What Is a NOM Number? (Label Literacy Explainer)
A NOM number is the four-digit code printed on every certified tequila that identifies the distillery that produced it. NOM stands for Norma Oficial Mexicana, and the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT) assigns each distillery its own number.
The number matters because the name on the front of a bottle and the place the tequila was made are often two different things. Fewer than 200 certified distilleries supply the whole tequila market, while the CRT's registry holds thousands of brands: 2,661 brand entries as of August 3, 2026, according to Tequila Tracker. The NOM cuts through the marketing and points to the actual production plant.
What Is a NOM Number?
NOM stands for Norma Oficial Mexicana, the name for Mexico's mandatory technical regulations. The Mexican government issues NOMs across many industries, and authorities enforce them to protect public health, safety and the environment and to set the rules for product labeling. The standard that governs tequila production is NOM-006-SCFI-2012. It sets which agave is allowed, where tequila can be made and what the label has to say.
Tequila can only be produced in Jalisco and in select municipalities of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit and Tamaulipas, and only from blue Weber agave (more on that in what tequila is made from). Every tequila producer in that territory needs CRT certification, and each certified distillery receives a unique four digit number. The CRT keeps records for every brand at every distillery and checks that the tequila meets legal standards before it can be sold as certified tequila. Every certified tequila must display its NOM.
When people talk about a "tequila NOM," they almost always mean that distillery number, not the regulation itself.
Where to Find the Four Digit Number on a Tequila Bottle
Turn the bottle around. The NOM sits on the back label in the fine print, written as "NOM" followed by four digits, usually near the CRT logo, the "Hecho en México" statement and the importer's details. On a crowded shelf, it is the quickest fact on the label to check.
Mezcal and some other agave spirits carry NOM numbers too, but under a separate regulator and standard, so a mezcal NOM and a tequila NOM are not interchangeable.
Why Many Brands Share the Same NOM
Most people assume a tequila brand owns its own distillery. Many do not. A single distillery can produce multiple brands for clients who buy finished tequila, rent time on the stills, or bring their own recipe and master distiller into the facility. Every brand produced there carries the same NOM.
Tequilera TAP in Amatitán, Jalisco, NOM 1614, makes tequila for a long list of other tequila brands. Inspiro, one of the brands made there, points out that labels produced at the same facility use different techniques and different master distillers.
A shared NOM tells you two tequilas came out of one distillery. It does not tell you which brand came first or which is better. Brands also move between distilleries, and some use different NOMs for different expressions, so the number on this year's bottle may not match an older one.
Does the Same NOM Mean the Same Quality?
No. Sharing a NOM does not guarantee the same quality or the same recipe. Two brands at one distillery can make very different choices: which agave they buy and how ripe it is, the cooking method (brick oven, autoclave or diffuser), how long fermentation runs, how the tequila is distilled, and how long a reposado, añejo or extra añejo rests and in what barrels.
What brands at one distillery do share is the physical setting: the same equipment, often the same stills and the same water source. That can leave a distillery signature, a thread some drinkers pick up across the flavor profiles of labels made in the same place. Wine works in a similar way, where grapes from one vineyard can end up in very different bottles depending on who makes the wine.
If your favorite tequilas turn out to share one NOM, that tells you something useful. You probably like that distillery's production style, and other brands made there are worth a taste. Treat the NOM as a lead and let the taste in the glass settle it.
How to Look Up the Four Digit Code on Any Bottle of Tequila
Tequila Matchmaker lets you search a NOM and see the distillery's name and location, the brands made there and, where reported, production details such as cooking method, extraction and still type. Type in the four digit code from the back label and you'll know which distillery produced the tequila and what else comes out of that same facility.
A NOM lookup puts two tequilas on the same footing, because it takes the bottle design and the brand story out of the comparison.
What a NOM Number Doesn't Tell You
The NOM tells you where a tequila was made. It doesn't tell you how long it aged, whether it is 100% agave, or what one brand does differently from the others at its distillery. The age category and the agave content are printed separately on the label, and both are worth reading alongside the NOM. A tequila not labeled 100% agave can take up to 49% of its sugars from other sources. The aging categories are laid out in the four grades of tequila, and the steps from field to bottle are in how tequila is made.
The NOM on a Bottle of TROPA
TROPA is a 100% agave tequila produced at NOM 1412 in the highlands of Jalisco. TROPA Reposado rests three months in American oak, then goes into a hand-cast ceramic vessel under one of four collectible caps. The NOM is on the back label with the rest of the fine print, and a lookup shows the distillery behind it. What the liquid tastes like, and how best to pour it, is covered in what is reposado tequila and what is sipping tequila.
Next time you pick up a bottle, read the back before the front. Find the four digits, look them up, and taste with that in mind.