On Oct. 30 and 31, tequila house Casa Dragones welcomed an international crowd to its hometown, San Miguel de Allende, for its annual Día de los Muertos celebration, a two-day affair it has hosted since 2015. The festivities unfolded at La Casa Dragones, the brand’s headquarters and a showcase for contemporary Mexican art and design, which this year received a colorful intervention by designer Daniel Valero and his studio, Mestiz. Set against the cobblestone streets and colonial-era architecture of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the gathering offered a spirited prelude to the Nov. 1 and 2 holiday, when families across Mexico honor deceased loved ones with flower-filled altars, photographs, and offerings.
For Casa Dragones CEO Bertha González Nieves, who started the tequila brand with MTV co-founder Bob Pittman, the setting is personal. “This is where we got together as partners, and this is where the idea of sipping tequila came from,” she recalled. San Miguel de Allende, with its rich tradition of craftsmanship and thriving community of artisans, remains the house’s professional and cultural home.
For the 2026 edition of its annual affair, Casa Dragones enlisted Mestiz to transform the property with La Cosecha (The Harvest), a site-specific installation celebrating two of Mexico’s most evocative crops: agave, the lifeblood of tequila, and cempasúchil, the marigold synonymous with Día de los Muertos.
Valero worked with a palette of fuchsia, yellow, turquoise, and orange, dressing the house’s facade in oversized yellow marigolds fashioned from handwoven wicker, while papel picado (“paper folk art”) fluttered above the entrance. Inside, Mestiz also created an installation, on view until Dec. 31, of hand-woven wicker marigolds decorated with real cempasúchil flowers. He used hammered brass—the traditional material of San Miguel de Allende’s famous estrellas—to create a candle holder, a flower vase, and an agave plaque. A photo of Ignacio Allende, a military leader who paved the way for Mexico’s independence, hangs at the center of the altar. Special edition bottles of Casa Dragones Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo designed by Mestiz are also available on-site.
An intimate five-course tequila pairing dinner by chef Gabriela Cámara of Contramar, the notable CDMX seafood mainstay, was held on Oct. 30 to ring in the proceedings. Cámara kicked off the evening with a tuna tostada paired with Casa Dragones Reposada Mizunara. “I am extremely honored to have everybody taste our original tuna tostada, because tuna tostadas actually did emerge from Contramar, and now you can find them everywhere in the world,” Cámara said.
Handshake Speakeasy, a Mexico City bar which topped the World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2024, provided three cocktails for the night: the Lychee & Jasmine, a highball made with 200 Copas by Casa Dragones, lychee, sake, jasmine tea, lime, and jasmine soda; the Olive Oil Gimlet, served with Casa Dragones Blanco, olive oil, green apple, Lillet Blanc, and rosemary; and the White Russian, a mix of Casa Dragones Añejo Barrel Blend with coffee liqueur, cream, and nutmeg.
The following day, La Casa Dragones opened its doors to 300 international and local guests, many of whom wore ornate skull makeup to celebrate Día de los Muertos, for a full night of dancing. The tequila flowed all night, and at 1 a.m., trays of pan de muerto, a traditional Mexican sweet yeast bread for the holiday, were passed out to guests as the festivities drew to a close—a sweet release to the playful celebration.
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