A Bottle of the World's Most Expensive Tequila Sold for $225,000

Agave tequilana, aka blue agave, growing in Jalisco, Mexico — No matter how much you pay for a bottle of fine tequila, the contents start the same: as an agave plant. Showing the world .. / Getty Images

In the world of rare tequila, the price is often just as much about the luxury bottle as it is about the smooth taste of high-quality liquor. These expensive spirits are not only aged in everything from Cabarnet to Cognac to well-seasoned sherry barrels, they also come in fancy, hand-painted ceramic or crystal decanters.

Let's take a look at some of the most expensive tequila bottles ever sold, including the single most expensive tequila in the world.

Contents

Tequila Ley .925 Diamante
Clase Azul 15th Anniversary Edition
Patrón en Lalique
Jose Cuervo 250 Anevarsario (Rolling Stones Edition)
Código 1530 14-year Extra Añejo Double Barrel-Aged

1. Tequila Ley .925 Diamante

Ley tequila holds the Guinness World Record for most expensive bottle — of anything. The company's "pure white gold" and "pure platinum" bottle, encrusted with 4,000 diamonds and known variously as Tequila Ley Ultra Premium and Diamante, was sold in 2006 for $225,000. (Fun fact: That barely edges out the most expensive Funko Pop ever sold.)

But you're buying more than just the bottle — according to Ley .925, the tequila inside this ultra-expensive bottle is 100 percent blue agave produced by Hacienda La Capilla distillery and "aged up to seven years in French oak barrels."

2. Clase Azul 15th Anniversary Edition

In 2017, Clase Azul celebrated its 15th anniversary by producing 15 amber and gold bottles of tequila that sold for $30,000 each. "We didn't imagine that we were going to be in the business of selling super expensive bottles regularly," founder Arturo Lomeli told CNN at the time.

Today, you can buy a "regular" bottle of Clase Azul reposado tequila for about $175, but the company continues to produce limited-edition bottles, like their Master Artisan series, which retails for around $25,000.

3. Patrón en Lalique

Prefer your tequila in a cut-crystal decanter? Patrón's "en Lalique" series began in 2015, and in 2017 the tequila giant released Patrón en Lalique Serie 2.

Patrón en Lalique Serie 3 was released in 2023 and features a crystal decanter designed by Marc Larminaux, artistic and creative director at Lalique, a French jewelry and glassware company started in 1885. The suggested retail price is $7,500.

According to Patrón, inside the bottle is "a unique, non-replicable blend of 14 extra añejo tequilas aged to perfection."

4. Jose Cuervo 250 Anevarsario (Rolling Stones Edition)

This isn't your local dive bar's Jose Cuervo. Jose Cuervo 250 Anevarsario features extra añejo tequila aged for at least three years in French and American oak barrels, then blended with even older reserve tequilas and then aged one more year in Spanish sherry barrels.

"As you age tequila in barrels, you lose the agave character and you get more of a barrel character, and the caramel and nuts flavors," Food & Wine editor Ray Isle told Money in 2016.

A "regular" bottle of Anevarsario retails for over $3,000, but Jose Cuervo's most expensive tequila is the Rolling Stones edition, which cost $4,000 at its release and now sells for around $80,000.

5. Código 1530 14-year Extra Añejo Double Barrel-Aged

What makes Código 1530's $3,900 extra añejo tequila "double barrel-aged"? After 14 years of aging in Cabernet barrels, it gets finished in Cognac barrels.

"We decided to experiment with more of our cellared barrels of extra añejo tequila, with additional aging in toasted French Cognac casks for another six months beyond the 14 years," Código 1530 cofounder and co-CEO Federico "Fede" Vaughan explained in a press release.

Código 1530 released just 400 bottles of this ultra-expensive tequila in 2022.