A John Deere Publication

Closeup of the thorned edge of an agave leaf

The spines of Blue Weber agave—the variety used in tequila—glow in the summer light. Blue Weber is one of more than 200 varieties of cactus-like agave.

Agriculture, Specialty/Niche March 01, 2025

Revolutionary Spirit

California agave growers explore north-of-the-border spins on tequila and mezcal.

by Steve Werblow

It started as an experiment with 500 plants on a borrowed plot outside of Sacramento, California. Today, with about 600 acres in production and nearly 80 growers, California's agave crop is still a tiny blip on the state's massive agriculture radar. But it's enticing growers and distillers with imagination and a drive to find a crop that can withstand water scarcity and that's open to developing an American interpretation of a classic Mexican spirit.

Craig Reynolds started growing California agave in 2014 on a friend's farm when he was a California state legislative aide trying to convince farmers to find more water-wise crops. He had already grown some in Mexico to make tequila as a fundraiser for a charity called Project Amigo. He realized that if he wanted to build a convincing argument in his discussions with farmers, he should put his money where his mouth was.

"I used to tell folks, 'oh, the problem is those farmers down in the San Joaquin Valley should be growing something like agave and making tequila instead of growing almonds to send to China,'" Reynolds says. "It was kind of a running joke, but people knew I was growing agave in Mexico. So to check out my theory, I decided I might as well just do it myself."

Above. Craig Reynolds, founding director of the California Agave Council, inspects one of his agave plants. California agave grower and farm manager Raúl "Reppo" Chávez harvests agave with a razor-sharp hoe called a coa to slice through sturdy pencas, or agave leaves. Stuart Woolf, a third-generation Fresno farmer, sees a future in agave for farmers facing water shortages. Agave thrives in Craig Reynolds' field. A bronze plate identifies the source of one of Woolf's varieties. The agave for Venus Spirits' El Ladrón Yolo is roasted over almond wood in the tradition of mezcal, an early agave spirit.

Not laughing. Stuart Woolf quickly determined agave was no joke—it looked like the future. The third-generation Fresno fruit, nut, and row crop farmer has committed 360 acres to a wide range of agave varieties. Woolf Farms sits in the Westlands Water District, where water shortages have forced farmers to idle more than 200,000 of high-quality farmland—about one-third of the acreage in the district.

"This is land we were fallowing because we didn't have enough water here," he says as he walks between rows of agaves he collected across California and Mexico. "The way I look at it is that SGMA, the state's Groundwater Management Act, is going to limit our ability to pump in this area. As we've watched our surface supplies decline over the last couple of decades, we could very well be fallowing close to 40% of our family's legacy."

Agave thrives on about 3 acre-inches of water per year, Woolf notes—a huge drop from the 4 acre-feet required for almonds or 3 acre-feet used by tomatoes each season. And the hot Mediterranean climate of California's Central Valley is great for many species and strains of agave.

"I'm making the bet that we can grow a plant faster, larger, and with more sugar than they can in Mexico," Woolf says. "In this region of California, we have more heat units and longer, hotter summers than they do in Mexico."

Woolf, Reynolds, and other members of the California Agave Council—which Reynolds founded—are on the hunt for agave varieties that will mature in the hot California summers at least a year or two faster than similar varieties in Mexico.

In 1964, Mexico's tequila industry went all-in on the fast-growing Weber Azul variety. Reynolds says the California Agave Council's approach is to honor all options.

"We've sort of made our mark saying, 'hey, we're about California. California agave just means it's 100% California-grown with no additives, flavors, or coloring,'" he points out. "We're not saying how you have to grow it or how you have to distill it.

"Some of it will be organic, some of it will be artisanal, some of it will be more industrial, and each with a story of a farm or distillery," Reynolds says.

Experiment. California's open approach gives distillers like Sean Venus of Venus Spirits in Santa Cruz, California, latitude to experiment. And dream.

"The whole thing's magical," Venus says. "It's everything that I love. It's spirits, it's a bit of a barbecue culture embedded in what we're doing when we pit-roast the agave and let it sit for 7 to 10 days, not having complete control over it, just letting the process take its course."

After digging the roasted agave cores, called piñas, from the roasting pit, Venus and his team shred them to maximize surface area. Then they ferment the agave with yeast and water into a beer-like liquid that he distills into a spirit he calls El Ladrón Yolo. The result is smoky and sweet like mezcal, the ancient granddaddy of Jalisco's tequila that is pit-roasted rather than steamed.

Six thousand pounds of agave yields just 600 bottles of El Ladrón after a process that takes a full month. No wonder Venus is trying to figure out ways to mechanize and streamline parts of the process. Similarly, Woolf is contemplating mechanical harvest methods to replace the traditional approach of hand-chopping the crop. Then there's the process of securing crop protection product labels, crop insurance, and more—efforts required of an industry starting from scratch.

It's an industry with a powerful story to tell about sustainability and a side of revolutionary spirit.

"There are 24 kids in the next generation in our family and they pretty much universally think this is the coolest thing going on at the ranch," says Woolf. ‡