Foley Family Wines & Spirits brought its newest tequila, mezcal, whiskey and bourbon releases to a public tasting at Red Herring in downtown Waco, Texas, with Master Distiller for Innovation Chip Tate presenting the lineup in a segment KWTX aired October 23, 2026.

The stop put a local face on a spirits push that California wine company Foley Family Wines & Spirits has run since 2023, and that has recently extended, under Tate, into tequila made in Jalisco and mezcal made in Oaxaca.

What Tate showed at the Red Herring tasting

KWTX described guests getting a first look at four releases: Ampersand American Single Malt, Gambit No. 6 bourbon, a reposado tequila and a mezcal, all developed under Tate since he joined Foley. Gambit No. 6 is a six year old bourbon finished across six different cask types, following Ampersand as Tate's earlier whiskey release for the company, according to Men's Journal's account of his work there. The agave spirits are Gran Nota, a Triple Oak reposado tequila, and Penumbra Mezcal, a single palenque espadín, both described by Men's Journal as Tate's hands on entry into a category he had not worked in before joining Foley.

What is Gran Nota, Tate's reposado tequila

Foley announced Gran Nota Triple Oak Reposado on September 30, 2026, as the first release under the brand, made at Hacienda El Mexicano, listed in the company's release as NOM 1588, in the highlands of Jalisco in partnership with the Bañuelos family. According to that release, the liquid is fermented for five days using a proprietary malt whiskey yeast more commonly associated with Scotch style production, a departure the company frames as a crossover from Tate's whiskey background. The bottle is released at 45 percent ABV with a suggested retail price of 55 dollars, and ages across three wood types, described by Foley as new oak contributing tannin and structure to the reposado.

What is Penumbra, Tate's mezcal

Penumbra Mezcal launched in August 2026 as Tate's first agave spirit for Foley, a single palenque espadín distilled in Santa Ana del Río in Oaxaca. Foley's announcement said the project was designed to reframe the role of smoke in mezcal, and described a production method using Encino oak rather than mesquite for pit roasting the agave over a three day cycle intended to soften harsher early smoke. The mezcal is bottled at 46 percent ABV with a suggested retail price of 45 dollars and is sold nationally through retail partners, according to the release.

Who is Chip Tate and how he arrived at Foley

Tate founded Balcones Distilling in Waco in 2008 and built it into one of the most closely watched names in American craft whiskey before leaving in December 2014, after what The Spirits Business and Whisky Advocate both described as a bitter dispute with the private equity investors who had taken a majority stake in the company in 2013. Tate sold his remaining 27 percent stake to the board and agreed to a noncompete that barred him from distilling work for roughly fifteen months, according to contemporaneous reporting in The Spirits Business. He then founded Tate & Co. Distillery nearby in Waco, gaining a distillery license in 2017 and opening the following year as both a working distillery and an equipment building operation, per Whisky Advocate's account. In January 2024, Tate was named Master Distiller for Innovation at Foley Family Wines & Spirits, the company controlled by Bill Foley, who also owns the Vegas Golden Knights, at a point when Foley had just acquired Nevada's Minden Mill Distilling and launched Charles Goodnight Texas Straight Bourbon as part of a broader move into spirits that began in 2023.

What this means

Tate's agave spirits are new enough that neither Gran Nota nor Penumbra has a published Tequila Watch score, and nothing in the record so far describes a batch size, Jalisco agave sourcing split, or import volume for Gran Nota. One point of continuity worth watching: Hacienda El Mexicano, where Gran Nota is made, is the same Bañuelos family facility that produces Tequila El Mexicano Blanco, a bottle that carries a published TW Score of 58 of 95 in this database. That earlier score reflects a different product and says nothing about Gran Nota's own composition or quality, but it is the only public data point tying NOM 1588 to a prior independent assessment.