Grace Gonzalez graduated from college, walked into her father's office

and asked for a job at the family distillery. He told her that sounded

like a "you problem."

The Gonzalez family has been making tequila in Jalisco for more than 150

years. Grace went and built two years of experience elsewhere, at a

magazine and then in government, before he would hire her. Then the

family's retail stores. Then answering phones at the distillery. Then

every stage of the process, from the agave fields to the still. At 30

she became a master distiller, the first woman in her family to hold the

title. Her father Rodolfo still oversees El Mayor Tequila's core Blanco,

Reposado and Añejo; Grace makes the limited editions and innovations.

She tells Noël Burgess what the title cost her: the nepotism comments,

the assumption she would quit as soon as she married, the nights the men

stood up to smoke cigars outside and left her at the table, when she

smokes cigars too. These days she's at the table, and fishing and golfing

with the same people.

She also gets at what the legacy is actually for. Nearly 600 people in

the fields, 150 more at the distillery and offices, and a family business

she describes as what she'll leave behind.

Then the tequila. Why your college hangover wasn't tequila's fault. Why

she says to stop pairing tequila with Mexican food, and what to pour it

with instead. How to train your palate, and whether to start with Blanco,

Reposado or Añejo based on what you already drink. And what earns you

immediate tequila jail.

Recorded poolside in at Bourbon New Orleans Hotel during Tales of the Cocktail.

Guest: Grace Gonzalez, fourth-generation master distiller, limited

editions and innovations, El Mayor Tequila

Host: Noël Burgess

Noël Burgess On Our Way is a food, drinks, travel and culture podcast

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Because every place has a story, and we're on our way to find it.

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