🥃 Paisaje Agavero

Paisaje Agavero is a cultural landscape in the Mexican state of Jalisco, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 12 July 2006. It covers 34,658 hectares of blue agave fields between the slopes of the Tequila volcano and the Río Grande valley, as well as the towns of Tequila, Amatitán and El Arenal with their old distilleries.

What it includes. According to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the site lies in the municipalities of Magdalena, Tequila, Amatitán and El Arenal. Within its boundaries are about 60 factories and haciendas, many of which keep their old equipment; most working distilleries are in the towns. Roughly 44% of the land is communal and 22% private.

History. Agave has been used in these lands for at least two thousand years, for fermented drinks and fibre for textiles. The Teuchitlán culture (AD 200–900) left terraces, temples, ceremonial mounds and ball courts. Tequila distillation from agave goes back to the 16th century, large plantations and distilleries appeared in the 17th, and in the 19th and 20th centuries the drink reached the world market.

Why it is recognised. UNESCO highlighted the combination of pre-Hispanic fermentation with European distillation, the haciendas and distilleries as a meeting of technologies and cultures, the continuity of ancient agave culture, and its links with the music, cinema and dance of Jalisco. In the town of Tequila, the Sauza and Jose Cuervo distilleries operate (Cuervo since 1795); in Amatitán, the Herradura hacienda; and there is a National Tequila Museum.

Why this matters to you. The name tequila comes from this place, but the designation of origin area is wider: according to the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT), it covers 181 municipalities in five states. The landscape is worth seeing even without tastings: fields, museums and hacienda architecture. After a tasting on a tour, do not drive. The WHO reminds us that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.