Tequila Fortaleza launched in 2005, so we are relatively new to the market, but we have over 140 years of history behind our brand. Our great-great-grandfather, Don Cenobio, founded his first distillery – La Perseverancia – in 1873, in the town of Tequila, Jalisco. Not only was Don Cenobio The first person to export “mezcal de tequila” to the United States, shorten the name to just Tequila, and implement the use of steam to cook the agave (instead of an earthen pit), Cenobio also stated that the Blue Agave was the best agave to use for production.