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"The DeLe\u00F3n Tequila bottle was designed to appeal to women and looks a bit like perfume.\nFORTUNE &amp;#8212; Shortly after Brent Hocking launched his high-end spirit, DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0Tequila, his friend Doug Ellin, the creator of HBO\u2019s hit show Entourage, called with a big break. Ellin offered DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0a bit part on his show, as the new favorite tequila of the party-loving character called Turtle.\nThere is, however, a difference between exposure to a huge young male audience (which Entourage\u00A0would certainly provide) and a more elite exclusivity. Hocking quickly told Ellin, \u201CI\u2019m out.\u201D The tequila that did score a spot on the show, Avi\u00F3n, sold 55,000 cases and grew 22% in 2012. Still, DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0has made its own mark in Hollywood.\nHocking\u2019s blends, which sell for $140-$825 a bottle, now turn up at some of the most elite L.A. events: during fashion week, at movie premieres and private concerts, or parties thrown by Harvey Weinstein. Hocking\u2019s red carpet clientele is particularly striking given that just seven years ago he was working as a mortgage banker at places like Countrywide and Coast Capital, and that he launched his tequila in 2009, in the depths of a recession.\nBut Hocking, who looks a bit like a professional bodybuilder, is not your typical entrepreneur. And he\u2019s not trying to build your typical tequila brand. A oenophile and lover of nightlife, Hocking in 2006 decided to leave his career in mortgage lending to bring a wine-lover\u2019s touch to tequila.\nDetermined to find his own distillery, he traveled to Jalisco &amp;#8212; the tiny state in Mexico bordering Guanajuato that is tequila\u2019s equivalent to the Champagne region in France. (The DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0website instructs drinkers to compare its Diamante blend to any other clear tequila by placing it \u201Cin a champagne flute.\u201D) In Jalisco, tequila production is highly regulated and limited to 134 distilleries. Hocking, through a combination of good timing and great luck, bought his distillery after learning that the young D.J. from his wedding was the grandson of a recently deceased tequila distillery owner. Hocking claims to be the \u201Conly Gringo\u201D in Mexico operating his own tequila distillery.\nMORE: Hi, It&amp;#8217;s Ari !#$%ing Emanuel, and I plan to shake up Hollywood\nSingular as Hocking\u2019s story may sound, he is hardly the only entrepreneur to have started a boutique tequila brand in recent years. In fact the tequila market, which accounts for just 7% of the U.S. spirit market, has become an especially crowded and competitive one. Since 2008, the number of tequila brands has ballooned from 832 to more than 1,600, many of them small-batch players (like DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0and Avi\u00F3n) that have tried to seize upon the growing premium market. Justin Timberlake owns a label. So does George Clooney.\nSpiros Malandrakis, an alcohol analyst with Euromonitor, compares the trend in spirits to the craft beer boom and says the premium sector is the most promising path toward growth in, and a natural consequence of, a domestic market that is already saturated. \u201CConsumers are going for drinking less, but higher quality,\u201D he says.\nBut there may be a limit to how many premium tequila brands can succeed. Sales of tequila have increased moderately &amp;#8212; 6.4% in 2011, 3.8% in 2012 according to Technomic, a food and beverage research company &amp;#8212; at a rate that slightly outpaces the spirits industry (3.2%), but which trails behind those of vodka (5.8%) and whiskey, categories that have grown with the proliferation of flavor-infused products.\nWhile you shouldn\u2019t expect PB&amp;amp;J-infused tequila soon, many of the new premium tequila brands have played with the flavor in an effort to set their tequilas apart. Once confined to salt-rimmed shot glasses and slushy margaritas, tequila-makers are on a mission to make the drinking experience purer, richer, stronger &amp;#8212; in short, fancier.\nMORE: Companies on the hunt for superfans\nWith DeLe\u00F3n, Hocking is doubling down on purity. The tequila contains no chemicals (many add caramel or other chemicals for flavor and sweetness) and is made from 100% blue weber agave. It is distilled with what Hocking claims is the purest water in Mexico. While other distilleries pump in their water, Hocking says his tequila draws its supply directly from three natural spring wells located on the DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0land. He distills the tequila only twice &amp;#8212; brands have fooled consumers, he believes, into thinking that three, four, or five times distilled means higher quality, but in fact it\u2019s the opposite: \u201CThat\u2019s just stripping it down and you\u2019re moving toward rubbing alcohol,\u201D he says. DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0then ages its tequila in old wine barrels, a method that gives the spirit a smoky flavor unique to the particular barrel\u2019s vintage.