Marcado 28, the tequila brand fronted by former Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio, said on August 3 that it has grown its distribution footprint to 14 U.S. states and the District of Columbia since its October 2024 launch. The announcement, carried by BevNet and Wine Industry Advisor, frames the growth as evidence the brand is gaining traction in a crowded celebrity linked spirits category.

According to the release, Marcado 28 is now sold in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Washington D.C., with retail placement at chains including ABC Fine Wine and Spirits and Total Wine and More, plus independent accounts such as Dierbergs and Applejack.

The strategy behind the numbers

The company is positioning its rollout as deliberate rather than rushed. It described its approach as building distribution market by market rather than forcing rapid national scale, arguing that the slower path produces stronger sell through and deeper account relationships. That is a defensible position for a two year old independent label competing against distributor backed portfolios that can buy national shelf space in a single cycle, though the release does not disclose case volumes, depletions or revenue, so the actual scale of that momentum is not independently verifiable from what has been published so far.

Who is behind the bottle

Marcado 28 was co-founded by Voltaggio and Ron Roy through Spirits and Wines That Rock, the same venture behind Star Trek branded spirits. The brand's production is credited to Bruno Barba, described in company materials as a tenth generation tequilero connected to the Romo family, who the company says is associated with the historical development of reposado style tequila. That lineage claim originates entirely from company marketing and has not been corroborated by an outside historical or industry source in our research, so it should be read as brand narrative rather than established fact. The lineup consists of a Blanco and a Reposado, both bottled at 40 percent ABV, with the Reposado aged eight months in American oak. At launch in 2024 the Blanco retailed near 50 dollars and the Reposado near 60 dollars, though current shelf pricing may vary by market and neither figure was refreshed in this week's release.

What buyers still cannot verify

The brand markets itself on a three ingredient formulation of water, 100 percent blue Weber agave and yeast, and describes itself using language similar to the term we reserve for bottles we have independently confirmed as free of additives. We have not received or blind tasted Marcado 28 Blanco or Reposado, the brand does not appear in our database, and we have no NOM number, distillery location or third party lab result on file to confirm the company's own claims about ingredients or process. Until that verification happens, any purity claim attached to this brand should be treated as a producer statement, not a Tequila Watch finding. The same caution applies to the distribution numbers themselves: both outlets that ran the story appear to have published the company's release largely intact rather than independently reporting sales or shipment data, which is common for smaller spirits brands that lack the trade press access larger portfolios enjoy.

What we are watching

Whether Marcado 28 discloses a NOM number or names its Jalisco distillery, which would allow independent verification of the tenth generation production claim. Whether the promised marketing campaign tied to the Voltaggio and Barba collaboration, expected later this year, includes any new retail commitments or on premise accounts beyond those already named. Whether the brand expands past its current 14 state footprint before year end, and whether any of the named retailers report shelf presence independently of the company's own account. Whether Marcado 28 submits bottles for blind evaluation, which would let us confirm or dispute the additive claims currently resting on company marketing alone.