“AguaDios is an exquisite Ensamble artfully curated from a family owned ranchero of organic Blue Weber Agave grown in the foothills of an ancient volcano in Jalisco, creating the highest brix content ever recorded, then re-aged in Japanese Mizunara Oak, sourced from a 200 year old Hokkaido harvest of the rarest hardwood on Earth. The resultant, extremely limited offering is one of the rarest tequilas ever known.”

Say Hello To The Rarest Tequila On Earth

Our story begins in the year 1815 on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, a prefecture making up its own region. There, in the spring, something special was happening. A grove of Mizunara Oak the most rare hardwood on Earth, was taking root as mere saplings. And unbeknownst to them, they would, some two hundred years later, have waiting for them the most unlikely meeting and union between two vastly different cultures never before created, nor imagined and from that, would come absolute magic.

Some 20 years later in 1835 on the south-facing slope of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Jalisco, Mexico, a newly wedded young man, Eladio and his young wife were settling in to their modest hacienda on a small ranchero, on two hundred acres in the foothills. Lying in the shadow of Volcan de Tequila, the rocky edifice and adjacent steppes of their land was unusually rich in minerals and volcanic ash, nurtured over millennia of alluvial runoff from the annual rains washing over the soil from the volcano above, now dormant for over two hundred thousand years. Unlike the soils in the valley where most kept their farms, Eladio’s land was the richest in the vital nutrients that fed the wild Blue Weber Agave plants that grew in abundance all around. Unbeknownst to Eladio at the time, he was sitting on the rarest agave in Mexico.

As the 1800’s moved ahead and Eladio and his family cultivated and cared for their land, harvesting the agave and turning it into multiple products for sale in the local villages and towns, some four thousand-eight-hundred miles away on Bainbridge Island, Washington in the United States a small islet only five miles wide and ten miles long, Japanese immigrants began arriving in the 1880s and the Japanese village of Yama soon contained more than fifty families. From the 1870s to the 1920s, the Port Blakely Mill Company employed immigrants from Japan. Islanders also worked at the Port Madison Mill and the Hall Brothers Shipbuilding Firm. Japanese immigrants had founded ethnic communities near the island's prominent sawmills and shipyards in the late 1800s and shifted to agricultural endeavors by the 1910s. The Moritani family introduced strawberry farms to the Island economy in 1908. This Nikkei-dominated industry produced two million pounds of fruit by 1940.

When World War II broke out in the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese residents of Bainbridge Island were the first Nikkei community tobe forcibly removed from their homes and placed into an incarceration camp during the war. After eleven months in Manzanar incarceration camp, the Bainbridge group was reunited with other Western Washington Nikkei at Minidoka incarceration camp. After the war, Nikkei reestablished their strong presence on Bainbridge Island. But their story was far from over and magically connected to Hokkaido and Eladio’s home in Mexico at the same time.

After the war ended and a soldier named Casmir returned home to the United States from the South Pacific Theater and married a local girl named Margaret, they settled in their home state. There in 1955 they gave birth to a boy in Western Pennsylvania where they lived in a rural part of the state in the valley of the Allegheny mountain range. Growing up, they lived off the land, where they grew apples, pears, cherries, plums, every garden vegetable, including corn, beans, tomatoes, lettuces, and also grapes, from which they made wine. They raised chickens for fresh eggs and hunted the local woods for rabbit, squirrel, pheasant, grouse and deer. Thus their sonlearned to live from and ultimately love and respect the land as it gave him his very life. From this humble, Earth-bound beginning, he could never have imagined the journey ahead- that he would one day become the Founder of a rare spirits company.

 As the boy grew, matured and became educated, he felt a deep yearning in him, which drew him to Southern California and ultimately the rich Mexican-American culture there, which somehow resonated deep within him- from the people and their music to the food, the traditions, culture and dress and yes their unique penchant for living from the land. And here, he discovered his first taste of family made agave spirit, mescal and then tequila, through his friendship with Ambrosio his workmate at a local restaurant. Ultimately, he was invited to travel to Mexico to meet some family connections and sample their food, homegrown culture and organicspirits. And on that fateful trip in 1990, his life was forever changed.

