What’s the best mezcal? We’ll never be able to answer that question. But if you want more of your booze budget to go to small businesses, here are some interesting brands that are owned by mezcaleros.
Yes, I know. Some of you will have heard of some of these brands. A handful of you will have heard of all of these brands. If we really wanted to write a list of truly obscure agave spirits, we’d focus on the bottles that never make it out of Mexico and can typically only be bought at a palenque, vinata, or local tienda. But we want to make this list useful for readers who don’t have time to take a death-defying road into the sierra, so we’re instead highlighting some mezcal brands that haven’t yet gotten a ton of press, are worth checking out, and are now available outside of Mexico.
Looking for a sustainable bacanora brand? Batuq is fairly well-known for a bacanora brand, but bacanora itself remains comparatively obscure. That said, outsiders with big money have been creeping into the industry, and only a handful of producer-owned brands export to the US. Bacanora Batuq is owned by producers who have a long history with bacanora–possibly dating as far back as 1910. Rafael Adelberto Encinas Molina and his family own a ranch outside of San Pedro de la Cueva, Sonora. Rafael Encinas oversees both farming and distilling, working with vinatero Rafael Quijada. Unlike many bacanora producers who still rely on wild agaves, the Encinas have been farming agave yaquiana for over 25 years, but pride themselves on retaining semi-wild fields.
The family uses both pit ovens and autoclaves because Rafael Encinas doesn’t want smokiness to dominate his bacanora. If autoclave strikes you as “industrial,” it’s a bit more nuanced than that. The vinata is off the grid, so the autoclave is actually wood-fired. The rest of the distillery operates on solar power. They minimize energy use by using gravity-fed spring water. The saite is fermented in open tanks by wild yeasts. Read more about Batuq here.
Have you ever heard the notes of a lone clarinet on a starry Oaxacan night? Do you have a passion for both music and mezcal? The latter is more likely, but both are the origin of this brand’s name, which translates to “two passions.” Like many Oaxacans, Epigenio Martinez Perez had no choice but to join the workforce as a kid. But in this case, the circumstances were the murder of his father and brother. At age twelve, Epigenio began working in a palenque. He found solace in learning to play the clarinet, and later the saxophone.
Over the years, he traveled the countryside to sell mezcal, and along the way taught many kids to play music. Thus, when his family created an actual brand, they named it Dos Pasiones to reflect the maestro’s two guiding lights. The family has been producing mezcal since 1943 and they established their palenque in 1999, in Santa Maria Albarradas. These days the heavy lifting falls to Epigenio’s sons, Diego and Edgar. They bake agave in stone-lined pit ovens, ferment in open-air wooden tinas, and use small copper pot stills, but credit the unique flavors of their mezcal to the local spring water and soil minerals. They produce espadín, tobala, and tepeztate.
When evaluating the quality and “authenticity” of a mezcal, we have a lot of touchstones that may or may not actually play into the actual quality of the spirit. Is a mezcal milled with a tahona always going to be better than a mezcal shredded by machine? Unless the machine is a diffuser, absolutely not. The number of generations a family has been distilling is another point that gives a mezcal brand bragging rights. And with good reason! If I were the fourth generation in a family of mezcaleros, I’d be proud too. And of course there’s much to be said for passing on knowledge and tradition. But that doesn’t mean that first generation mezcaleros can’t make excellent mezcal. A case in point is Celebrante, a new mezcal brand from Durango.
The brand was created by brothers Diego and Javier Mayagoitia, and their father Francisco Javier. In 2020, the family set up a small vinata with an in-ground oven, partially buried wooden fermentation tanks, and small copper pot stills. While Diego studied for his masters in environmental management, he also interned with respected local mezcaleros. His interest in the environment has informed the family’s focus on sustainable mezcal. As Tess Rose writes in her extensive (and interesting) profile of the brand “Diego is an accomplished academic, with a thesis that focuses on the ecological interactions of native plant species that cohabitate with agaves in their natural environment. Studying these companion plants and how they function as an interconnected ecosystem not only informs the terroir-driven nature of the brand, but also became an anchor for building community; Diego offers presentations to disseminate his findings and has become a champion of sustainability for the wild agave landscape of Durango.” Tess also confirms that the mezcal is, indeed, very good.
