Jose Cuervo’s Reserva de la Familia line has announced its 2024 añejo release and accompanying collector’s box, designed by Mexican artist Ana Pellicer.
The custom-designed artwork is titled “Insatiable Transparencies of a Historic Landscape.” It’s meant to represent the landscape of Tequila, Mexico, and will be on the limited-release collector’s box of the portfolio’s Reserva de la Familia Extra Añejo.
The Jose Cuervo collaboration with Mexico-based artists has resulted in nearly thirty limited-edition Reserva de la Familia Extra Añejo collector’s boxes. Past collaborations include Rolando Flores and Gabriel Cázares from the Mexico-based Tercerunquinto Collective, Gonzalo Lebrija, Pedro Friedeberg, Carlos Aguirre, Ricardo Pinto, and many others. Each artist is picked by a team of art curators, including Juan Domingo Beckmann, the 11th-generation Cuervo family member and CEO of Jose Cuervo, Patrick Charpenel, the Executive Director of El Museo del Barrio in New York City, and Zélika García, the founder of Zona Maco, a Mexican art fair.
Pellicer’s work has been featured in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City.
“I’ve long admired the craftsmanship, philosophy, and, of course, the quality of Reserva de la Familia, but what I’ve found most special about this precious tequila is how it embodies familial strength,” says Pellicer. “To be selected as the designer for this year’s collector’s box is a tremendous honor, and I am proud to create artwork that represents the colors, shapes, and tone of one of Mexico’s most iconic landscapes for one of the world’s most celebrated tequilas.”
To create this year’s design, Pellicer utilized an artistic technique called “tempera,” a medium that involves painting with pigments bound in a water-soluble emulsion to create a satin sheen finish.
For Reserva de la Familia Extra Añejo, only piñas of six- to nine-year-old agaves are used. These piñas are then cooked in the original brick ovens at the distillery, La Rojeña, before the liquid is double distilled in copper pot stills.
The tequila then undergoes an aging process in a combination of small, new American and French oak barrels. Resulting aromas include oak, almonds, dark chocolate and cinnamon, before a palate of oak, toasted almonds, vanilla and cinnamon.
The tequila is bottled in hand-blown glass, with each label individually adhered before the bottle is dipped in wax, embellished with the Cuervo family crest, and hand-signed, numbered and dated.
The 2024 collector’s box designed by Ana Pellicer rolls out nationwide for a suggested retail price of $190 per 750-ml. bottle.
This follows the recent launch of Reserva de la Familia Añejo Cristalino Organico tequila.