Four former Patrón tequila executives are getting back into the alcohol industry with the launch of Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka, an agave-based spirit distilled in Jalisco, Mexico, and finished in Muenster, Texas, 45 miles northwest of Denton.
Weber Ranch vodka launched May 7, 2024 and will be distributed in Texas, California, Florida and New York, then nationwide, said Lee Applbaum, president and chief operating officer of Weber Ranch’s new parent company, Round 2 Spirits.
“What we do has to be truly disruptive,” he said.
It’s rare to make vodka out of the agave plant, confirmed Erlinda Doherty, an agave spirits expert and education partner with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS). Crystal Head is one of the only others, and is part of a “wave of agave-influenced” spirits, as explained by Liquor.com in 2021.
Applbaum and his high-profile Weber Ranch founders are ready to shake up an industry — and they say agave makes for a cleaner-tasting vodka. Most vodkas are made with grain products like wheat or rye; some are made with potatoes.
“There hasn’t been true innovation or disruption in this category [vodka] in a long time,” Applbaum said. He’s a former chief marketing officer of Patrón and has worked as a branding executive at Target, RadioShack, Cola-Cola and more. He lives in Dallas.
The Weber Ranch team is a who’s-who of executives also involved in Patrón’s $5.1 billion sale to Bacardi Limited in 2018. The five are: John Paul DeJoria, the billionaire founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and Patrón; Ed Brown, Patrón’s former CEO; Dave Wilson, Patrón’s former president and COO; Applbaum, Patrón’s former CMO; and Brad Vassar, former COO of beverage distributor Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits.
The five bought the Whiskey Hollow distillery property in Muenster after it declared bankruptcy.
“We built a worldwide spirits business,” Applbaum said of their time at Patrón.
“And we’ll do it again.”
Why vodka and not tequila?
Many agave-based spirits distilled in Mexico become tequila, not vodka.
But Weber Ranch straddles two countries. Teams harvest and distill the Blue Weber agave plant in Jalisco, Mexico, then transport the liquid to the United States as an agave distillate. With this move outside of Mexico, it could no longer be sold as tequila, as set out by the Tequila Regulatory Council in Mexico. Weber Ranch continues its distillation process in Texas, using copper pot and column stills acquired from the former Whiskey Hollow distillery.
When combined with water from the Trinity Aquifer, Weber Ranch is bottled as an 80-proof vodka.
Branding exec Applbaum said it has notes of green apple and tropical fruit, but none of the “afterburn” so common in vodkas.
There’s a business case here, of course: Weber Ranch will compete as vodka, the top spirits category in the U.S. in 2023, according to DISCUS.
Doherty added that the tequila industry — a familiar category to the ex-Patrón team — is “super-congested.”
“There’s a tequila brand coming out every day,” she said. The industry is projected to grow to $11.69 billion in 2024 and possibly to $18.5 billion in 2032, according to industry research.
The door is open for innovation. The agave plant is priced low right now, Doherty said, which presents “an opportunity for folks who want to make new changes.” Enter Weber Ranch vodka.
“It’s interesting to me, too, that they’re calling it a vodka,” Doherty added. “[Vodka] can be made by any sugar and any plant.” She said vodka can be made from anything, like an apple, carrot or potato. In this case, Weber Ranch vodka is made from the product traditionally used for tequila and mezcal.
“I’m not surprised,” Doherty said. “I’m intrigued.”
A Dallas bar owner’s take
Weber Ranch’s process will get liquor industry folks talking, said Shad Kvetko, owner of the Dallas mezcaleria Las Almas Rotas, which sells Mexican-made spirits. Kvetko is confused about why Round 2 would distill agave into vodka.
“To me, it’s just a travesty to take a beautiful plant like the agave, which has so much depth and character, such a variation of flavors,” Kvetko said, “and turn it into vodka.”
Applbaum and his team have heard it before. Vodka has a reputation for being odorless, tasteless and neutral — three adjectives that the former tequila executives would probably not use to describe Patrón or other tequilas.
“My interest in tequila and mezcal is because they take me back to that country,” Kvetko said. Could Weber Ranch, with its agave origins, take him back to Mexico? It’s too early to tell, as Weber Ranch isn’t in the hands of consumers yet.
Price matters
Applbaum said the seven years it takes to grow agave in Mexico proves Weber Ranch’s “time investment” to the product.
“Better ingredients make a better vodka,” he said.
The 750 milliliter bottle will cost about $27.99 in Texas (and pricing can vary from store to store). That’s a few bucks more than Grey Goose and about $10 more than Tito’s, two industry giants. Price is everything, Applbaum said.
“We’re asking them to trade brands,” he said. “There’s a leap I’m asking you to take. There can’t also be a price barrier.”
Applbaum and his team tested Weber Ranch in martinis, cosmos, French 75s, vodka-sodas, Bloody Marys and more. They’re hoping customers will think about ordering a Ranch Water with Weber Ranch. That’s technically a vodka-soda.
Applbaum wonders aloud if vodka has been made the right way all these years — a disruptive argument, to be sure.
He challenges: “If your vodka is made from the same thing as your French fries, you probably don’t want to drink it.”
