Amatitán

Amatitán is a small town about 15 minutes east of Tequila, in the same valley of blue agave and inside the area UNESCO lists as the Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila. It is quieter and far less touristy than Tequila, and most visitors come for one place: Hacienda San José del Refugio, home of Casa Herradura.

The hacienda has a long history. In the 1860s it passed to Félix López, who had been managing its distillery, and in 1870 he registered it as a tequila producer, the date still printed on every bottle of Herradura. According to the family story, the brand's name comes from a horseshoe found in the agave fields and kept as a good-luck charm. It is one of the oldest distilleries in the region still at work, and its tours follow the whole process on site, from cooking the agave to distilling and aging.

Amatitán also claims a place of its own in the early history of the drink, as one of the first places where agave was distilled in the region, and the town makes a good, uncrowded stop for anyone following the tequila route between Guadalajara and Tequila.