There's a version of the tequila industry that's all celebrity endorsements and additives dressed up as "ultra-premium." And then there's Felipe Camarena at Destilería El Pandillo in the Los Altos highlands of Jalisco, doing things the hard way because he genuinely believes the hard way is the right way.
G4 is his project — a name that refers to the fourth generation of the Camarena family making tequila in this valley. The family lineage runs deep here. Felipe's relatives also produce El Tesoro and Tapatio, two other benchmarks of traditional highland tequila. But G4 is Felipe's own voice, and it's worth listening to.
Felipe is obsessive about water. At El Pandillo, he collects rainwater and uses water from his own spring — he's gone so far as to build his own dam on the property. Why does this matter? Water quality directly affects fermentation, and fermentation is where flavor is born. Most producers don't think twice about what's coming out of the tap. Felipe built a dam.
The agave — fully mature Blue Weber, grown in the red clay soils of Los Altos — is cooked in traditional brick ovens, not autoclaves. Autoclave cooking is faster, cheaper, and produces a cleaner but ultimately flatter spirit. Brick oven roasting takes longer, extracts more complexity, and lets the agave taste like itself. After cooking, Felipe uses a roller mill (tahona-adjacent in philosophy, if not identical in practice) and ferments with open-air wooden tanks, inviting the wild yeasts of the Jalisco highlands into the process.
Distillation happens in copper pot stills. The result is a tequila with genuine terroir — you can taste where it came from.
Under current Mexican regulations, tequila producers can add up to 1% of the bottle's volume in additives — glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract, sweeteners — without any disclosure on the label. A staggering number of brands take advantage of this. Felipe doesn't. G4 is certified additive-free, verified by independent testing. What you taste is agave, water, time, and craft. Nothing else.
This isn't just a talking point. Spend time with the G4 Blanco and you'll notice something: it has texture and weight without any sweetness that feels borrowed or added. The minerality is real. The herbal brightness is earned. That's what additive-free production actually tastes like when the underlying spirit is this well made.
The G4 Blanco ($40) is the purest expression of what Felipe is doing. Unaged, rested only in stainless steel, it delivers classic Los Altos character — cooked agave, citrus zest, a little white pepper, and a long, clean finish. At $40, it's one of the best values in the store. Drink it neat, in a Paloma, or in any cocktail where you want the tequila to actually show up.
The G4 Reposado ($60) spends time in used American oak barrels, picking up subtle vanilla and caramel notes without burying what makes the spirit interesting in the first place. The agave character stays intact. The oak supports rather than dominates. It's a reposado that actually tastes like aged tequila, not a shortcut to a whiskey drinker's comfort zone.
At Off Premise, we gravitate toward producers who treat their craft like it matters — people making decisions based on quality rather than margin. Felipe Camarena is exactly that. G4 is transparent, terroir-driven, and priced fairly for what it delivers. In a category full of noise, it's a clear signal.
Both the G4 Blanco and G4 Reposado are on our shelves now at 1128 W Armitage Ave in Lincoln Park. Shop in-store or order online for pickup.
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