1800 Tequila, the Proximo Spirits brand controlled by Mexico's Beckmann family, released Mono Laberinto Doble on August 12, 2026: an $11,000, 50-bottle extra añejo tequila housed in a nickel decanter designed by the late Mexican surrealist Pedro Friedeberg.

The launch was announced in a company statement carried by PR Newswire and covered by Robb Report, The Spirits Business and Shanken News Daily, among others. It is the newest entry in 1800's Colección Tequila line, an artist-collaboration series the brand has run since 1998.

What is actually in the bottle

Set the artwork aside and the liquid is a straightforward extra añejo, a category defined by aging of at least three years. According to the brand, the tequila is made from 100% blue Weber agave and is double-distilled in copper pot stills at 1800's family-owned distillery in the town of Tequila, Jalisco. The agave is cooked in traditional masonry ovens rather than a diffuser, a distinction the brand has drawn because it also uses diffuser processing for some of its flavored tequilas. The spirit is aged a minimum of three years in new American oak barrels with medium and high char, plus a portion finished in French oak casks that previously held Amarone, an Italian red wine. It is bottled at 40 percent ABV, with the brand's own tasting notes citing oak, cooked agave, honey, prune and subtle vanilla.

Who designed the decanter, and why now

Pedro Friedeberg was a Mexican surrealist artist best known for his Hand-Chair sculpture and for architecturally inspired, geometric drawings built over a seven-decade career. He died on March 5, 2026, in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, at age 90. His relationship with 1800 dated to 2017, when he served as the inaugural artist for the brand's 1800 Milenio Artist Series in Mexico. Mono Laberinto Doble was among the final projects he completed before his death. Each of the 50 decanters is signed and numbered and comes with an official art certificate, according to the brand. Patrick Charpenel, executive director of New York's El Museo del Barrio, was quoted in the release calling the piece a tribute to Friedeberg's legacy, saying that Friedeberg's work "has always existed at the intersection of imagination, identity, and heritage."

How this fits into 1800's Colección series

The Colección line began with releases called Circo and Naturaleza in 1998, followed by Solo Luz in 2000 and Los Ojos in 2001. Later decanters were designed by Hector Velazquez Ortus in 2010, Bosco Sodi in 2012, Gary Baseman in 2015 and Leonora Carrington in 2022. Last year, 1800 also worked with Toronto jeweler Jonathan Raksha on a diamond made using the brand's cristalino tequila. Mono Laberinto Doble's release coincides with the publication of a luxury book, The Art of Tequila: Spirit of Mexico, from publisher Assouline, which features 1800's collaborations with artists including Friedeberg.

1800's place in the tequila market

1800 dates to 1967, when the Beckmann family, which also controls Jose Cuervo, Maestro Dobel, Reserva de la Familia and Bushmills Irish whiskey, introduced it as an añejo expression originally sold as Cuervo 1800 Tequila. The brand is now distributed in the U.S. by Proximo Spirits, the Beckmann-owned company formed in 2007. Volume tells a very different story from the Friedeberg decanter's exclusivity: 1800 sold roughly 1.93 million nine-liter cases in the U.S. last year, according to Impact Databank figures cited by Shanken News Daily, positioning it as one of the largest tequila brands by volume even as this particular release is capped at 50 units worldwide.

What this means

The $11,000 price attaches almost entirely to the decanter and the Friedeberg provenance rather than to unusual liquid: a three-year extra añejo in American and Amarone-seasoned French oak is not, on its own, a rare style. Tequila Watch has not evaluated Mono Laberinto Doble or the broader 1800 Colección line at the tasting table, so no purity status applies here. For readers weighing the extra añejo category on liquid alone, the database includes bottlings such as El Tesoro Paradiso Extra Añejo, scored 95 and marked Verified Pure, as a point of reference for what the category can deliver independent of packaging.