Distilled, Not Doctored.
A glass of red carries tannins, histamines and added sulfites. Distillation leaves all of it behind. Leucadia is four ingredients: agave, water, time, yeast. Nothing else. The whole label, four words long.
Leucadia Blanco
Clear, unaged, and bottled exactly as it left the still. No oak extract, no glycerin, no caramel color, no sweetener. None of the 1% tequila law would let us add without telling you. Six gold medals in its first year.
How does the pour compare?
Six things a label-reader weighs. The glass of red is a legitimate pleasure. It is also not the only one.
Ingredient-labeling rules for wine and additive allowances in winemaking are set by US regulators and vary by product. Nothing here is a health claim. It is a comparison of what is in the glass. Please enjoy responsibly.
Where do congeners come from?
Congeners are the byproducts of fermentation and aging: tannins, histamines, fusel oils. Wine keeps them in the glass. A still leaves them behind.
The glass of red: everything stays in
- ● Tannins, from grape skins and oak
- ● Histamines, produced in fermentation
- ● Sulfites, added as a preservative
The still: heavier compounds left behind
- ● Light vapor is collected as blanco
- ● Heavier congeners never make the bottle
- ● No barrel, no oak, nothing added after
When is the glass of red the right call?
Sometimes it is. Here is the split, plainly.
Choose the red when
- · The wine is the point of the dinner.
- · The vineyard, the year, the bottle mean something to you.
- · Tomorrow morning is unscheduled.
Choose the blanco when
- ✓ You read labels, and want one you can finish reading.
- ✓ You want the pleasure without the preservative.
- ✓ You drink less now, and want each pour to be better.
Plenty of people pour both. The two do not compete. One just has a shorter label.
Three clean serves
No syrups, no mixers with their own ingredient list. Grapefruit, lime, sparkling water. That is as complicated as it gets.
What else do people ask?
What does additive-free actually mean? +
Tequila regulations allow up to 1% additives (glycerin, oak extract, caramel color, sweeteners) with no obligation to say so on the label. Leucadia uses none of them. Agave, water, time, yeast is the complete list.
What is a congener? +
Congeners are the compounds fermentation and barrel-aging leave alongside the alcohol: tannins, histamines, methanol, fusel oils. Dark, aged drinks carry the most; a clear, unaged blanco carries a fraction of them. That is chemistry, not a health claim.
What does certified organic cover? +
The agave is grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, and the certification is audited, from field to bottling, every year. It is the one claim on the bottle we let someone else verify.
So is this a health product? +
No. Tequila is alcohol, and we say so plainly. This is not a health claim. It is a shorter ingredient list. Drink less, drink better.
How should I drink it? +
Neat from the freezer in a coupe, an unsweetened paloma, or a margarita with lime and a whisper of agave. Nothing that arrives with its own ingredient list.
Not a health claim. A shorter ingredient list.
Read the label. It will not take long. It is four words. Estate distilled by the Craig family since 1875, certified organic, nothing added after the still.