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Calling myself Mezcal PhD is really more of an aspirational title than one based in fact. On the other hand, who is to really say? Can you really get a PhD in spirits, and more specifically Mezcal? And who would award such a degree? Would you really want to have THAT alma mater on your resume? Continue reading
Like many of my posts, I try to hit upon themes that I hear about all the time from friends, family and people I meet. If I had a bottle of mezcal for every time I am asked “What is mezcal?”, I would have quite a collection. And I have quite a collection – see what I mean?
Not My Collection, But a Good Start Nevertheless
What is mezcal? Why is everyone talking about it? (well, maybe not everyone – just everyone who knows ANYTHING about ANYTHING!). Mezcal is any spirit that is distilled from an agave – though not everyone can label it as such as you will see below. So tequila is a mezcal, for example, because it is made from the blue agave. What distinguishes mezcal is where it is made in Mexico, the production process, and the types of agaves used. I go into depth on this topic in a variety of previous posts so check out THIS ONE from last August if you want more on this.
Now on to what I really want to write about in this piece: Why Is Mezcal Happening Now? There is not an obvious answer, and for that reason, I wanted to explore the topic. So let’s start with a bit of background.
I live in NYC and have been a passionate premium tequila lover for close to 20yrs. As the premium tequilas (and I am not talking about the only-margarita-worthy Patron)really began to come to market in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s, I began to get deeper into great tequilas. Then when my wife dubbed me a “tequila collector” I felt I had license to really go nuts, and the bottles really began to pile up!
But mezcal in the late 90′s and first half of the 00′s? It barely existed. I would dabble (and I loved it) when I saw a bottle of Del Maguey, but that was rare. I am talking really rare. Rarer than the NY Post front page without Lindsay Lohan and a bottle of Jack. .
There was a night a few years ago when I decided to have my own very private mezcal tasting. I had collected a few very nice bottles at that point and wanted to try them side by side to compare, contrast, and enjoy. But by myself? Sure. Why not? Just me and my booze. But my wife was worried about me, my parents called, neighbors knocked, the dog barked (imagine my shock since I don’t have one). They thought I was going over the edge (the edge of glory perhaps!). But it was alright. I had a great time and learned a few things along the way.
Something Good Is About to Happen Here
Here we go. Strap on your agave nerd hat! I have been working on this new piece for months. I put up my first post on this topic in May, but I have learned more since then and this list is better. Perfect? No. But better. You see, it is a difficult topic to tackle. Let’s start with the mezcal regulators.
Agave Tobala (Potatorum)
Mezcal had its first modernized set of government regulations, called NORMA in 1994. A new NORMA was drawn up for mezcal in 1997 and revised in 2005. Under the new laws, all mezcal production must be certified in order to sell or export it. The NORMA lists only 5 of the common varieties of agave from which mezcal can be made, such as espadin and tobala. Continue reading
COMERCAM, which is the government entity in Mexico that regulates mezcal production and certification, publishes a limited set of data on the mezcal market every year. The information comes with a bit of a time delay. For example, the 2011 data was just published at the end of 2012. This is clearly not ideal as the market is experiencing fairly rapid growth. So while 2011 data is interesting, I suspect that 2012 saw substantial growth in mezcal exports, and therefore just having 2011 data leaves me a bit wanting. Continue reading
I am always trying to keep up with, keep track of, and ingest as much of, the mezcal brands that I can find in the U.S. It is hard to stay on top of the new brands coming to market, and it can also be hard to find some established brands. I probably buy most of my mezcal online, though there are a few notable liquor stores in NYC, like Astor Wines, which carry a bunch of premium mezcals (they even have a Mezcal section at Astor!).
