Guillermo Erickson Sauza is a legend in the tequila world. One key factor in his renown is that Guillermo, followed by his son, William (Billy) Erickson, has brought hundreds of leading bartenders to their old world, stunning grounds in the heart of the town of Tequila in Jalisco’s mountain Lowlands where many of the world’s biggest tequila brands are produced.
Guillermo comes from a history of tequila legends: the Sauza family, who created the iconic Sauza brand. His father Javier sold the Sauza brand in 1976, when it changed into the mass-produced, mainstream brand we now know.
But Guillermo had a vision to carry on the family legacy with a small brand in the town of Tequila. He launched it in 2002 in Mexico, initially named Tequila Los Abuelos (meaning “the grandfathers”), in homage to his tequila family legacy. But due to a trademark dispute over the name Los Abuelos, he couldn’t use the name in the United States. Thus, the name Fortaleza, which essentially means strength of spirit. Fortaleza first hit the U.S. in 2006 and was picked up by Wine Warehouse in 2008 for distribution from San Diego.
It came to California first and, as Guillermo tells me personally, took off first in cities thanks to press and love from bartenders who fell hard for the quality line of tequilas and spread the word amongst patrons at their bars. I was already a fan of the tequilas when I first visited the enchanting grounds of Fortaleza distillery over Dia De Los Muertos in 2010, regularly naming it my favorite Lowlands tequila. Then I saw firsthand the production facilities of the tequila at the time made with old world methods like a tahona wheel and small stills — something utterly common in mezcal but unheard of at that time in “big business” tequila.
Thanks to Guillermo’s commitment to small production, quality, and direct relationships, a groundswell movement rose around Fortaleza, reaching cult status, as more bartenders fell in love, spread the word across the U.S. and eventually globally. The brand moved from being beloved by those “in the know” to hard to find, including the standard blanco, reposado, and añejo as well as the still-strength blanco and coveted annual Winter Blend Reposado releases.
Fortaleza is on allocation and tough to find anywhere. Despite being a well-known tequila, it has retained smaller production, producing 323,000 liters a year made in only three stills in one facility — this is approximately 10,400 bottles annually, small for a brand of such acclaim. Even as they upgraded the still sizes, they’re still small and they even use a small vintage Swiss bottling machine from 1938. One crazy story of Fortaleza’s desirability from last year is that two trucks transporting Fortaleza blanco and reposado cases were stolen while being driven to the U.S., representing almost five percent of the distillery’s annual volume. Getting a hold of bottles has reached obsession levels.
My revisits to the distillery since 2010, including just recently in 2024, confirm the commitment to quality and care. Even as the company builds out a new facility in Tequila that will allow them to ramp up production to (somewhat) meet the rabid demand for their excellent tequilas, the family-run business, stellar team, rustic methods, and setting that have remained over the nearly 15 years I’ve been visiting their distillery, all point to a brand intent on maintaining craft values even as it grows.
At their beloved distillery, Billy and Guillermo preserve the traditions of the tahona wheel, the enchanted caves, lake, hillsides, and agave fields. Besides growing their own at the distillery, they also buy agave from other growers due to the small space for land in the town of Tequila. Here I talk with Guillermo about Fortaleza’s past, present, and future and how he has grown the brand to cult status while maintaining its heart and roots.
Tell us about how you came to launch Fortaleza.
I remember tasting tequilas on the market twenty-plus years ago and feeling they’d really lost something in overall complexity from the tequilas I sipped with my grandfather back in the ’70s and ’80s. My grandfather had sold the family business, Tequila Sauza, with its two industrial distilleries and the majority of our agave fields back in 1976, but he’d kept his estate in the town of Tequila. On that property were acres of maturing agaves as well as an artisan distillery, La Fortaleza, which he’d turned into a museum back in 1968 showcasing the processes of a bygone era. I thought it would be a fun project to try to get the old distillery up and running again and see what we could produce with traditional techniques on stills that were built in the 1800s.
What makes your spirits and approach different from others being distilled in Tequila?
The majority of the tequila being produced today is being done industrially on modern equipment that more often than not speeds up processes and aims to extract every last ounce of viable liquid from the often unripe agave. While most distilleries nowadays utilize autoclave/pressure cookers or diffusers as their first step, we still slowly steam cook in a brick oven.
Most modern distilleries utilize metal on metal roller mills or screw mills to extract as much liquid from the cooked plants as possible. We still use our ancient stone milling wheel [tahona], which is considerably less efficient but gifts us with the best juice. Most modern distilleries ferment in massive concrete or stainless steel fermentation vats. We still use individually created, small, wooden fermentation vats. And while most distilleries use column Coffey stills or massive pot stills of stainless steel, we are still using small, handmade 100% copper pot stills. And whilst the CRT doesn’t require the use of fully mature/ripe agave in tequila production — and the addition of less than 1% per volume additives (glycerin, syrups, caramel coloring, etc.) is permitted — we only use ripe or overripe agave, yeast, and water. Three ingredients only. No additives. Ever.
How does a family legacy of distilling inform and affect your approach?
I consider myself a caretaker of this property for future generations. As you may be aware, it was my great-great-grandfather who started our family down the tequila-producing path. I’m a grandfather now, myself, and my two granddaughters represent the seventh generation of this legacy. It is my dream that they will walk our lands with the same reverence and eye to responsibility for those that follow them. That being said, we take great care to respect the history and heritage of this land and we are often told by guests that it feels as if they are walking back in time.
How did you and your team grow Fortaleza when it was an unknown brand?
Even with an amazing product, if you can’t get it in front of those who would appreciate it, then your hard work is for naught. Understanding this, I made every effort to present it to the true aficionados who would appreciate the integrity of our process as well as the history of my family. The bartenders. These are professionals who spend their lives in the company of a cross-section of the population, whose ability to differentiate quality from hype is second to none and who, in general, aren’t afraid to share their honest opinions. It was the bartenders who let me know we had something truly special in our bottle. It was also the bartenders who let their guests — as well as their service industry sisters and brothers — know about Tequila Fortaleza when we were first starting out.
How do you envision the world of small-batch spirits evolving in the coming years?
As restrictions loosen, we will see a lot of creative people entering the market. I see organic material — plant, vegetable, and fruit — finding its way into distillers’ creative hands. I also see crossover styles and techniques from different spirits. We’ve seen agave producers using gin botanicals as well as an ever-expanding variety of barrel types being utilized from the wood species to the liquid previously stored within. Blends as well. Coffee has found its way into countless spirits as of late. The multinationals will scoop up some of these market newcomers, which will allow broader distribution, so we’ll see more obscure producers showing up in more places.
What do you feel is most important to you as a tequila distiller, and what is often missed or ignored in the world of tequila?
The most important aspect, without a doubt, is the people who make up La Familia Fortaleza. After that, it’s all about transparency, authenticity, and integrity of process. We welcome people to visit all aspects of our production. We don’t create a glossy, corporate experience for our guests. Everything is very real. Guests can access every step of our production from the arrival of the piñas from the field, the loading and unloading of our steam-powered brick oven, the stone milling and rinsing of the cooked agave, the fermenting, the distilling, the bottling, labeling, and packing.
What Tequila Fortaleza is able to produce in a year working our factory 24/6 and two shifts on Sundays is what the large, industrial factories are able to produce in a few hours or a day. Using antiquated techniques and only using the finest mature agave means that we won’t produce the most tequila, nor will we earn the most from our tequila, but we stand proud of what you enjoy every time you open a 100% recycled glass bottle of Tequila Fortaleza.
