The blue agave takes seven or eight years to ripen, and in all that time it does nothing but sit in the red volcanic soil and look like a giant spiky pineapple. Then a jimador arrives with a long-handled blade called a coa, strips the leaves, and cuts out the heart, which looks like a huge pineapple and weighs as much as a small child. The hearts are baked, crushed and fermented, and what comes out of the still is tequila. The landscape that makes this possible, the agave fields and distilleries around the town of Tequila in Jalisco, was listed as a World Heritage site in 2006.
This zone sits near Amatitan, a town of about eleven thousand people that has a long history of distilling. The setting is a plain of dark red earth and blue-grey agave, row after row, against the backdrop of the Tequila volcano, which rises to nearly three thousand metres to the northwest, and the deep canyon of the Santiago river to the north. Old haciendas with whitewashed walls and chimneys stand among the fields. Some of the distilleries have been working since the eighteenth century, and several run tours and tastings, although you should obviously think twice about the tasting if you are on a bike.
The riding is lovely in a gentle way. From Guadalajara, which is about an hour away, you can take the toll road or the older highway through small towns, with agave stretching on both sides, and then explore the back roads between villages. Corners are soft, surfaces mostly good but with Mexico's classic hazards: topes, potholes, stray dogs and slow trucks. Fuel is easy in Amatitan and Tequila, the larger town just up the road, and Guadalajara has everything.
Spend time in Tequila itself, a pretty town with a big church, a main square and a famous old train that takes visitors through the fields. Try a michelada or a plate of carne en su jugo, a Jalisco speciality of beef in broth, and ask your host about the difference between blanco and reposado.
The dry season, from November to May, is the best time. The rains in summer turn the fields green, bringing afternoon storms, and the colours are richer then.