Refined and hand-crafted Clase Azul has single-handedly changed perceptions on tequila as a frenzy-inducing, hangover-summoning devil juice.
We all know tequila is enjoy a renaissance globally, especially here in Asia where luxury sipping tequilas are now enjoying popularity rather than infamy. But how about tequila with a price tag of US$30,000?
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Launched in 1997 by Mexican Arturo Lomeli, Clase Azul’s tequilas are now seen at the world’s most lavish parties – and there isn’t a salt-licked neck or lime wedge in sight. Instead, Azul, who has a masters in luxury marketing, sells a tequila that’s refined, authentic, and presented in hand-sculpted, hand-painted ceramic decanters crafted by Mexican artists and inspired by the shape of pepper grinders.
The brand’s most expensive product, created to mark Clase Azul’s 15th anniversary, comes studded with hundreds of amber pebbles and chunks of 24-karat gold, and is limited to just 15 bottles, each priced at US$30,000. It makes you wonder what they’ll do for their 30th.
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If that’s a little too much to drop on a bottle of firewater, you might consider Tequila Clase Azul Ultra; crafted from hand-selected, organic Weber Blue agaves that have matured for nine years, the spirit is made using the brand’s proprietary yeast and water that’s refined in a five-step process, before being aged for five years in second use sherry wood casks from Spain.
Limited to batches of just 100 bottles, Ultra’s decanter features a silver and gold-laced label and fetches US$1,800, usually from avid collectors.
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