The 21 Best Tequilas You Can Buy Right Now

RIP Tomas Estes.

I don’t write a lot about tequila for a rather ridiculous reason. Tequila publicists are an aggressive bunch, and every time I do a tequila article I wind up receiving, unsolicited, full bottles of blanco, reposado AND añejo expressions from countless brands. This would be amazing if I lived in a McMansion in the suburbs with its own floor devoted to booze. But unfortunately, I live in an apartment in Manhattan with a small closet already full to bursting with liquor bottles. This is the most first-world of first-world problems, I get it. But it is a problem nonetheless.

As a result of not writing about tequila too often, I also fall behind on what’s been coming out lately. So getting to revamp this 2018 Robb Report article about the best tequilas (I got to remove a few expressions which were no longer being made and replace them with more readily available bottles) was a good chance to get caught up, and taste some terrific tequila besides. I don’t think I need to tell you that Cinco de Mayo is coming up, so now’s the time to stock up! And if you see a brand launched by a celebrity herein, rest assured it was NOT written by me. Here’s the link.

Oh, and I actually didn’t write up the Tequila Ocho expression whose photo is featured above. But it’s my little tribute to Tomas Estes, the brand’s cofounder, and the owner of Cafe Pacifico, one of the UK’s first tequila bars. He was an industry legend who tirelessly championed the category back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, when people still thought of it as bottom-shelf booze to be pounded at frat parties. He died this week — I never got the chance to meet him, but he was beloved by plenty of people I know.