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Bill Sisoian, left, and Charlie\u00a0Garza of El Perrito Tequila are pictured during lunch last month at La\u00a0Fogata. Garza owns the San Antonio-based tequila brand.\u00a0Sisoian is assisting in expanding its distribution network.<\/p>\n
Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
When Charlie Garza and Bill Sisoian<\/a> were in college in the 1980s, parties were fueled by kegs and cheap six-packs of beer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those days are long gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The new generation has a taste for tequila<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 ordering shots for a quick fix, sipping it neat or drinking it mixed\u00a0in margaritas.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a 32-year-old daughter and a 30-year-old daughter,\u201d\u00a0Garza said. \u201cWhen they were at Texas Tech, we\u2019d go to the games and instead of beer, it was dominated by tequila. When I was there, we were all about the keg parties.\u201d<\/p>\n Those shifting tastes also prompted a shift for\u00a0Garza and Sisoian, who have a collective 60 years in the beer industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0<\/strong>Top 10 Margaritas in San Antonio for 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n After crossing paths as they touted competing brands from Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing, they now work side-by-side, using their\u00a0Rolodexes of industry contacts to sell Garza\u2019s homegrown\u00a0El Perrito Tequila<\/a> to Texas restaurants and liquor stores.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve found a niche marketing the San Antonio brand as an affordable house tequila for Mexican restaurants in the region.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time we win a new account, we always text each other, \u2018Hey, another win for the old guys,\u2019 \u201d\u00a0Garza said.<\/p>\n Tequila \u2018gold rush\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Garza, now 64, started on a Budweiser delivery truck in high school and worked his way up to director of Modelo Brands for South Texas. He retired from the industry in 2008 but wasn\u2019t ready for a quiet lifestyle. He started his own sales and marketing company, picking up a handful of tequila brands as clients. As he learned more about the Mexican spirit, he observed how it was transforming the landscape of the alcohol industry.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe tequila category became more and more prominent,\u201d\u00a0Garza said. \u201cMillennials started drinking it and spending money on some really high-end brands. Celebrities started getting in the mix with their own brands.\u201d<\/p>\n As overall U.S. alcohol sales have softened in recent years<\/a>, tequila emerged as the spirits industry\u2019s standout performer, notching growth as other beverages are seeing sales decline. The industry has dubbed the boom a gold rush.<\/p>\n From 2003 to 2024, tequila and mezcal volumes have grown 302% at an average of 6.8% per year, according to the\u00a0Distilled Spirits Council of the United States<\/a>. In 2024\u00a0alone, 32.2 million 9-liter cases were sold.<\/p>\n Tequila now holds the largest revenue share of the U.S. wine and spirits market, surpassing vodka for the first time in the first quarter of 2025, according to Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America<\/a>. Much of its growth can be attributed to the influx of brands and distillers offering products ranging from affordable to top-shelf.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0<\/strong>Kendall\u00a0Jenner\u2019s 818 Tequila settles lawsuit accusing her of ripping off Texas brand<\/a><\/p>\n It’s been boosted by celebrities jumping on the lucrative tequila bandwagon, using their fame to market and invest in trendy brands such as Kendall Jenner\u2019s 818, Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson\u2019s Teremana, Mark Wahlberg\u2019s Flecha Azul, Michael Jordan\u2019s Cincoro, Kevin Hart\u2019s Gran Coramino and Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul\u2019s Dos Hombres Mezcal.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2017, actor George Clooney, along with businessmen Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman, sold their popular Casamigos brand for a reported $1 billion<\/a> to Diageo, the alcoholic beverage company behind brands like Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Smirnoff and Don Julio.<\/p>\n Many celebrity-backed tequilas are marketed as 100% agave brands, meaning they are made solely from the sugars of the Blue Weber agave plant for a purer and more complex flavor profile.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to get in on the tequila business at the right time, but with this whole celebrity craze you have to have a lot of money to fit into the 100% agave category,\u201d Garza said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to spend all my Anheuser-Busch distributor retirement money.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Garza decided to forge his own path in the booming industry without the need for a flashy name or hefty investment.<\/p>\n Charlie Garza is pictured with an employee of D\u2019Reyes Tequila, which distills his El Perrito Tequila in Tequila, Mexico.<\/p>\n El Perrito<\/p>\n Building the brand<\/strong><\/p>\n He said he realized the best route would be to target the house or well tequila category, which is typically made with 51% agave. After asking around, he discovered that most restaurants had no real loyalty to a specific house brand.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI started just waking up every morning and hitting the streets and just asking some of the key players in town, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s your house tequila?\u2019 \u201d\u00a0Garza recalled. \u201cThere were always different names. It was just loyalty to the cheapest price.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2012, Ronnie Gabriel started a house tequila brand called El\u00a0Perrito. The Gabriel family owned the Don\u2019s & Ben\u2019s and Gabriel\u2019s Liquor store chains in town for 70 years before the company went bankrupt in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n As a dog lover, Garza was fond of the name and it already had some visibility within San Antonio. He worked out a deal to buy the brand and trademark from Gabriel in late 2019.