Interview with Sammy Hagar, one of the pioneers of premium tequila

When Sammy Hagar, the red-haired rocker known for both his work as Van Halen’s lead singer and his prolific solo career, decided to open a bar in Mexico in 1990, it transformed the liquor industry. No one thought it would be useful. But it is, and these days a number of spirits brands can trace their roots back to the days when Hagar opened his Cabo Wabo Cantina on the sandy southern tip of Baja, California.

The tequila he created for his bar, Cabo Wabo Tequila, quickly captivated the palates of holiday drinkers and was released in the United States in 1996. Along with Patron His Tequila, Premium His Tequila helped single-handedly create his segment and the recognition surrounding tequila.

When Hager sold Cabo Wabo Tequila to Campari Group in 2008 for a then-unprecedented sum of $100 million, people’s eyes were opened to the potential of starting a liquor brand. Hagar, a self-proclaimed tequila enthusiast, couldn’t stay away for long, launching Santo Spirits in 2017 and bringing on celebrity chef Guy Fieri as a partner in 2019.

These days, when he’s not on tour, he spends much of his time between overseeing a successful restaurant and a growing tequila company. We sat down with him to learn more about his long history in tequila and where the industry is heading.

Sammy, you are one of the pioneers of premium tequila, why is that happening to Rockstar?

I fell in love with making tequila, which was something I never imagined. I was a wine lover when I first discovered tequila after opening the first Cabo Wabo Cantina in 1990. And I’m still a wine lover. My business partner suggested we go to sample tequila at a bar in Jalisco, but I thought he was crazy. I told him there was no way I was going to a tequila tasting because he had spent many nights drinking tequila and regretting it. He said I didn’t really know what good tequila was and forced me to take it.

The first time I drank real agave tequila with sauce, I was shocked. It was amazing. From that moment on, I fell in love with tequila and wanted to learn more about it. It became my passion to introduce people to his pure agave tequila. The tequila we made for bars quickly attracted drinkers and they wanted to be able to take it home and buy it, so Cabo Wabo created Tequila. It was successful because it was a great product that consumers didn’t know existed. Tequila’s eye was very black at the time, so we helped him fix it.

I’ve always put my heart and soul into everything I’m involved in, from my music to my bar to my tequila. I’m not interested in putting a celebrity aspect on my products. Instead, they realized that creating an authentic product allowed them to connect with their fans, and that was important. My passion has always been to make the best tequila, the best rum, and the best tacos in the world. If they’re not the best, I’m not interested.

Santo Tequila What were your goals for Santo Tequila when you decided to get back into the industry?

I missed making tequila, so when Cabo Wabo Sale’s non-compete clause expired, I thought I’d give it another try. It was really fun the first time. When I decided to get back into tequila, my first thought was to jump into mezcal. They are exotic and fun. But it didn’t take me long to realize that while I liked them, they were a bit too smoky for my liking. So I went to Juan Eduardo and told him about my dream of creating the world’s first mezquila, a combination of mezcal and tequila. So we both ended up working on it and after extensive testing he brought me a very nice concoction so I created Santo to introduce it to the world. I decided to.

When I started Santo, I was still in a laid-back mindset and wanted to make great tequila again. But not long after I rolled it out, I got a call from Guy. I told him years ago that if I ever returned to Tequila, I would partner with him. And he wanted to be a part of it. When Guy came, he had bigger plans, and a little later he convinced me to expand.

We don’t cut any corners with our bottle lineup either. Unlike many other startup brands these days. We didn’t go out and buy a bunch of liquid and slap our name on it. Instead, everything was distilled and aged in barrels. To earn the Santo name, we both have to love liquid. That’s one of the reasons we’re still a small brand, and we don’t overproduce or release bottles just to meet sales demand.

As we move forward together, we realize how much the tequila industry has changed since the Cabo Wabo days when we were flying by the seat of our pants. There were so many tequilas on the market that we needed to become a more sophisticated spirits company. Both of us realized we needed help and hired a great team to help accelerate things. These days, we have become a genuine spirits company and are ready to expand into other areas with brands enriching our portfolio. It’s both exciting and a little scary to be careful not to get too ahead of ourselves.

Tequila is under fire these days because more people than ever are drinking it, but is that a good thing?

I think the trend of people drinking more tequila is great. Mixologists seem to have embraced it and are actually producing great cocktails made with good tequila. It only increases its exposure and introduces pure agave tequila to drinkers. As consumers’ tastes evolve, they will start looking for authentic tequila with a real story behind it, just like they did with bourbon.

Mexico’s agave crop is under stress as more brands emerge to meet consumer demand. Only a limited number of great agave plants can be harvested each year for tequila, and now it takes a network to find a good one, but the focus is now on tequila with additives rather than pure agave that is so great. Masu. . We need to stop turning so many people away with a crappy liquid called tequila.

Given your long history in tequila, where do you see the industry heading in the next few years?

I think you’re going to see a lot of people who got into the spirits industry to make a quick buck leave. Today, to successfully launch a new brand, you need to spend 10, 20, 40 million, if you’re lucky. Gone are the days when you could strike gold like you did in Cabo Wabo. Today’s industry is too diverse. To get your brand in front of consumers, you need to build an entire sales team around it. A successful brand, especially in tequila, needs to be founded for the right reasons. There has to be a passion behind it, a drive to create something great and not just a product with a famous name on it. As the bottles leave the market, there will be more quality agave left in the brand, and that’s a good thing.

I also think we’ll start to see the necessary division within tequila. Consumers are increasingly understanding who makes their pure agave tequila, why it’s so much better, and who isn’t. I think more retailers will start creating sections featuring pure agave tequilas for their customers. I also think we’ll see more mezcals and higher octane tequilas in response to consumer demand for more exotic flavors. We’ll also see more experimentation coming out of Mexico as a new generation of tequila makers look at what’s going on in the world of bourbon and push the boundaries. Some crazy stuff is bound to hit the market. Some are great, some are OK, and some are not so great. All I can say is that it’s going to be a fun ride in the end.