Local tequila maker goes global
A local visionary entrepreneur is too busy to celebrate blazing new trails.
“I’ll be the face of the company, traveling a lot,” says Mi Rancho Tequila founder and president, Michael J. Dean Trego. “It makes me a little sad because I have to leave my family for long periods.”
The pioneering tequila impresario just took two giant leaps. On Nov. 30, he announced an exclusive international distribution agreement with Hermitage Spirit Corp. to distribute his award-winning tequila worldwide. And on Dec. 3, Mi Rancho became the world’s first company to have tequila futures marketed.
“We sold the first future this morning in Panama City,” Trego told 2más2KC. “We’re establishing a secondary market for our Legacy Line, a super-premium version of our tequila. Legacy price-to-market will be $800-$1,500 per bottle, depending on demand, and have a limited release of just 5,300 bottles.”
The eight-year-old Legacy represents Mi Rancho Tequila’s priciest quaff and fourth aging category. The añejo, aged a year or more retails for $34.99 per bottle; reposado, aged in oak barrels for a year, $24.99; and Mi Rancho Blanco, $19.99.
Headquartered in Kansas City, Kan., Mi Rancho Tequila brand is one of only five owned by a family. Most tequila production is controlled by big corporations, such as Diageo.
Trego employs four people here and 13 at the distillery in Jalisco, Mexico, Casa Tequilera Dean Lozoya SA de CV. Now that he’s entered markets in eight European countries; three Asian nations; and three in the Americas, he’ll add a second shift to expand his current production capacity from 8,000 liters a day to meet increased demand.
Trego points out that, “Tequila is the fastest-growing category of spirits, and France and Germany are the fifth and seventh (respectively) largest consumers of tequila, and they will want something good. They may purchase Mi Rancho tequila once to try, but the key is to get them to purchase a second time.”
Master Distiller Hector Flavio Davalos Abad is the Promethean chemist who runs Trego’s distillery, creates tequila profiles (recipes) and develops new techniques for producing high-quality products at affordable prices.
“He’s the most important person in the puzzle,” Trego says. “Hector has 52 years of distilling experience. He comes up with the recipes, and we work together to make final adjustments.”
One of the secrets to Mi Rancho tequila’s clean, crisp, pure, more natural flavor is a proprietary yeast Abad developed from the same blue weber agave desert succulent used to make tequila.
“The technology means we don’t use any man-made additives or byproducts in Mi Rancho tequila,” Trego says.
The fruit of their collaborative efforts have earned 18 international awards since 2016 when Trego began importing tequila to the U.S. But getting Mi Rancho to this point has been a long, hard, “financially stressful” road, demanding family sacrifices.
The 50-year-old former construction company owner founded Mi Rancho Tequila in 2008.
Asked why tequila, he responds, “Tequila is Mexico, and I wanted my family to know who they are and where they’re from.”
A native of Chihuahua, he immigrated to the U.S. as a child and grew up in KCK. Dividing a fierce sense of loyalty equally between Kansas and Mexico, Trego plans to keep his headquarters here. The distillery must remain in Mexico because tequila’s protected as a Mexican designation of origin and must be made from 100 percent agave in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Mi Rancho, “a term used openly in Mexico meaning my home,” is a family business. Trego’s wife, Guadalupe Dean Lozoya is the firm’s CEO.
The international distribution agreement with Hermitage came about serendipitously. KC Hispanic Chamber president, Carlos Gomez introduced Trego to Claudia Schumann and Bergitta Reiss, Hermitage president and CEO, respectively.
“They created Hermitage for the sole distribution of Mi Rancho tequila,” Trego says.
Sealing the deal, Schumann wrote to Trego in August, “In my many years of wine trade and marketing, I am always open for new and exciting products, especially when they are created with such passion and love.”
Mi Rancho and the Dean-Lozoya family are one-of-a-kind tequila producers, Schumann wrote. They proved her correct in believing that “there’s always space and time for a new star to be born.”
