Distilled in Guanajuato, on the estate where Hidalgo was born.

Tequila Corralejo is distilled in Pénjamo, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, at the former Hacienda de Corralejo, English Wikipedia says, citing the business newspaper El Economista (2024). The hacienda is known beyond tequila as the birthplace of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the priest who launched Mexico’s war of independence in 1810; English Wikipedia cites the Guadalajara newspaper Mural (2004) for that link. Most tequila is still made in Jalisco, Mural noted in 2004, and Beverage Industry described Corralejo in 2018 as one of the few tequilas produced in Guanajuato.

The company traces its roots much further back than the modern brand. It told Beverage Industry in 2018 that Hacienda Corralejo was established in 1770 and began producing tequila as a commercial venture in 1775.

The modern brand dates from the 1990s. English Wikipedia, citing El Economista (2024), says the hacienda was acquired in 1996 by Leonardo Rodríguez Moreno, who found it dilapidated and began extensive renovations; Beverage Industry reported in 2018 that Rodríguez Moreno took ownership in 1994, so the sources differ on the year. English Wikipedia gives 1996 as the year the brand was established. According to the Los Angeles Times (2003), cited by English Wikipedia, the distillery was inaugurated by Vicente Fox while he was governor of Guanajuato, and after Fox was elected president of Mexico in 2000, Tequila Corralejo sent a cask to Mexico City to be poured free for passers-by.

Growth followed. The Los Angeles Times reported a new distillery in 2003, and Mural reported government recognition in 2004; by 2004 it was producing about 720,000 litres a year, employed almost a hundred people and exported to the United States, Japan and Spain, Mural reported. Beverage Industry reported in 2018 that Corralejo ranked twelfth among tequila brands by dollar sales in US multi-outlet stores, citing IRI data, and that the brand said it was sold in 70 countries; El Economista put the figure at a hundred countries by 2024. In 2019 a company spokesperson told El Universal that about 70 percent of production went to the United States and only about 15 percent was sold in Mexico.

Clear, blue and red: a colour for every age.

Corralejo’s identity is carried by its glass. El Universal described it in 2019 as the Guanajuato tequila known for its tall blue bottle, and English Wikipedia notes that each expression is sold in a distinctly coloured bottle that the company produces itself, using recycled glass. The colour code is simple: Blanco in clear glass, Reposado in blue and Añejo in red.

The company has explained what the colours mean. Its spokesperson Noemí Murillo told El Universal in 2019 that the Blanco bottle is transparent so that the quality of the tequila can be seen, because the blancos are the base on which reposados and añejos depend. The Reposado bottle is blue, she said, because blue represents the colour of dreams, and for the owners the drink is a dream come true; the Añejo bottle is red because red stands for intense love in Mexico.

The heritage story feeds the range names too. Beverage Industry reported that Corralejo released a limited-edition 1821 Extra Añejo in the United States in 2017, named, the hacienda’s director Ray Ramos said, for the independence movement led by Hidalgo, who was born at the hacienda. El Universal reported that another label, 99,000 Horas, takes its name from the company’s count of the time from planting the agave to bottling, about eleven years and three months.

Production is described in the company’s terms. It told Beverage Industry that hand-picked blue Weber agave is cooked in stone clay ovens for 27 hours and rested for 12 hours before the juice is extracted, and that it distils with a mix of column stills and copper alembic pot stills imported from Tomelloso, Spain, using what it calls the Charentais method. El Universal reported in 2019 that the distillery also uses autoclaves and blends the juices from both kinds of cooking.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all tequila and liqueur names: Casa Noble, Clase Azul, 1800, Hornitos, Cazadores, Corralejo and RumChata. Tequila and liqueur brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from family houses that still carry a founder’s name to labels that now belong to much larger drinks groups, and a single brand can be sold everywhere from a corner shop to a cocktail bar.

A tequila or liqueur brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single bottle than by a label, a name and the place it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its production or grown far beyond the place where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its spirit is actually made and bottled.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its spirit is made and how its labels have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A destination as well as a brand.

The hacienda is part of the brand experience. English Wikipedia, citing El Economista, says the hacienda and distillery are open to the public for guided tours and social events, and the Los Angeles Times described it in 2003 as surrounded by agave, with a restaurant and a souvenir shop. Mural reported in 2013 that it housed a museum on the history of alcohol production, including the first Tequila Corralejo bottle. In 2021 El Sol de México called Corralejo the most prominent tequila producer in Guanajuato, English Wikipedia notes.

The range reaches beyond tequila. English Wikipedia says the company also makes a tequila cream, a rum, a whiskey and a vodka, and El Universal reported in 2019 that the hacienda sells chocolates, coffee and goat cheese. Beverage Industry reported in 2018 that the brand’s marketing arm was Fraternity Spirits and that the Reposado, in its blue bottle, was the brand’s top performer, the company said.

For a design guide, Corralejo shows how a colour code applied to the whole bottle, rather than just the label, can make a range readable at a distance and give each age its own story. Compare Clase Azul, another tequila in this series, and Cazadores, a highland Jalisco brand built on a single emblem. For this guide we use reposado blue, añejo red and hacienda gold with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Corralejo’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.