Another case in point regarding mezcal made by first generation producers. Ary Buendía says, “I like to underline this part of the process and of my history. I was not born into a mezcaleria cradle.” Instead she apprenticed with Jorge Pérez, a pioneer of agave distillates in Rio de Parras, Michoacan. She only works with A. inaequidens, which is endemic to her region. The agave is roasted in a conical masonry oven, fermented with pulque, and double distilled in filipino-style stills with copper pans and bases made of oyamel, otherwise known as Abies religiosa, or sacred fir. They make a mezcal with an ABV of 52% and another of 48% for export.
Ary aims to create a sustainable mezcal brand that supports the local community. She says that Espina Roja is the first brand in their area that is working to neutralize and re-purpose agro-waste to ensure that they’re not polluting the waterways. “We still have a lot to do,” she says. “But we’re moving forward, little by little.” She wants to change things for the better for the next generation. “Expressing the diverse flavors of the distillate is important, but making mezcal for the sake of making mezcal is not our objective at Espina Roja,” she explains. By sharing her story, she hopes to encourage other women in their paths toward becoming producers.
When asked what part of the process she likes best, Ary says, “everything,” but notes, “It’s a very tough trade, very heavy. However, I enjoy every stage of the process. I’m passionate about sharing my story, sharing my tradition and process, and sharing the enjoyment of my distillate.” She notes that Espina Roja is made “conscientiously, and with a feminine touch.”
*In addition to the US, their mezcal is available in New Zealand!
“One of our pillars is sustainability and conservation. We have a permanent program for the preservation of wild agaves. We try to plant a minimum of 20 agaves for each one we harvest,” Samuel Santiago Mendez told contributing writer Anna Bruce. The Santiago Mendez family of San Dionisio Ocotepec have been making mezcal for three generations and are proud to finally bring their brand to a larger market. The family is Zapotec, and their focus is on representing their local traditions while taking a forward-looking stance on sustainability. To that end, they’re growing from seed and reforesting the ocote trees (also known as the Montezuma pine) that give their Oaxacan village and their mezcal its name. They make a point to plant their agave seedlings in areas that are considered infertile, rather than clearing forest to make way for fields. Read more on Los Ocotales here.
Here we are again in San Dionisio Ocotepec. Luis Humberto grew up speaking Zapotec in this small village, but moved to Los Angeles at age ten. The third generation in a family of mezcaleros, he was proud of his family’s craft and returned to learn and, eventually, to create a brand with his parents. Soluro 1610 represents the first letters of their names: Sofia, Luis, and Roberto, and the date their village was founded.
“Soluro 1610 was brought to life from the necessity of bringing food to my family’s table and creating more job opportunities for the community,” Luis Humberto says.
Sofia and Roberto are both distillers. She handles the espadin, and he makes their tobalá and madrecuishe. The agave is cooked in conic earth ovens, fermented in open-air pine vats, ground with a tahona, and distilled twice in copper.
When it comes to producer-owned, Solero 1610 is one hundred percent a family operation. “This brand has a heart and soul to it,” Luis Humberto says. “We have no middleman. My parents produce and bottle the product. Then I take over and do all the logistics for exportation and importation to the United States. Once the product arrives in Los Angeles, I have my own distribution company. From there on, I’m knocking door to door, one day at a time.”
Luis Humberto has been working hard. The brand was launched in 2023 and is already available at 43 liquor stores in California, as well as a number of LA’s leading bars and restaurants.
La Venia is produced and owned by a Zapotec family from Santiago Matatlan, Oaxaca. While maestro mezcalero Celestino Sernas has been making quality mezcal for decades, it has only been available in the US for a few years. La Venia mezcals are produced in copper pot stills from agave crushed by tahona and fermented in open-air wooden tinas. La Venia is notable for some interesting and creative expressions, such as an espadín distilled with lemon grass. As long-time contributor Tess Rose writes,“The line of mezcals are unique, and accomplish something that is rarely experienced in the export mezcal market: relatively low ABV without sacrificing flavor.” Read on for Tess’s tasting notes.
In conclusion: Producer-owned brands tend to be smaller, with smaller marketing budgets. By shining a light on these brands, we hope to give them some exposure in a market where it’s increasingly difficult to survive.
To see other producer-owned brands, check out our list of mezcals available in the US page.
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