Denominación de origen (DO), which translates to denomination of origin in English, is a legal concept built to defend traditional food products on the global market. The idea is simple: Allow the creators of traditional products to lay claim to a name and other factors that make their products unique. Think Parmeggiano, Champagne, tequila, or mezcal. But, as with everything else in life, the devil is in the details. The implementation of DOs determines whether they are successful at their stated goal of defending traditional products, and there is a constant tension between preserving traditional production and marketing those products.
The idea is a noble one: In this globalized culture, culinary traditions have local roots. In order to keep copycats from destroying local economies and guarantee that customers are actually buying what they think they’re buying, create a law that defines these traditions and their names. The Parmeggiano DO defines exactly where this cheese can be made, along with definitions of how it has to be made (it has to be aged at least 12 months, can’t use any ingredients other than sea salt, milk, and rennet, etc). This means that when you buy a chunk of Parmeggiano Reggiano cheese, you’re getting the product of hundreds of years of tradition and paying a premium to keep all those Italians working away to maintain those traditions. At least that’s the marketing gloss. While Parmeggiano Reggiano cheese may be made that way, many things have changed – like its workforce – that reflect globalization.
The reality of Parmeggiano and DOs in general is much more complicated by the spectrum of international law and the very nature of DOs. If you’re in the United States and many other countries, your parmesan cheese is probably not made in Italy at all because many countries haven’t signed a trade agreement with the European Union recognizing that DO. That’s why Kraft Cheese sells tons of cheese labeled “parmesan.” Occasionally a DO has much better success: There used to be California Champagnes, but today there are only Californian sparkling wines because the Champagne industry won a long campaign.
We now have four DOs that define agave spirits in Mexico: bacanora, raicilla, mezcal, and tequila.
To illustrate the problems with the DOs that define Mexican spirits, let’s take a look at mezcal and tequila. Both spirits represent centuries of tradition. Both support enormous numbers of people involved in the farming of agave and transforming it into liquor. And both DOs claim that they have been enormously effective in representing their industries on the international market. Today tequila is one of the most consumed spirits globally and the key ingredient of the most popular cocktail. Mezcal has been growing at an incredible clip as well. But both are commonly held up as the antithesis of what a DO should be.
Sarah Bowen wrote an entire book about this topic called Divided Spirits , and others, like Clayton Szczech, are writing dissertations on it. The crux of the criticism of these particular DOs is that they appear to be marketing and promotion organizations instead of guardians of traditions with the interests of their many small producers in mind. Both DOs and their regulatory bodies have clearly favored larger producers, and tequila has industrialized to a dramatic extent.
One simple way of understanding the criticisms of these DOs is to look at their geographic scope. The original idea with a DO was to cover a small area where something like a special local cheese has been made the same way for some time. And most DOs are small, some to an almost ridiculous extent, covering a valley or plain with clear geographic boundaries. The people that lived in those spaces gradually honed a very specific product based on all the things that made it unique–like the soil, weather, local plants, and human culture. In contrast, the tequila and mezcal denominations vie for largest geographic denominations in the world, and they’re winning by a lot.
Tequila can be made in four states in western Mexico which, in itself, is a vast territory of differing landscapes, cultures, and climates. But it can also be made in the state of Tamaulipas, which is completely across the country. Mezcal can be made in nine states (at last count) that share an even greater diversity of geographic distribution. It is the largest DO on the planet, which has prompted many to ask what traditional production method, what culture, what climate, etc unites all these very divergent areas. To turn that around, there are many (hundreds?) of distinctive local mezcal producing traditions in Mexico. Very few have been recognized with a denomination that describes just how specific they are, and the larger mezcal denomination doesn’t appear to have much interest in that question. So some of the best mezcal can’t officially be called mezcal.
And then there are changes in the rules governing these DOs. Since their establishment, mezcal and tequila have arguably seen the most changes of any DOs in critical definitional elements. In contrast to what we know about tequila’s history, the DO now restricts which agaves can be used to make it and allows for almost half of a bottle to be made up by something else. Mezcal now permits additives, restricts chemicals produced by traditional distillation techniques, and permits industrial production. The attempt to create a legal definition of mezcal has been marked by instability, with dramatic governance changes which, at last count in the spring of 2022, features a situation where there are five different certification bodies fighting for authority to call something mezcal.
All this confusion has left ample space for others to jump in. The most exciting thing in mezcal today isn’t even called that. The latest trend is to abjure certification by the mezcal DO altogether and call yourself an agave spirit which allows makers to do things according to their tradition or innovation. They focus on the spirit, not the rules, and appear to be resonating with audiences throughout the world. Meanwhile in the tequila world, an independent organization now works to certify additive free tequilas so that the makers can distinguish themselves and consumers know what they’re getting. Both of these changes point to a larger question about DOs and one that is especially important in Mexico: The question of who owns the name. The country of Mexico legally owns the names “tequila” and “mezcal” – that is the basis for the respective denominations. But the people of Mexico have used those terms to refer to what they make as well. They’ve been calling their spirits by those names for quite some time without having to ask for anyone’s approval. What about them and their attachment to tradition? These are always massive issues for any DO because they determine cultural legitimacy and potential paths to economic bonanzas.
Wow a whole lot of politics going on when the DO jumps states like Tamaulipas. How can they protect the name once agave production takes hold in other countries? Why can’t it do like grapes did?
Both Mezcal and Tequila are recognized DOs by the international community which provides protection meaning, no one can use those words on their bottles if they are outside of the DO. There is conversation within Mexico to tweak the DO or look at creating appellation like segments that give a nod to specific production styles and place but don’t expect any changes soon.