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400 bottles of aged tequila line the walls of Zengo, a restaurant in Manhattan. Photo by N. Parish Flannery @LatAmLENS

Traveling from the blue agave lined hills of Jalisco, Mexico all the way to the outer bank of midtown Manhattan, tequila is stepping into the "lime" light. For instance, as I explained in a recent article for The Global Post, ZENGO, a chic restaurant in midtown Manhattan that serves sushi, sashimi, and a variety of Mexican dishes, has over 400 bottles of different kinds of tequila in the locked cabinets of its underground tequila “library.”

The restaurant is owned and operated by Richard Sandoval, a high-profileMexican chef. He opened his first restaurant in Manhattan a decade and a half ago and now has over 30 restaurants in cities across the country. All of his restaurants feature tequila, but ZENGO, in particular, is unique. After opening two years ago, ZENGO now features the largest tequila selection in New York City.

As I explained in my recent article for The Global Post, "In 2001, more than 80 percent of tequila produced in Mexico contained low-grade blends, according to government figures. That has turned around substantially. In 2011, almost 60 percent of the country's tequila production was 100 percent agave."

Courtenay Greenleaf, a tequila expert who refers to herself as a “librarian” rather than a sommelier, who runs the tequila bar at ZENGO, explained that “every one of