In 1758, Don Jose de Cuervo was issued a land grant by King Ferdinand VI of Spain in the town of Tequila, Jalisco. Here his family founded the Taberna de Cuervo, the farm where they would cultivate and harvest the blue agave plant, a water-retaining plant found in central Mexico that is distilled to create tequila. The first Vino Mezcal Tequila de Jose Cuervo was made in 1795.