Guy Fieri is rolling into San Jose this month, not for a restaurant review but for a bottle-signing session. The celebrity chef and TV personality is scheduled to appear at a BevMo store at 3149 Stevens Creek Blvd. on Oct. 17, where he’ll meet fans, promote his Santo Tequila brand, autograph bottles and pose for photos.
The San Jose stop, first reported by The Mercury News, is scheduled to run from 3 to 4 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early, and additional event details are posted at www.santospirits.com, according to the same report.
The Santo Spirits Backstory
Santo Tequila traces back to a partnership between Fieri and Sammy Hagar, the Hall of Fame rocker best known for his time fronting Van Halen. Santo Spirits describes the pair on its website as “friends and founders” who built the brand together, per santospirits.com. Sourcing on exactly when the brand launched varies: Axios has reported Fieri launched Santo Tequila in 2017 alongside Hagar, while the San Diego Union-Tribune has reported the pair launched Santo Spirits in 2019 — a discrepancy neither outlet has resolved.
The brand’s production origins carry a similar wrinkle. Santo Spirits’ own site states the tequila is made “at the state-of-the-art Distilleria Unión,” while importer Shaw Ross has identified the spirit as coming from the El Viejito Distillery in the Jalisco Highlands of Mexico. Santo markets itself as a line of additive-free spirits made from 100% Blue Weber agave, water and yeast, per the Santo Spirits site.
What’s In The Bottle
Santo’s lineup spans several expressions: Blanco, Reposado, Añejo and Mezquila, described by Santo Spirits as a blend of tequila and mezcal. The brand also bottles a high-proof option — Santo 110 Blanco is bottled at 110 proof, according to santospirits.com, which calls it the maximum proof allowed for tequila…