Interview: The McConaugheys bring Pantalones Organic Tequila to Aus

Tequila has always been part of Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila’s story arc. So, was anyone surprised when they made their foray into the world of agave in 2023? Perhaps not, but after tasting the tequilas, we sure are glad they did. Now Pantalones has finally landed Down Under, bringing all three of its offerings with it: a Blanco, Reposado and Añejo.

But back to the love story. It was, in fact, tequila that led to Matthew and Camila’s Hollywood meet-cute. Picture this: it’s 2006, Matthew is letting his hair down at Hyde Club on Sunset Boulevard, hand-making his own Margaritas (if that sounds odd to Aussies, remember, it’s bottle service in the US).   

“I’m not necessarily always a club guy, but this night I was a club guy,” recalls Matthew. “I saw this figure through the smoke and haze, moving from right to left… it was like she was floating. I found myself standing up and I didn't say who is that, I said what is that? I’m trying to get her attention and wave her over, and I hear my mother’s voice in my ear saying, ‘Boy, get your ass up, this is not the kind of woman you wave over’ so I went over and introduced myself.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Australia,” says Matthew. At just 18 years old, he did a year-long student exchange on the New South Wales Central Coast. Later, he called Australia home for yet another year while filming the 2008 rom-com classic Fool’s Gold in Port Douglas (Camila visited him during production, and Matthew notes she’s the only woman he’s ever invited to set. She’s visited every set since). “There’s something very Texan about Australians, and there’s something very Australian about Texans,” he says. “We love to have a good crack. We work hard, play hard… Australians like to have a damn good time – you guys have ‘good time’ up there as a pretty doggone high priority. You guys are as quick as anybody in the world at getting on somebody who does take themselves too seriously, and that’s the family I grew up in. That’s who a lot of my friends are. So, one, we’re going to give you a good smile on why you might want to drink Pantalones, but the bonus is you’re going to taste it and say ‘bloody hell, mate’”, which Matthew caps off in a 10-out-of-10 Aussie accent.

If you’ve caught sight of any of the marketing material, you’ll be aware that the brand is all about having fun – check out their remake of the iconic How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days poster – and not taking things too seriously. “Tequila has gotten snooty,” says Matthew, who has five measurements for the sign of a good drink: Does it taste good? What kind of time did I have? How did I sleep? How did I dream? And how did I feel the next day? “People talk about tequila like it’s a fine wine, and I have no problem with that, but I’m making tequila to have fun.”

It did, however, take three months for Camila to come around to the idea of Pantalones. “He had to convince me first. I was terrified to go on this journey together,” says Camila. “We’ve always worked together in different aspects, but we very purposefully don’t do things in front of the camera together. So, this was going to be the first time we would work together, face-forward. We work very differently and have very different styles. Not better or worse, just different, but it’s complementary – the way that we work.” Matthew chimes in quickly with a cheeky, “Well, so far.”

“I was scared of shaking things up because everything was working out. But it is working out,” says Camila. So, after Matthew wore Camila down, the two decided there would be one rule from the get-go. “We’ve got to have fun with this,” says Matthew, “because if we’re not having fun selling our favourite tequila in the world, then we’re doing something wrong.”

The duo was very specific with the exact flavour profile they were trying to capture – it needed to be agave-forward, with any flavour notes coming from the agave itself and not later additives. “We like it a little bit sweet on the end,” says Matthew, “yet we still want it to be tequila where you know it’s damn well from Mexico. Some tequilas we’ve had, they’ve been played with too much and I can hardly tell if it’s tequila or if it’s vodka. We don’t want it that clean, that distilled, we still want to taste Mexico in it.” 

With Camila on board, it was time to make “the juice”. Matthew tells us their goal was to make their favourite tequila. “[We said] what are we going to make that’s going to be our first choice next to anything else? That sounded fun to do, and it sounded challenging. After a couple of years and 40-something taste tests, we got that, and that’s what’s in the bottle.”

In the process, another goal came to light – Camila was dead-set on Pantalones being 100% organic. “It was very important for me,” says Camila. Matthew wasn’t so fussed (“I just wanted it to taste great, I don’t give a damn what it’s got in it”), but once Camila started to learn more about what actually goes into some tequilas, she wouldn’t budge. “If I’m going to drink this all the time, if it’s going to be our tequila of choice, I want it to be organic. And it was a bit of a challenge, but we got it,” says Camila. Matthew reckons going organic is probably why it took a couple of years to figure out. “It’s a lot harder to make your favourite tequila on a decent timeline if you’re going to say ‘organic’.” The proof is in the bottle, though, so we’re happy Camila won that battle.

At the heart of it all are Matthew and Camila. With nearly two decades of marriage under their belts, it’s safe to say they’ve got each other pretty well figured out. But working together is something else. “The best part would also probably be the hardest,” says Matthew. “The way I work is I go more revolutionary, I get momentum and I pound. She reacts at every step of the way…she assesses at every step and has a 360-view on everything. Have we answered all the questions? Do we have new questions we didn’t have before? Whereas I’m playing offence.”

“I ask a lot of questions,” agrees Camila. But Matthew is quick to note how critical that is to the process. “You’ve raised some very important questions along the way that we either did not know the answer to, or we had to reassess what we wanted the answer to be,” he says. “Do we move a hair slower? Probably. But the quality control, when I’m pounding playing offence and she’s stopping to go, ‘Wait a minute, are we playing this game how we want to?’’, has been a great balance. I’ve just had to learn some patience, but it’s been very good.”

As for Camila, she confirms their different styles of working are far more a blessing than a curse. “Matthew’s got one of the most brilliant minds on many levels, but especially in marketing,” she says. “I get to see him do this magic…and that’s an area that I don’t stop and question. Usually when I’m working on my own, I’m the one choosing wardrobe and direction, but with Pantalones I tell people to just go to Matthew. He has a clear vision and I don’t pause on that.”

The end goal? “That this is not only my and Camila’s favourite tequila,” says Matthew, “but that this is the world’s favourite tequila.” Lofty ambitions, but they’re quickly climbing the ranks. “Is it going to take a lot of work? Yeah. But the one thing that has been unanimous from the get-go is once people taste it, no one calls bullshit.”