As part of his ongoing exploration, respect and ultimately, love for the people, traditions and growing regions in Mexico, he wandered off the beaten path in Jalisco and decided to hike in the foothills of the pristine Sierra Madre mountain range. While working his way up a fairly steep slope, the peak of Volcan de Tequila looming ahead, he happened upon a tiny ranchero hacienda. There he met and befriended a family in the highlands of the most beautiful agave fields he had ever laid his eyes upon. They were Eladio’s descendants, his great-great-great grandchildren and their children, still living there, still tending the land in sustainable and loving care, as did their progenitor, Eladio. 

They were kind enough to welcome him into their home, share their food, stories, traditions and yes, some of their family-made agave spirit. At the very first sip, there in the gloaming light emanating from the sun swept ochre agave fields just beyond the veranda, he knew he’d tasted perfection in a glass.

But, something was off. These fine Blue Weber Agave fields, while beautiful to behold, held back a secret that belied their delivery of such a fine spirit. As they rested in steppe formation, making their way up the slopes, heavy in volcanic soil minerality, dense in their foundation, these soils should never have even yielded such fine succulent plants so many years on, let alone produced such a delicious drink. Coming from a homegrown background in Southwestern Pennsylvania with a solid knowledge of the land, hewondered, what was the secret? How could what amounted to a rocky outcropping produce such succulent plants? In due time, he would learn a secret of the ages.

As he bid them farewell, they gifted him with a bottle for his travels. There was no name nor label, only the clear glass, a cork and the precious liquid. Back home in California, he marveled at his experience and the treasure he’d been able to surreptitiously bring across the border with him. From that moment on, unbeknownst to him, he was set forth on a new journey.

Some months later in Los Angeles, while having dinner with his friend and ultimately mentor in the spirits business, the late G. Garvin Brown III, (Brown-Foreman Distilleries/Jack Daniels) the young man shared his experience with Garvin and some of the spirit. After taking a nice sip, marveling at the color, taste and nose, Garvin put the glass down and said simply, “If you can find some way of re-creating that, you’ll make a lot of people happy.” And then, “But remember, do it the right way, don’t cut corners, and deliver and tell the story yourself, no middleman.”

Twelve years later, the soon-to-be Founder, Charley, found himself living on Bainbridge Island Washington, where he met and befriended Master Distiller and now AguaDios Master Blender Keith Barnes. When Keith set to making his own whiskey in 2006, Charley helped out, sourcing the original batch of USDA organic grain. After another twelve years and numerous accolades later, quickly becoming the most awarded organic craft distillery in the world through Keith’s mastery, Charley again teamed up with his friend, this time, with the idea of realizing the dream that had sparked in his mind so many years before. But the mystery remained.

Perfection In A Glass

 When Charley came to Keith to plan the beginning stages of the production of AguaDios, he also brought with him the family relationship to Eladio’sunique ranchero in Mexico that grows Blue Weber Agave with quite possibly the highest brix (sugar) content in all of Mexico. Unbeknownst to Charley at that time Keith had hewn his own unique relationships.

It seemed the old Japanese Village of Yama from the late 1800’s, near Port Blakely on Bainbridge Island was about to be unearthed and developed into modern housing. Keith, hearing of this prospect and learning about the history of the site, set out to not only stop the development, but to build a memorial on the very spot, commemorating the Japanese immigrants who first came to the island and their journey forward through their trials of WWII and beyond. To that end, Keith set out to also make a special whiskey and donate the proceeds to the endeavor.

After more than a year of red tape and direct interaction with local officials, Keith claimed victory. The village of Yama and the surrounding area would be saved. He would have the memorial and he would make his special whiskey, which he would call Yama, to memorialize the island’s and North America’s first immigrant settlers from Japan.

Just about that same time through his own family relationships, Keith received a call from the Japanese Consulate, who after hearing about Keith’s quest inquired as to whether Keith would like to age his Yama whiskey in Japanese Mizunara oak? He nearly dropped the phone. Mizunara is the rarest hardwood on Earth and to even cut a single tree requires a community blessing at the site and the sign-off by the local Prefect of Hokkaido.