\nThe resulting product has earned DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0high marks from the spirit industry. In 2010 and 2011 it was recognized as a top spirit at the World Beverage Competition in Switzerland, while the Robb Report, a luxury review site, called DeLe\u00F3n\u2019s a\u00F1ejo (aged) variety \u201Cone of the most extraordinary a\u00F1ejos to come out of the Jalisco highlands.\u201D (Hocking also promises you\u2019ll wake up \u201Cfeeling good\u201D and gym-ready after a night of partying with his tequila; and do none of the puckered-up grimacing that usually follows a shot of other, lesser tequilas.)\nBut where DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0has perhaps most distinguished itself is a property you don\u2019t often associate with tequila: restraint. Hocking didn\u2019t just turn down Entourage, which he feared would turn his brand into a gimmick (And Doug Ellin tells Fortune, \u201CIt&amp;#8217;s a hard leap for a brand to hand over to creative and let [someone else] do whatever they want with it\u201D), he has also charted his business strategy to start small and grow slowly, a combination that he hopes will keep his premium brand around in the long term.\n\u201CThe textbook plan in alcohol is to put out a ton of cases and see how much you can sell and if you can make a mark,\u201D Hocking tells Fortune. \u201CBut we kept it really tight, small production, focused on the brand. Entering this business with something that\u2019s supposed to be high-end is a very scary proposition if you don\u2019t have the goods to back it up.\u201D\nInstead, Hocking focused on \u201Cpinpoint branding,\u201D using connections to target certain exclusive populations. In one of the brand\u2019s only ad campaigns, Hocking hired a National Geographic photographer to take photographs that became a buzzed-about ad in The New York Times style magazine T. He also admits designing his product to appeal to women &amp;#8212; if they order it, his logic goes, so will the men pursuing them &amp;#8212; and so DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0comes in an elegant, square bottle that looks like it might contain perfume.\nDeLe\u00F3n\u00A0is also making an aggressive move into untapped overseas markets. While 85% of tequila is sold in the U.S. and Mexico, premium brands are trying to lock up jet-set clubbing types in locales like Hong Kong. (Along with the Mexican government, Patr\u00F3n, the tequila brand that pioneered the premium space decades ago, is lobbying China to allow tequila, most of which is banned in the country due to its higher methanol levels.)\nMORE: Why this is Elon Musk&amp;#8217;s moment\nWhen Hocking conceived of DeLe\u00F3n, he wanted the product to emanate four pillars: \u201Cluxe, sex, edge,\u201D and a certain je ne sais quoi attitude. A swagger. He calls it \u201Cmotherfucker.\u201D He resents the pomp and pretension of those who approach alcohol with their snifters ready, noses upturned. He says the term \u201Csipping tequila\u201D &amp;#8212; a notion often associated with premium brands &amp;#8212; is ridiculous: \u201CIt\u2019s tequila. We know why we\u2019re drinking this. Let\u2019s get to it.\u201D\nFour years in, Hocking\u2019s strategy appears be working: Though DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0posts low volumes, the brand says that it is growing an average of 200% in revenue and volume every year. He\u2019s also started going after the 1% of alcohol drinkers &amp;#8212; and head to head with premium competitors &amp;#8212; with a wider array of products. In December DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0released its private reserve Le\u00F3na, which fetches $825 a bottle.\nLater this summer, the company will launch Caf\u00E9 de Le\u00F3n, a bottle that mixes coffee with DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0tequila, plus 2.5% sugar (the minimum to qualify as a liqueur). Patr\u00F3n\u00A0and Avi\u00F3n\u00A0both have coffee-tequila blends. DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0will also announce two swanky new partnerships this month: It will be the exclusive tequila at a celebrity chef\u2019s chain of high-end restaurants, and the other is with a Hollywood big shot. Analyst Malandrakis posits that DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0is \u201Cexactly on trend\u201D and that he suspects it is the sort of super-premium brand that larger spirits companies would want to acquire.\nThat\u2019s not to say DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0will ever become a market leader. The pricing is prohibitive for most drinkers: A shot of the Le\u00F3na\u00A0blend will set you back $90 at the bar. Though the premium brands like DeLe\u00F3n\u00A0are chipping away, there\u2019s a reason that the old spring break standard, Jose Cuervo is still #1."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2013/05/31/tequila-but-not-for-spring-breakers/>