VinePair's recent profile of the family behind Tequila Ocho lands more than a year after the most consequential change in that family's modern history. In April 2025, Carlos Camarena stepped down as master distiller and CEO of El Tesoro and Tapatío, the two brands made at the family's La Alteña distillery, and handed both titles to his younger sister, Jenny Camarena.
The Spirits Business, Food and Wine, and InsideHook all corroborated the transition at the time. Jenny had spent roughly a decade at La Alteña after leaving a career in architecture, most recently as master of operations, before becoming the fourth master distiller in the distillery's 88 year history. Carlos, who had run El Tesoro and Tapatío since 1995, stayed on as the head of Tequila Ocho, the brand he built separately from La Alteña with the late Tomas Estes.
One family, two multinational owners
The practical significance of the split is corporate as much as familial. El Tesoro and Tapatío are owned by Suntory Global Spirits, which promoted Jenny Camarena into her dual role. Tequila Ocho answers to a different parent: Heaven Hill acquired the brand in 2022, and it now runs on its own footprint, Tequilera Los Alambiques, a distillery outside Arandas that opened in 2023 after Ocho outgrew its original home at La Alteña. The result is a single extended family supplying finished tequila to two competing American drinks conglomerates, a structure that is unusual even by the standards of a category where cross-ownership of distilling capacity is common.
The wider Camarena tree
La Alteña is only one branch. A cousin, Felipe Camarena, runs the El Pandillo distillery, where G4, ArteNOM Selección, and Volans are produced using a mix of deep well, spring, and rainwater sourcing. Trade coverage has repeatedly grouped G4, Primo 1861, El Tesoro, and Terralta as Camarena-linked labels, alongside the Tapatío line that traces to a distillery the family rebuilt after their original operation burned during the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Tomas Estes, Carlos's co-founder at Ocho, died in 2021, leaving his children Fany and Jesse Camarena and Jesse Estes to carry forward brand duties alongside Carlos.
What the scores say
Every Camarena-linked label we have tested blind carries our Verified Pure designation. Tequila Ocho Plata scored 94, its Reposado 92, and its Añejo 91. Tapatío's still-strength Blanco 110 scored 94, with the standard Blanco and Añejo both at 91. El Tesoro's Blanco and Reposado scored 93 and 92, and its Paradiso Extra Añejo reached 95, among the highest marks in our database. G4's three core expressions scored between 91 and 93, and ArteNOM Selección 1146 Añejo and Volans Ultra Premium Blanco scored 91 and 90. That consistency across a sprawling, multi-generational operation is notable in a category where family narrative and blind-panel purity do not always line up.
What changes for buyers
Nothing on shelves changes immediately. Jenny Camarena has said publicly that expanding high-proof offerings, building on Tapatío's 110 proof blanco, is a priority, which could eventually mean new expressions from El Tesoro or Tapatío. Ocho, meanwhile, continues its single-estate, vintage-dated model independent of La Alteña's day-to-day operations. The broader pattern, a family-run production base feeding brands owned by different multinationals, echoes what happened when Tito's bought Lalo in 2025, another case of an artisan-positioned tequila brand moving under a much larger corporate umbrella without an announced change to its stated production process.
What we are watching
Whether Jenny Camarena introduces a new high-proof El Tesoro or Tapatío expression, and whether it is produced at La Alteña or elsewhere. Whether Heaven Hill discloses any production changes now that Ocho is fully independent of La Alteña at Los Alambiques. Whether other Camarena-family brands, including G4 and ArteNOM, see their own succession announcements in the next few years. And whether any of these labels' purity status changes as our blind panel continues to retest bottles over time.