Napa Valley tequila made like wine shines for what it lacks

A new ultra-premium tequila from a cult-favorite Napa Valley vintner is turning heads for everything it lacks — and because it’s crafted just like wine.

The Mexican-born spirit, named El Negocio (which translates to “The Business”), is free of additives, sugar, glycerin, oak extract, syrup sweeteners, and just about everything else that the majority of mass-market tequila producers put into their booze these days.

It debuted earlier this month.

The tequila is the brainchild of Adam Craun, one of three friends who started Calistoga-based Memento Mori winery, and entrepreneur Nicholas Lutz.

In creating El Negocio, Craun and Lutz partnered with master distiller Chava Rosales to approach the tequila how a winemaker might approach wine — with no additives of any kind. This means the duo allows each vintage to be a unique and truthful expression of the land, the agave, and, in the case of products like the soon-to-be-released Anejo, the wine barrels in which it is aged.

“We want to be known as one of the brands trying to reinvent the way tequila is made,” said Craun, whose 2021 Memento Mori Dr. Crane earned a 100-point score from Lisa Perotti Brown of The Wine Independent. “Our idea with tequila and wine is to leave it to the master to show his art.”

Craun first hatched the idea for ultra-premium, additive-free tequila back in 2015; it took him nearly five years (and one false start) to get it off the ground. Lutz proved to be an invaluable partner in that regard.

Once the duo had a plan, they set out to find a distiller in the Jalisco region of Mexico.

Within weeks, they had lined up Chava Rosales, one of the few producers in Jalisco that makes additive-free tequila using traditional techniques. Rosales developed a proprietary recipe for El Negocio, and he retained the rights to make it in the copper still at his Fabrica de Tequila El Cascahuin.

While many tequilas sold in the United States are produced from agave grown in the Jalisco highlands, El Negocio sources exclusively from the Jalisco lowlands, known for agave that produces a savory, spicy, and herbal flavor profile. These lowlands have a unique terroir: mineral-rich volcanic soils that produce smaller, more limited quantities of agave.

El Negocio only uses mature agave from this area. Due to this—and to high-touch production methods—the tequila is produced in very limited batches, with just 700 cases produced for the initial vintage.

That is one of the reasons why El Negocio Blanco, the flagship product, already has drawn rave reviews.

The unaged tequila made its American debut on Oct. 6 at Chispa, the new Downtown Napa tequila lounge from Aubrey Bailey and Taylor Kindred, who also co-own Cadet Wine Bar. The event was a smashing success, with guests lining up for tequila cocktails for most of the night.

One of the most popular cocktails at the event was “The Business,” which comprised El Negocio, Cocchi Americano, and Leopold’s Sour Lime Cordial.

Bailey said this cocktail will remain on the Chispa menu indefinitely.

“What I like about (El Negocio) is the integrity behind it,” she said. “The notion of ‘additive-free’ in the tequila world is a bit of a buzzword—kind of like natural wine—but (Craun) and (Lutz) are doing it because they really believe tequila is better without those extras. It’s hard to argue with that perspective.”

Currently, El Negocio Blanco ($90 per bottle) is the only tequila available in the United States. Craun said he expects two other iterations to be available soon.

The first of those, El Negocio Reposado, is aged for four months in once-used Memento Mori cabernet sauvignon barrels. The second, El Negocio Joven, is a blend of Blanco and Reposado, and represents the best available product right now.

All told, El Negocio plans to release about 1,000 cases of these other products by the end of this year.

“We’re never going to be a high-volume brand,” said Craun. “El Negocio is to tequila what Memento Mori is to wine: The best fruit, worked by a master, to create something everyone will love to drink.”