EL JIMADOR IS UK'S LEADING 100% AGAVE TEQUILA SCOTCH WHISKY FIRM REVEALS MAJOR CHANGE

Brown-Forman’s El Jimador is the biggest-selling 100% agave Tequila brand in the UK, according to data from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.

The Tequila brand reached the number-one spot for the first time by both volume and value, according to IWSR 2022 data released at the end of May 2023.

The brand’s sales grew by almost 75% in the UK last year. It is now the third-largest Tequila brand in the UK (IWSR 2022), after Jose Cuervo in first place and Sierra in the second spot.

The UK’s top five best-selling 100% agave Tequilas in order are: El Jimador, Altos, Patrón, Cazcabel and Tapatio.

El Jimador said it had become the biggest and fastest-growing value contributor to the category.

The brand noted that ‘rapid growth’ is forecast for superpremium Tequila and higher-value products such as 100% agave Tequilas.

GORDON & MacPhail, the family-owned Scotch whisky company, has made one of the most momentous decisions in its 128-year history.

The Elgin-based company began life as a greengrocer in 1895 and as the decades passed it became known as an expert bottler of Scotch whisky, sending casks to distilleries from them to be filled with new-make spirit which was then matured. Its whiskies include the famous Connoisseurs Choice single malt range made from distilleries across Scotland, which was launched by George Urquhart, second generation of the family owners, in the late 1960s.

However, more recently Gordon & MacPhail became a distiller in its own right. In 1993, it acquired the Benromach Distillery in Forres – 12 miles from its shop in Elgin – and followed that with the construction of The Cairn, a second distillery in the Cairngorm National Park which opened in 2022.