<\/p>\n His next step was to find a distiller in Mexico. Only spirits produced in specific Mexican regions can be sold as tequila. Products made outside of those designated areas must be labeled as \u201cagave spirit\u201d or mezcal. Garza signed an agreement with Tequila D\u2019Reyes<\/a>, a small third-generation distillery in the town of Tequila, Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIn Tequila, there are\u00a0these humble families that are distilling a spirit that only comes from that part of the world,\u201d Garza said. \u201cThe farmers\u2019 hands are sunburned and their faces look like leather because they own these thousand-acre farms of agave.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: <\/b>These are San Antonio\u2019s Top 5 distilleries for excellent whiskeys, gin and tequila<\/a><\/p>\n The distiller submitted his brand to the Tequila Regulatory Council, the industry\u2019s regulatory authority. After about six months,\u00a0El Perrito was approved in early 2021. From there, he designed the bottle to stand out among other inexpensive brands. He created a story behind the name, about a dog that helps an old agave farmer sniff out the ripest blue agave plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Garza got his first 500 cases in November 2021 and found a distributor, Navarro Brothers Trading and Imports, to distribute the brand across Texas. He also purchased a warehouse near downtown San Antonio to build his inventory.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt came in and I just started hitting the streets with a couple of samples, knocking on my friend\u2019s doors,\u201d Garza said. \u201cEven though they\u2019re my friends from the industry and they get you in the door, the taste has to be there. I would carry competition with me, even by the looks of the bottles, the perception is that ours is going to be better, and it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Dream team<\/p>\n After building El Perrito\u2019s foundation, Garza needed someone to help him grow the business. He\u2019d known Sisoian for 40 years through the beer industry and, after bumping into each other one night, Sisoian let his old friend know he was getting ready to retire as president of local craft brewer Freetail Brewing Co.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe craft industry started going downhill, and I was ready to spend more time with my wife, kids and grandkids at 67 years old,\u201d Sisoian recalled. \u201cCharlie told me to call him when I got bored, but I had been working my whole life and my wife and I had plans for all these trips, so I initially turned him down.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Freetail Brewing, a San Antonio brewpub icon, shuts one of its two taprooms<\/a><\/p>\n A few months went by, and Sisoian picked up the phone.<\/p>\n \u201cMy wife and I have a great relationship after 47 years but after being together 24 hours a day, I thought I was going to screw up a perfectly good marriage,\u201d Sisoian recalled of telling her he was considering going back to work. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even get the words out of my mouth before she went, \u2018Please go. I love you, but you\u2019re driving me crazy.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n As much as he loved quiet moments at the house, he realized that he\u00a0loved the chase of a sale and was ready to get back out there again.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI called Charlie and said, \u2018Whatever you say, just don\u2019t say I told you so.\u2019 But he was 100% right,\u201d Sisoian said. \u201cI was bored to tears.\u201d<\/p>\n They met the next day and Garza gave Sisoian a quick education on the tequila business.\u00a0Sisoian laid down some rules before he shook Garza\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n \u201cI told him I don\u2019t have to wear long pants,\u201d Sisoian said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go to an office. I don\u2019t want the employees. I don\u2019t need health insurance. I don\u2019t need benefits. But I know a lot of folks and I like to be out with people, like I was last night, a little too late. I just want to go out and sell.\u201d<\/p>\n After sampling El Perrito, Sisoian was sold and a deal was made.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you think of a well tequila, you assume it\u2019s pretty harsh,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I joke that this one doesn\u2019t give you that scrunched up tequila face. This one is smooth without the harsh burn, and Charlie has perfected the recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n Using the industry relationships he made over the years, Sisoian has already helped grow the brand throughout San Antonio, New Braunfels and the surrounding areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI walk around with my dorky cooler on wheels with a few bottles, and I sample with the owners and key decision makers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He\u2019s brought on clients, including Santikos Entertainment Co.<\/a>, which owns 12 movie theaters throughout Texas and uses El Perrito for its batch margaritas. Garza said they sell from 30 to 50 cases of the brand a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I think I\u2019m addicted to when I get the sale but actually, I think I\u2019m really addicted to like all the times people say no, and then when you finally get it, that\u2019s what makes it exciting,\u201d Sisoian said. \u201cThat\u2019s an incredible feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlie Garza, owner of El Perrito Tequila, with bottles of the brand\u2019s silver and gold tequila at La Fogata.<\/p>\n Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n A better retirement<\/p>\n El Perrito now is sold in more than 300 restaurants, independent liquor stores and businesses in San Antonio, New Braunfels, Austin, Houston and Dallas. The brand offers silver and gold tequilas.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n San Antonio restaurants, including La Fogata, Hops & Hounds, Slackers Sports Bar, and Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery and Brasserie Mon\u00a0Chou Chou at Pearl, all have Garza\u2019s tequila behind the bar. The distributor sells the bottles for $8.75 to $9 a liter, which is a couple of dollars more than a usual well tequila, but because of the premium taste and locality of the brand,\u00a0Garza has been able to build the loyalty he saw was missing within the house tequila category.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re the only local house well tequila owners in Texas, and it starts with the relationships,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the taste has enough equity, they keep it, and the relationships continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Six Flags Fiesta Texas<\/a> also uses El Perrito Silver in its margaritas. Customers can buy their own bottle at independent liquor stores, like Alamo City Liquors, for $11 to $12.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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