Chip Tate, founder of Balcones Distilling in Waco, Texas, has created two agave spirits for Foley Family Wines & Spirits: Gran Nota tequila and Penumbra Mezcal, which reached retailers nationally in August 2026.

Men's Journal profiled the pairing on September 11, 2026, reporting that Tate now holds the title of Master Distiller of Innovation at Foley and that the opportunity came through a Foley executive named Sean Schiffer. Tate told the outlet, calling from his home in Texas, that he had long wanted to work in agave spirits and had been trying to figure out how to get into mezcal specifically.

How Penumbra Mezcal is produced

According to Foley's own announcement and trade coverage from Craft Spirits Magazine and Fred Minnick, Penumbra is distilled from espadín agave at a single palenque in Santa Ana del Río, Oaxaca, where a maestro mezcalero works to specifications Tate developed. The producers use Encino, a type of live oak, in place of mesquite to pit-roast the agave, running a three day controlled roast and adding the agaves only after the initial smoke from the fire has dissipated. The bottle is 46 percent ABV and carries a suggested retail price of 45 dollars. Foley has publicized that Penumbra received a Double Gold medal and a 95 point score at the 2025 Tequila & Mezcal Challenge, a competition run independently of this publication.

Who Chip Tate is and how he left Balcones

Tate founded Balcones Distilling in Waco in 2008, and the company is credited by outlets including Diageo and multiple Waco news outlets with helping establish American Single Malt as a whiskey category. In 2014, Tate and the private equity investors who backed Balcones fought publicly over control of the company; Tate held a 27 percent stake and, according to WhiskyCast's reporting at the time, accused the investor group of trying to dilute that stake through funding for a new 15 million dollar distillery. The Balcones board and Tate settled on December 3, 2014, with Tate selling his stake and exiting the company he built. Diageo announced on November 2, 2022, that it had acquired Balcones for an undisclosed sum, citing the brand's position in the fast-growing super premium whisky segment.

What else Tate has released at Foley

Men's Journal reported that Tate joined Foley in 2024, shortly after the company had acquired Minden Mill Distilling in Nevada and launched Charles Goodnight Texas Straight Bourbon. His output there so far includes Ampersand, a set of three small-batch releases put out in late 2025 that included a rye and Calvados blend, a rye and neutral grain spirit blend matured in Cognac casks, and an extra-aged bourbon finished in Tokaji barrels, plus Gambit No. 6, a six-year-old bourbon finished across six different cask types. Men's Journal described Gran Nota as a Triple Oak reposado tequila with notes of grilled pineapple and citrus, though neither Foley nor Tate has published a NOM number, distillery location, or release date for it, and no press materials reviewed name an on-sale date beyond the profile itself. Foley's spirits arm, established by Bill Foley in 1996, already carries Tequila El Mexicano, Minden Mill's whiskeys, Charles Goodnight Bourbon, High Ground Estate Vodka, New Zealand's Lighthouse Gin, the Loch Lomond Group's Scotch portfolio, Two Stacks Irish Whiskey, and Killowen Distillery.

What this means

Foley is not new to tequila: Tequila El Mexicano Blanco already sits in Tequila Watch's database at 58 of 95, so Gran Nota will enter a house that has a prior agave track record to be measured against once it publishes production detail. Until Foley discloses a NOM, agave source, and release date for Gran Nota, there isn't enough on the record to place it anywhere.