM history is often mis-cited. Carlos Camarena and Tomas Estes founded Tequila Ocho in 2008, and for its first thirteen years Ocho was produced here at La Alteña under NOM 1139NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1139: La Alteña — Tequila Tapatío, S.A. de C.V. (Arandas, Jalisco). Camarena family. Tapatío, El Tesoro, and historically Tequila Ocho.. In 2021 the family completed Los Alambiques (NOM 1474NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1474: Cía. Tequilera Los Alambiques, S.A. de C.V. (Arandas, Jalisco, Cerro del Gallo). Built 2021; Tequila Ocho's primary distillery since 2021.), a second, purpose-built distillery on Cerro del Gallo above Arandas, and Ocho's primary production moved there. Several 2025 vintages have, however, been produced back at La Alteña while Los Alambiques operates at capacity. Reference works printed before the 2021 move (and some printed since) still list Ocho at 1139 without the update. Both NOMs are correct historically; NOM 1474NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1474: Cía. Tequilera Los Alambiques, S.A. de C.V. (Arandas, Jalisco, Cerro del Gallo). Built 2021; Tequila Ocho's primary distillery since 2021. is the current primary listing. See the Tequila Ocho entry for the full picture.

Additive-free certification

Both Tapatío and El Tesoro are verified additive-free: no caramel coloring, no oak extract, no glycerin, no sugar syrup added at bottling. The verification has come, for years, from Tequila Matchmaker, the independent enthusiast-and-producer initiative that ran the public Additive Free certification list and the Additive Free Alliance.

See also