IT IS AN AUSTRIAN TAKE on a Mexican original. And yet it is a product of Mexico totally true to its Mexican origins. It is Padre azul, a tequila born out of an intercontinental love affair. Adrian Alvarez Maxemin, from Guadalajara, Mexico, was studying German in Heidelberg, Germany, when she met HP Eder, an Austrian working at a local bank. After they fell in love, they went to Mexico to meet her family, and Eder tasted his first true tequila. For him, it was “the most delicious spirit I had ever had.”

Eder was enthralled with true tequila, with Mexico and with its way of life. As he learned more about Mexico’s tequila, he contrasted it with the poor-quality European-made tequilas he had had and wondered if his Austrian friends would appreciate the real thing. By then, he was considering making it. Once his new father-in-law, Francisco, joined him, a number of Eder’s Austrian friends agreed to be part of the new project, and Padre azul was born.

True tequila is a distilled drink that, by law, must be made 100 percent from the blue agave plant grown in defined areas of Mexico, mostly around the village of Tequila. Soon the new company found an excellent, small distillery in Amatitán, close to Tequila. There the piñas, or hearts of the agave, are grown for eight years before they are harvested. They are then smoked in old brick kilns, fermented, distilled and put into barrels. While most tequila reposado must by law be kept in barrels for two months, Padre azul Reposado is aged for eight months.

Padre azul is made in three forms: the young Blanco, Reposado and aged Añejo. Tasting Padre azul Reposado ($80), whose color is a clear, brilliant gold, I was impressed with its rich, smooth, round, velvety body and its equally smooth taste with a vanilla flavor, undertones of ripe pear and banana and a lingering finish. Overall, it’s an incredibly smooth, intensely flavored, wellbalanced tequila.

And it makes a stunning presentation in a leather-covered bottle with a metal skull as its stopper, as unique as the tequila itself.