OMMMGGGGGGG have you had The Rock’s new tequila?! How bout Kendal Jenner’s? Nick Jonas’s? The Breaking Bad hombres?
Seems like every time you turn around there’s some new celebrity fronting the next hot shit brand that’s supposed to be the best agave spirit to cross your palate. This is not surprising as the agave division is the fastest growing spirits category in the US, seeing a 65% sales increase in 2020 alone.
While this could have net positive impact on the state of Oaxaca, (which is the 2nd poorest state in Mexico) as consumers, we should be wary of how this increased demand could stress or break the system all together. Greedy corporations looking to maximize profit might be incentivized to do so by cutting corners when it comes to things like sustainable agave farming, fair wage compensation, using additives or chemicals, etc.
While we here at Mission Mezcal Club are committed to working with such producers all the time always, we felt like it was worth exploring the topic more in depth by featuring 4 producers who don’t just walk the walk, but talk the talk.
MEZCAL #1: Macurichos
Maestro: Gonzalo Martinez Semas
Origen: Santiago Matatlan, OAX
Agave: Tobalá
Notes: Our first feature is from the young and brilliant Gonzalo Martinez, whose family took over a wild agave field in the 60s and have been producing sustainable mezcals ever since. Tobalá is an exemplary choice for the sustainability conversation because Agave Potatorum takes up to 20 years to reach maturity, and because they’re so small, it can take up to 3 mature plants to make just 1 liter of mezcal.
The brothers cultivate their own diverse fields of agave—planting from seed and reforesting the diminishing wild agave populations—and use exclusively organic farming practices with love and respect.
MEZCAL #2: La Medida
Maestro: Antonio Cortés Aragón
Agave: Arroqueño
Notes: La Medida (“The Measure”) is a co-op of 46 mezcal producers. This style enables and engages a community-based support system for shared resources and labor that helps support the mezcal-driven economy of agave rich Miahuatlán.
Arroqueño is the opposite of Tobalá in that they’re HUGE. They’re prized for how much sugar each piña has, and thereby how much mezcal each plant can produce.
Grown wild, this species was on the verge of extinction, save for the conservation efforts in Miahuatlán, led by the team at La Medida.
MEZCAL #3: Pal’Alma
Maestro: Patricio Hernandez
Agave: Salmiana
Notes: Pal’alma is the export brand for Almamezcalera, the bottling label from Mexico City’s notorious “Indiana Jones of Agave”, Erick Rodriguez. Equal parts historian and adventurer, Erick travels to remote production sites all over Mexico.
Deeply committed to local traditions and rooted in rustic ingenuity, Erick’s collaborators are all bona fide local legends in their own right. Working with just a single mezcalero per state, including several states (such as Nuevo León and Sonora) not currently acknowledged under the “Mezcal” Denomination of Origin, Erick bottles tiny batches of truly thrilling, uncertified agave distillates.
Featured here is the lesser known Salmiana varietal, that in this case is blended by Patricio with 30% Pulque, adding a briney complexity to this endlessly intriguing sipper that keeps you coming back for more.
MEZCAL #4: Nuestra Soledad
Maestro: Pedro Vasquez
Agave: Espadín
Notes: Nuestra Soledad is a 100% organic production, featuring single village producers that grow their own agave. This helps keep the supply chain (and the profit share) within the villages that create each mezcal.
This creates end-to-end control of the product from plant to bottle that for a master distiller like Pedro, gives him complete creative expression.
This Esapdín is exemplary. Pedro pulls tremendous complexity from just this single workhorse agave, yielding notes of caramelized banana with cedar/cigar box spice. Delicious.
