Tequila Don Julio staged a four-day immersive tasting activation called Por Amor at New York's Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology from June 12 to 15, 2025, its first full brand takeover of the venue.
The Diageo-owned brand described the event as a multisensory journey built around the story of founder Don Julio González, using projection, scent and spatial audio to walk ticketed guests through a guided tasting. According to the announcement carried by PR Newswire, the brand called it a first-of-its-kind multi-sensory tasting experience at the museum.
What guests actually walked through at Mercer Labs
BizBash, which covered the activation on site, reported that the museum's 36,000-square-foot space held 15 different rooms, fitted with 26-foot-high projectors and LED mirrored infinity rooms. The trade outlet reported that a total of 3,500 guests moved through the installation over the four days, traveling in the narrative from what the coverage described as the red clay fields of Jalisco to a recreated modern Mexican celebration.
The brand's own release said the experience tapped 4D spatial sound, LED mirrored infinity rooms and volumetric light displays to tell its story, and multiple outlets, including Resident and Trend Hunter, reported guided tastings of Don Julio 70 Cristalino and Don Julio 1942 alongside stations where guests mixed their own cocktails with fresh ingredients and artisanal tools. BizBash listed NVE Experience Agency as the production company behind the build, with catering by Pinch Food Design and fabrication by Konduit NYC.
How the Por Amor campaign arrived at a museum takeover
Por Amor is not a one-off; it is the name Don Julio has used for its brand platform since at least September 2022, when the company opened a temporary retail space inside Mexico City's Palacio de Hierro department store in Polanco built around the same theme. The platform expanded in September 2023 with a global anthem film titled A Love Letter to Mexico, produced by Anomaly New York and shot in Jalisco and Mexico City.
In October and November 2024, the brand ran a Día de Muertos version of the concept in Mexico City called Eternos por Amor, an immersive altar experience curated with visual artist Betsabeé Romero and paired with cocktails from Mexico City bar Handshake. Diageo México's Ana Lizárraga discussed the concept publicly at the time, framing the Día de Muertos activation as a way to let guests connect with departed relatives through the ritual of the ofrenda.
Don Julio's ownership and where the brand sits in the category
Tequila Don Julio traces to a distillery its founder started in 1942 in Atotonilco El Alto, Jalisco, later known as La Primavera. Diageo took full ownership of the brand on February 27, 2015, buying out the 50% stake it did not already hold from Casa Cuervo. Filings show the deal involved Diageo handing over its Bushmills Irish whiskey brand and paying $408 million to Casa Cuervo, giving Diageo sole control of the tequila, the distillery, its agave supply and the Tres Magueyes label.
In its release for the Mercer Labs event, the company described Tequila Don Julio as the number one global tequila brand by sales value and the fastest-growing brand in the luxury tequila category, both claims sourced by the brand to 2024 IWSR Retail Sales Value data.
What this means
The Mercer Labs takeover reads as marketing spend rather than a change to the liquid: nothing here touches production, proof or labeling at La Primavera. Don Julio Blanco carries a TW Score of 62 of 95 in this publication's database, a rating about the bottling itself and unrelated to how elaborately a brand stages its tastings.