How to Buy Tequila Wholesale: NOM Codes, Agave Content and What Importers Should Verify

Tequila is one of the few spirits where the label carries legally defined information a buyer can actually check. Unlike most categories, where “premium” means whatever the marketing department decided, tequila sits under a protected denomination of origin with a certifying body, a four-digit distillery code on every bottle, and a sugar-content rule that separates two genuinely different products sold under the same word. For an importer, that is unusually good news: it means a consignment can be verified on paper before it ships. This guide covers what to read, what to ask for, and what to settle before you order.

Why tequila deserves more checking than most spirits

Two things make tequila distinct from a buying point of view. The first is that the category is protected: not everything that looks like tequila legally is tequila. The second is that within genuine tequila there is a real quality fork — two bottles can both be authentic, both be legally labelled, and still be fundamentally different products at very different price points.

A buyer who understands those two points can specify an order precisely. A buyer who does not tends to order on brand name alone, and is then surprised by what arrives.

What “tequila” legally means

Tequila is a protected denomination of origin under Mexican law, recognised internationally through trade agreements. Production is governed by the official standard NOM-006-SCFI-2012, and compliance is inspected and certified by the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT), the regulatory council for the category.

Three requirements follow from that standard, and they are worth knowing because they are the floor beneath every legitimate bottle:

• Geography. Tequila may only be produced in the state of Jalisco and in designated municipalities within Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit and Tamaulipas. Agave spirit made anywhere else may be excellent, but it is not tequila.
• Plant. It must be made from Agave tequilana Weber, blue variety. Other agave species produce other spirits, not this one.
• Strength. Tequila is bottled between 35% and 55% ABV.

If a supplier offers you “tequila” that fails any of those three tests, you are not being offered tequila, whatever the label says.

Reading a tequila label as a buyer

100% agave or not — the distinction that matters most

Every bottle falls into one of two categories, and the difference is about what was fermented rather than how long it was aged.

• Tequila 100% de agave. Every fermentable sugar came from blue Weber agave. The label will say so explicitly — “100% agave” or “100% de agave”.
• Tequila (commonly called mixto). The word appears alone, with no agave percentage. Legally this needs only 51% of its sugars from agave; the remaining 49% may come from other sources.

Both are legitimate products with legitimate markets. Mixto is typically positioned for mixing and priced accordingly; 100% agave carries the premium. The commercial risk is not that mixto exists — it is ordering one while assuming the other. The absence of “100% agave” on a label is itself the information. If it does not say it, it is not it.

The NOM number

Every bottle carries a four-digit NOM number identifying the registered distillery that produced it. It is a registration code, not a quality score — but it is the single most useful thing on the label for a buyer, because it tells you where the liquid actually came from regardless of what the brand on the front says.

Two practical uses. First, verification: a bottle claiming to be tequila with no NOM number is a red flag worth stopping on. Second, portfolio planning — several brands can share one NOM, because one distillery may produce for multiple labels. If you are building a tequila range and want genuine production diversity rather than the same liquid under different packaging, the NOM numbers tell you what the brand names will not.

The five classes

NOM-006 defines five classes by time in oak. Aged expressions are not automatically “better”, but they do occupy different price points and shelf positions, and buyers should specify the class rather than only the brand.

What to confirm before placing an order

Our wholesale tequila range lists 32 lines, including Patrón, Don Julio, Herradura, Clase Azul and Jose Cuervo. Specifications differ by expression and production run, so the following should be confirmed in writing against the exact product codes on your quotation rather than assumed from the brand:

• Agave category — 100% agave or mixto, stated explicitly per line.
• Class — blanco, joven, reposado, añejo or extra añejo. Brands often span several; “Herradura” alone does not specify a product.
• NOM number — ask for it per SKU if production origin matters to your range or your customers.
• ABV and bottle size — both affect duty calculations and shelf fit, and both vary by market.
• Label language and market version — the same brand is bottled in different label versions for different regions.
• Carton configuration — bottles per case and case dimensions, which drive your freight planning.

None of these are difficult questions for a supplier to answer. A supplier who cannot answer them against a specific product code is quoting from a list rather than from stock knowledge, which is itself worth knowing.

Duty, documentation and destination rules

Tequila is a spirit, so it is an excise good. Excise duty is charged separately from customs duty and VAT, and on spirits it is usually the largest single line in your landed cost. Rates are set nationally and vary widely, so no supplier can calculate your liability for you — model it yourself alongside the purchase price. Movements within the EU can travel under duty suspension if you are set up for it, which requires an excise number you give your supplier when ordering. Our guide to wholesale food and beverage sourcing in Europe covers excise duty, duty suspension and the documentation chain in more detail.

Beyond excise, confirm what your destination market requires on the label. Spirits labelling rules differ by country on allergen declarations, importer identification, health warnings and language. Settle who applies any additional labelling, and at what point, before the goods move.

Planning the shipment

Spirits in glass are dense cargo. A pallet of 700ml bottles is heavy for the space it occupies, which means a tequila-led consignment will usually reach a container's weight limit well before it fills the available volume. If you are shipping tequila on its own, a 20ft container is often the right choice; if you are combining it with lighter goods, it belongs low in the load. Our guide to planning a mixed FMCG container order sets out the weight-against-volume arithmetic in full.

Glass also needs more careful stacking than cans or cartons of dry goods. Specify pallet configuration and stacking limits rather than leaving them to the loader. Our logistics page describes how we handle shipment, and the markets we serve page lists where we have supplied.

Requesting a tequila quotation

Prices are not published on this site, because they depend on the exact expressions, quantities, destination and terms of sale. A request that includes the following can usually be answered accurately first time:

• Brand and expression per line — "Herradura Reposado", not "Herradura".
• Quantity per line, in cases where you know the configuration.
• Destination country and delivery port or address.
• Your excise position — whether you hold an excise number and can receive under duty suspension.
• Your Incoterms 2020 rule and named place.
• Any labelling or documentation your market requires.
• Company details and the contact handling the shipment.

If some of that is undecided, send the enquiry anyway — an approximate volume and a destination is enough to begin. You can request a wholesale quotation through our contact form, browse the tequila range for the current listing, or read our trading terms to see how we trade before you commit.

In short

Tequila rewards a buyer who reads the label. The denomination of origin tells you whether the product is legitimate; the agave category tells you which of two very different products you are actually buying; the NOM number tells you where the liquid came from; and the class tells you where it sits on your shelf. Four pieces of information, all printed on the bottle, all checkable before a single case ships. Specify them on your order and most of what goes wrong in this category simply does not.