Former Patrón team members have launched Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka, the first vodka made from Blue Weber Agave.
Round 2 Spirits, made up of team members who helped build Patrón Tequila, have launched the first vodka made from Blue Weber Agave, Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka. Exclusively distilled from the famed plant, the new Texas-based venture use of agave marks a significant departure for a spirit commonly made from wheat, corn, or potatoes that takes just a few months.
“By volume, vodka is the largest spirits category in the U.S., but let’s be honest, it’s been a long time since there was any meaningful innovation or true disruption in this space. I’m not talking about trendy flavors, clever packaging, or crazy rounds of distillation – that’s just line extension, differentiation, and iteration, not true disruption,” says Lee Applbaum, President and COO of Round 2 Spirits, LLC, who along with his fellow Round 2 founders previously helped build Patrón Tequila. “Weber Ranch Vodka is one of the most groundbreaking new products created in this category, and delivers a smooth, clean flavor profile unlike our competitors, largely because of the superior-quality Blue Weber Agave. Better ingredients are key to making a better product, and that’s absolutely true in our case.”
Weber Ranch Vodka is made from 100% Blue Weber Agave slowly from Jalisco, Mexico. The agave is then hand-harvested and distilled in Jalisco, before being transported to Muenster, Texas, where it is further distilled in copper pot and column stills, filtered, and bottled. Water from the local Trinity Aquifer helps create its unique character. According to the brand, it is 100% gluten, carb, and additive free from garden to glass.
“Blue Weber Agave is truly a special plant that creates a superior spirit, and that’s not just limited to tequila,” says Antonio Rodriguez, Weber Ranch’s master distiller, and the former production director at Patrón. “Weber Ranch Vodka is unmistakably a vodka, but because we’re using agave, we’re able to develop subtle, smooth flavor notes of tropical fruit and citrus that make this spirit not only better for classic vodka cocktails, but it works equally well in traditional agave based drinks like a ranch water or paloma. The tremendous versatility is the real magic of this spirit.”
Applbaum adds, “Our mission at Round 2 Spirits is to identify scalable spirits categories – like vodka – that are ripe for disruption. Couple that with our love and respect for agave, not to mention the rapid growth of agave spirits, and that’s when the light bulb went off that we could harness the flavorful and complex characteristics of agave to craft a superior vodka that was totally different, and truly better than anything else on the market.”
The Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka name and “F.A.C. Weber 1902” embossed on the custom cork-topped bottle (reminiscent of a flowering agave) is a nod to French botanist Frédéric Albert Constantin Weber who first cataloged this specific species of Blue Weber Agave in 1902 during an expedition to Mexico.
Bottled at 40% ABV, Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka marks the first product release by Round 2 Spirits and will be available nationally.
For more information, head over to the brand’s official website.