ArteNOM Tequila: The Complete Guide to the NOM Selection

What Is ArteNOM?

The name combines "arte" (art) and "NOM" (the official distillery certification number every licensed tequila producer carries). The philosophy is equally straightforward: great tequila should be traceable to its source. Every ArteNOM bottle prominently displays the NOM number of the distillery that made it.

This matters more than it might seem at first. The vast majority of tequila brands own no distillery and disclose no producer. A consumer buying a bottle of tequila from most major brands has no way to know where it was made, who made it, or what methods were used. ArteNOM inverts this entirely. The producer is the point, and the NOM on the label is the proof.

The result is a lineup where each expression serves as a portrait of a specific distillery: its agave, its equipment, its methods, its terroir. ArteNOM does not blend across sources or anonymize its producers. It puts them front and center.

The ArteNOM Lineup by NOM

The ArteNOM lineup evolves over time. New producers are added as the project grows. The expressions below represent the core historically available selections and the distilleries behind them.

Why ArteNOM Matters

Most tequila consumers have no idea who made the liquid in the bottle they are holding. Brand names obscure the actual producer, many brands own no distillery at all, and the NOM number buried on a back label is rarely something consumers know to look for or understand.

ArteNOM inverts this entirely. The producer is the brand. Each bottle exists specifically to celebrate what that distillery does and to give it credit by name, or rather by number, in a way that most of the tequila industry does not. The project is a standing argument that where a tequila was made, and by whom, and with what methods, is the most important thing on the label.

For consumers who want to understand tequila rather than just drink it, ArteNOM is one of the most useful tools available.

How to Use ArteNOM to Learn Tequila

Buying across multiple ArteNOM expressions is the fastest practical way to understand how different distilleries create different flavors from the same blue Weber agave grown in Mexico. The NOM 1123 (lowland, tahona) against the NOM 1146 (highland, roller mill) shows the contrast between production region and crushing technique more clearly than any written description can.

That side-by-side comparison is exactly what the project is designed to enable. ArteNOM does the curation so you can do the tasting, and the NOM numbers on the label make the lesson legible in real time.

Who Created ArteNOM?

The ArteNOM project was developed by David Ravandi, a tequila entrepreneur and educator who wanted to bring something like the cru or single-vineyard thinking from the wine world into tequila. The idea that a specific patch of land, a specific family, and a specific set of production choices produces a tequila that is irreducibly its own thing is already understood in wine. ArteNOM made the same argument for tequila.

The project has evolved over the years, expanding its producer roster and refining its approach. What has not changed is the core premise: the distillery is the story, and the NOM is how you tell it.