Patrón Tequila, owned by Bacardi Limited, announced on September 15, 2026 the launch of Agave Masters, a free global trade program that merges its longtime bartending competition with its online education platform and adds a new accreditation built with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust.
The announcement went out as a press release distributed by PR Newswire and republished on Bacardi Limited's own newsroom, datelined from the company's Hamilton, Bermuda headquarters. It was picked up by wire aggregators including Germany's Finanznachrichten and by syndicated lifestyle outlets, with no independent trade press coverage of the program identified beyond outlets repeating the release.
What the program actually combines
According to the release, Agave Masters brings together Patrón Perfectionists, the brand's global bartender competition, and Academia Patrón, its existing education platform, into what the company calls a single home for the global bar community. The program is built around three pillars, education, competition and community, and is open at no cost to anyone of legal drinking age working on a bar team, from bar backs to bartenders. Its centerpiece is a new WSET Agave Masters accreditation, developed jointly by Patrón and the Wine and Spirit Education Trust and described in the release as the only WSET credential dedicated entirely to agave spirits. The release said the credential is available through the Agave Masters platform at no cost to members. A companion competition will roll out across multiple countries worldwide, the release said, without naming the countries, entry dates or judging format. The program is dated to launch this month.
A decade of Patrón bar programming behind the rebrand
Agave Masters does not start from zero. Patrón Perfectionists, the cocktail competition folded into the new program, began in 2016 and has run nearly every year since, sending national winners to a global final at Hacienda Patrón in Jalisco, Mexico. The 2024 edition drew finalists from 17 countries, and the 2023-24 cycle was described as running across 15 countries for a full year, according to coverage by The Spirits Business and Difford's Guide at the time. Academia Patrón, the education platform now absorbed into Agave Masters, had already been running its own online Agave Masters Certification, a quiz-based course distinct from the new WSET-backed accreditation. Lauren Mote, quoted in the September release as Global Director, Agave On-Trade and General Manager of the Hacienda Patrón Brand Home, has led the brand's on-trade programming under a series of titles since at least 2022, when trade coverage listed her as Global Director of On-Trade Excellence.
Who owns Patrón, and what the WSET credential is worth
Patrón was founded in 1989 by John Paul DeJoria and the late Martin Crowley. Bacardi Limited, the Bermuda-headquartered, family-owned spirits company, bought an initial 30 percent stake in Patrón in 2008 and completed a full buyout in April 2018 in a transaction that valued the brand at 5.1 billion dollars, according to Bacardi's own newsroom and reporting by The Spirits Business at the time. Patrón now sits inside a Bacardi portfolio that also includes Bacardi rum, Grey Goose vodka, Dewar's Scotch and the tequila brand Cazadores. The Wine and Spirit Education Trust, the UK-based drinks education body behind the new accreditation, was founded in 1969 and says its wine, spirits, beer and sake qualifications now run through course providers in more than 70 countries, giving the Patrón partnership access to an existing global exam and certification infrastructure rather than one built from scratch.
What this means
What was announced is a marketing and trade-education consolidation aimed at bartenders, not a change to how Patrón tequila is made, priced or labeled. Patrón's description of itself as the world's number one super premium tequila carries its own footnote in the release and was not independently verified here. The competition's actual country list, entry windows and judging criteria were not detailed in the initial announcement. Patrón Silver, the brand's flagship expression, carries a TW Score of 64 of 95 in Tequila Watch's database, a figure this launch does not change.