Disputing the Origin of Tequila

Let the battle of the tequila towns begin.

Inspired by Tequila’s tourism and publicity campaigns, the Jalisco town of Amatitan is fighting for its own share of the tequila legend.

The municipality of Amatitan is claiming to be the home of Jalisco’s oldest “tequila” factory (the drink was known as vino mezcal in the 16th century). Amatitan has petitioned to declare May 27 as the World Day of Tequila, to be celebrated in the municipality.

“We get to keep the origins, and Tequila can keep the fame it already has,” municipal tourism chief Raudel Ocampo Rivera explained.

Amatitan is basing its claim on exploration of a historic site – what historians and officials eagerly claim is the world’s oldest tequila factory on El Caballito Cerrero ranch. The open-air factory, surrounded by fermentation tanks, ovens and mills, was discovered about four months ago by tequila historian and owner of the Caballito Cerrero tequila brand Claudio Jimenez Vizcarra.

According to Jimenez, tequila has been commercially produced in Amatitan as far back as the first third of the 16th century.

Amatitan has already won eight million pesos of a 70-million Secretaria de Cultura fund set aside for the Paisaje Agavero tourism project. The money will be used to buy a historic site, restore it as a tequila museum, build a scenic mirador on the Amatitan-Presa Santa Rosa, restore El Manantial and properly illuminate the town’s heritage buildings.

Source: http://guadalajarareporter.com