The tequila boss who travels 120,000 miles a year
Bertha Gonzalez NievesEvery month, Bertha Gonzalez Nieves leaves her New York apartment to stay with her mother in Mexico City for a few nights. But there’s more to her visit than home-cooked lunches.
As founder of Casa Dragones Tequila, the 45-year-old Mexican entrepreneur is constantly travelling to check in with farmers in Jalisco state who grow the plants from which the small-batch liquor is produced, to monitor the distillation and bottling process and to cities across the globe to market the brand. Staying with her mother in Mexico City — where some of her most important clients are based — lets her maximise her time and expense budget, before she jets off to another locale.
“We laugh at each other that we are roommates,” she says. “It’s her home, but she makes it our home.”
Bertha Gonzalez NievesIt’s that same mix of business and pleasure that’s helped Gonzalez Nieves build a tequila business with a cult following. Made entirely from blue agave, she produces a so-called “sipping” tequila, which means it’s smooth enough to be paired with food in a similar manner to wine or single-malt spirits, she says. (She has collaborated with Eric Ripert of three-Michelin star Le Bernardin in New York and Thomas Keller, a chef with restaurants in California and New York on one-off dinners that combine their food with her tequila.)
It doesn’t come cheaply or quickly: a high-end version, with notes of pear and vanilla, retails at $275, takes an average of eight years to produce and is presented boxed, in a crystal-topped bottle and numbered by hand. And being part of the small team that creates and markets to the luxury product means that Gonzalez Nieves racks up to 120,000 miles per year, with business taking her regularly throughout North America and Europe.
“I see [work travel] as a lifestyle,” says Gonzalez Nieves who was named to Forbes Mexico’s Top 50 business women list in 2013. “For me having the chance to be so present in so many different cities and build relationships adds a whole new dimension to my life.”
Spirit of adventure
But as the brand’s global fan base grows, navigating her travel schedule is getting far more complex. Often, she’ll fly out to Monterrey or Mexico City or to US cities including Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles to meet clients in the field, see how the tequila is offered to patrons and to check on the bottles’ presentation at retail outlets or hotels. Other weeks, she flies to Rome, London and Paris to bring her spirit to the other side of the Atlantic. “London is a quintessential luxury spirit market,” says the entrepreneur who visits England several times a year. “It’s really like a billboard to a lot of different parts of the world.”
To be sure, the traveling life isn’t new for Gonzalez Nieves, who started her career as a Mexico City-based management consultant to Latin American markets, which meant she spent every week in places such as Chile or Argentina. Later, her role as a marketing executive at tequila producer Jose Cuervo meant jam-packed days on the road.
Still, she wasn’t fully prepared for the demands of running her own international business, she recalls. As an entrepreneur, traveling can feel more extreme because there’s always room to cram more into one day, she says. “It’s very different, there is bigger sense of the present and the opportunities — it’s much more intense,” she says.
Bertha Gonzalez NievesTo keep some semblance of routine while on the road, Gonzalez Nieves tries to fit in a 7:00 cycling class no matter where she is in the world. “The familiarity is helpful. It’s a part of home that I have with me,” she says.
Then, her first meeting typically starts at 9:00, with workdays often running late into the evening due to special client marketing events.
Breaking down barriers
Her personal approach to navigating business cultures stems from her own upbringing; first being raised in Mexico City, and then eventually settling in New York after completing university near Chicago. Gonzalez Nieves says she is focused on breaking down cultural barriers. Many of her clients, for example, travel between Los Angeles and the nearby resorts of Los Cabos, or live full-time in Mexico City but spend vacations in Miami. “There’s a very strong connection between both countries. I just see it as traveling to a certain territory,” she says.
Beyond geographic barriers, as a woman in the male-dominated spirits business she initially had to prove that she should be taken seriously. She’s now the first female to hold the Maestra Tequilera (a designation equivalent of a wine sommelier that took her 12 years in the business to earn). Still it’s common to be the only woman in meetings, she adds. “I really manage this business from a passion point of view and intellectual point of view, and then say ‘by the way I am a woman’,” she says.
Bertha Gonzalez NievesFinding refuge while on the road
After many years of travel, Gonzalez Nieves has learned that recharging at home is a priority. To keep from burning out, she follows a strict home-on-weekends policy to see friends, indulge in New York’s food scene and spend time with her partner. “Coming back home is like touching base,” says Gonzalez Nieves who estimates that she spends two weeks out of every month on the road. “Having that balance [on weekends] is what gives me the energy and the stamina.”
She also has a similar refuge on the road. Despite a busy schedule, Gonzalez Nieves likes to spend a few days every six weeks with agave farmers in Jalisco state, inspecting the plants that are eventually distilled to make the spirit at a nearby facility. Maintaining a connection with the farmers strengthens her ties to the production process and helps her speak more passionately about the product while on the road.
Bertha Gonzalez NievesShe rises with the sun to help with the harvest and spends time socialising with the farmers in the afternoons. “That’s the heart of who we are,” she says of her travels there. “When I’m in any part of the production process, it’s one of the areas of the business that I love the most.”