Top Rated Extra Añejo Tequilas

The extra añejo is aged over five years in used merlot and cabernet savuignon wine barrels from Napa Valley's Rombauer yielding a dark amber color with glints of ruby. Their agaves are 100% organic and like all of their releases, is 100 proof.

Tapatio is the partnership between Marko Karakasevic of Charbay Distillery in northern California with Master Distiller Carlos Camarena at La Alteña distillery in Jalisco. Excelencia Gran Reserva Lot 1 was distilled in 1996 and aged in char no. 4 new American oak for four years. Here's where it gets crazy - then it was rested in 5 liter glass vessels before bottling in 2013. Spirits can't evolve in glass, you say? Well, agave breaks all the rules. Additive free.

A category that has been growing in popularity over the last few years, Extra Añejo is the most heavily-matured style of tequila. Seeing at least 3 years in cask, most producers really seek to present their Extra Añejo offerings like a fine cognac both in terms of marketing and in many ways flavor profile. This product is aged for 3 years and 8 months. Limited production of 624 bottles, it should be noted that this comes in a handsome wooden box.

Produced at La Tequileña Distillery (NOM 1146) in Jalisco by Master Distiller Enrique Fonseca, Tears of Llorona is made from estate-grown Blue Weber Agave matured for nearly a decade before harvest. The agave is slow-roasted in steam ovens before open-air fermentation using a proprietary yeast strain and double distillation in copper pot stills. Aged five years in a combination of barrels previously used for Scotch, sherry, and Cognac, each batch is a limited, numbered blend personally selected and married by Fonseca. Bottled at 86 proof.

Launched in 1995 for the distillery’s 200th anniversary, Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia was the world’s first extra-añejo tequila. It’s made from agave harvested at peak maturity (6–9 years old) and then cooked in brick ovens. Aged a minimum of three years in American and French oak, it’s released annually in a limited collector’s box designed by a Mexican artist. The 2025 edition, celebrating the product’s 30th anniversary, features artwork by Ana Segovia.

Cazadores uses 100% agave for their tequila from agaves sourced from the Highlands of Jalisco. Their extra añejo is aged for 3 years in virgin American oak barrels after stainless steel double-fermentation. Cazadores, meaning “hunters” is so named because their founder’s grandfather, José María Bañuelos used to love to watch the deer run among the agave fields.

Tequila Ocho selects agaves from particular ranchos to put a focus on the terroir of the agave. This particular tequila comes from the San Agustin rancho near the town of Jesús María which was leased to the Camarena family for the purpose of growing agave. The extra añejo is aged for 3 years in ex-American bourbon casks and is bottled at 80 proof. Note a single barrel extra añejo exists from this vintage and rancho at a higher proof and limited availability.

Rancho El Vergel (“The Orchard”) is situated more than 6,500 feet above sea level and has the red, iron-rich soil that’s characteristic of the Highlands. Located near Arandas, El Vergel was thought to be unsuitable for growing agave by Carlos Camarena’s father, Felipe. Tequila Ocho was the first crop of agave ever grown on the rancho, which previously grew limes and peaches.

Suerte tequilas are made with 100% tahona crushed agaves. The tequilas are double distilled, first in stainless and then in a copper still with the entire process taking 17 hours to complete. Suerte Extra Añejo Tequila is a single-barrel release aged for seven years in charred American white oak whiskey barrel.

Enrique Fonseca's massive Tequileña distillery is a veritable laboratory of tequila production and the experimental lots of extra añejo that comprise the Fuenteseca project were never intended for commercial sale. These barrels were laid down in a subterranean cellar, where the cool environment was intended to allow them to age for years beyond what was otherwise considered desirable. This single-harvest tequila is a blend of column- and pot-distilled products which were vatted together before being aged in American oak ex-red wine barrels (85%) and used French oak (15%). This is the youngest batch of Fuenteseca but is still eons older than almost anything else on the market.