TEQUILA BARAJAS
REPOSADO, ANEJO, & EXTRA ANEJO
JALISCO, MEXICO
WHY BUY:
When you kick up your legs and sip a Barajas tequila, you feel as though you’ve just joined a very exclusive club. These are small-batch, limited-production expressions (just 500 bottles of the Extra Añejo are made annually) of superior clarity and character, made from hand-harvested agave using Maestro Tequilero Gerardo Barajas's pioneering "desfibrador" technique (which extracts agave juice while preserving its essence and soul). And each tequila is housed in a bottle that’s more than a collector’s item, but a certifiable work of art: a hand-painted ceramic that takes ten days and eight different artisans to complete, and is numbered and signed by the artist. A bespoke bottling, through and through.
OUR TASTING NOTES:
* The Reposado delivers brilliant gold color with passion fruit and pineapple that taste more vibrant and alive than we’d anticipated, balanced by notes of cooked agave and a wonderful minerality that comes from eight months spent in French oak
* The Añejo, a gorgeous, radiant amber, is a complex weave of orange peel, jasmine, and plum; twenty-eight months in American oak has tempered the caramel sweetness for a tequila that is as sophisticated as it is approachable, and the notes of cinnamon linger hauntingly
* The Extra Añejo is where Barajas shows what — count ‘em — fifty months of bourbon barrel aging can accomplish: this is a tequila of absolute luxury, from the delicate, pear skin aromatics to the vanilla-toffee complexity that takes you to and through the expansive finish
THE STORY:
Maestro Tequilero Gerardo Barajas, who began his career in pharmaceuticals, launched this venture in 1997 after studying production under his renowned mentor, Francisco Alcaraz. Years later, his son Daniel joined the mission, along with Alexia Strohmeier, whom he met during his studies in Germany. Operating from Amatitán, not Jalisco, they produce extremely limited quantities: just 2,500 bottles annually of Reposado, 1,500 of Añejo, and 500 of Extra Añejo. Innovation has driven the venture from the start: not just Gerardo's innovation in coming up with the desfibrador extraction method, but Barajas’s collaboration with Mauricio Servin, a third-generation ceramicist whose family creates bottles that move through ten distinct artisanal processes and take ten full days to complete. This is the Barajas vision: artistry not just within the bottle but also the bottle itself.
FUN FACT:
Each ceramic bottle undergoes an intricate and laborious seven-hour painting process that is divided into three stages: outlining patterns in cobalt blue, filling that outline in with color for subtle texture, then (the final touches) applying intricate dotting around the entire bottle.
OUR GUARANTEE:
As always, we only buy and source directly from the distiller to ensure that your bottles arrive with pristine provenance. These are numbered, signed works of art — secure yours today!
*Offer NOT valid in-store. This offer is made pre-arrival, with wines estimated to be delivered to your preferred store in Spring 2026. All sale prices are the lowest available at Total Wine & More and ONLY valid through Concierge Sales. No further discounts or coupons may be applied. The price reflected on your order form is subject to change after the order is placed in the event of a change in tariffs or taxes that are imposed by the U.S. government, or in the case of currency fluctuations of 10% or greater. Offer not valid in KS, MI, NC, NE, NY, OK, TN, VA, & WA. This offer will expire on Sunday, December 14, 2025.