Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/724773
f a l l 2 0 1 6 | 8 5 Jim Riley, CEO, and Alex Baca, President, of Azuñia Tequila. You are not off the plane from the United States very long when you are initiated into some local Jalisco customs, at least the way the folks from Azuñia Tequila practice them. Here, hospitality is genuine, palpable and authentic, and as we drive to a local restaurant, you can almost taste the first sip of the perfect Maragirta awaiting you. "This is what we do," says Alex Baca, the president of Azuñia. You look around the van and see smiling faces, including those of Jim Riley, the CEO, and friends and customers, who are enthusiastically leaning over their seats in the back. "This is what we do," Jim echoes. Workers load the agave piñas into hornos, the clay ovens where they will be steamed and softened.