So here is my currently assembled list of the brands that can be found in the U.S. (and I will try to keep it updated). The Premium list is roughly in order of the brands I am the most familiar with which means among other things, I can find them and drink them regularly, I read about them, and/or they are actively promoting their brands through social media, etc. The Less Than Premium and Premium or Not lists are generally brands I do not buy, or know little about. But they are here in the spirit of trying to put together a comprehensive list of mezcals that can be purchased in the U.S. Of the latter 2 categories, you will rarely see these in bars or restaurants, but they can be found online or at liquor stores. Continue reading
Recently, a VERY knowledgeable mezcal market participant hypothesized the following theory: all of the variations and multiple products being pushed out by individual brands is confusing to the average mezcal consumer and potential mezcal consumers. This person felt there were too many tobalas, pechugas, madrecuixes, etc, and that the overwhelming number of choices led to no choice being made. It’s like all those great Taylor Swift songs: how can you choose which one to listen too?
Could all the mezcal choices lead to drinker inaction? Let’s start by looking at tequila. With tequila, there are more than 1,000 brands, but virtually every one of them has the same three products: silver, reposado, and anejo. And it is all blue agave by definition. Simple. These 3 expressions are readily understood by most tequila consumers, and even if they do not know this, people are rarely confused. You walk into a bar, you see tequila behind the bar, and at most, you see 3 bottles of the same brand, but even that is not at every bar. Continue reading
I could not let this tragic, devastating, and historic event go by without saying something about it. Many have said that this is New York’s “Katrina”, and they are right. The loss of life is not as great, but the pain, suffering, loss of property and tremendous sense of dislocation for so many is vast.
You really cannot imagine what the past week has been like unless you have lived it. Public officials are calling this the greatest natural disaster to ever fall upon New York. I am certain the same is true for NJ, and CT is not far behind.
The range of how people have been effected is very broad. To begin, it was the tale of two Manhattans: above 30th St or so, life was basically normal. Below 30th St. was something out of a post-apocolypse movie, only everything was still standing. If you have seen the Will Smith movie, “I am Legend”, you would begin to get the scene. Continue reading
So there I was, there I was, in the Congo. Oops, wrong story. There I was at the bar at Empellon in the West Village in NYC. Matt Resler, bartender extraordinaire, passionate agave expert, and all around good guy, was kindly pouring me what he believed to be was the release of a VERY SMALL BATCH production of Siete Misterios Mezcal. This brand is not yet available in the U.S., but is coming soon. Matt gets this stuff because, well, he is Matt. I wish I was Matt.
Why did Matt think this bottle of Siete Misterios was a very small batch? Because the bottle was hand numbered as bottle number 20 out of 21! Yes, bottle 20 of 21. Ahhh, I’m not sure what the definition would be of “small batch”, but I am guessing that this qualifies! Continue reading
What is the difference between tequila and mezcal? I get this question all the time, as I imagine most people do who are in and around mezcal. It is a fundamental question on the path to mezcal enlightenment. Of course, today, mezcal can best be understood by simply tasting any of a handful of premium mezcals that have come to the US in recent years. But in the meantime, before we appreciate mezcal, understanding why it is different from tequila is a great place to start.
I believe that for most people tequila leads to mezcal (even though all tequilas are mezcals, but we will come back to that). Tequila leads to mezcal because for most of us, it started with tequila. We traveled down a path that likely started with bad tequila, bad experiences, and bad results the next morning. Then we slowly found our way back to the good 100% agave tequilas that started showing up in the 90′s. And maybe we enjoyed the extra anejos that move tequila toward cognac. And then, what? What else is out there? Ahhh mezcal….I’ve heard about that. The rise of the extra anejos coincided with the arrival of fine mezcals and then they started to appear on the shelves at your local liquor store and on the cocktails menus of your favorite gin joints. So tequila brought us to this point and now mezcal joins the discussion…. Continue reading
This is a quick note to add one inspiring mezcal cocktail to last week’s post:
My wife and I went into the restaurant Up the Creek in Vail for a date night on Monday. Our intention was to stop in and have a drink before we went for Sushi. Now Vail is not a well-known mezcal mecca, but you are starting to see some mezcals around town: Del Maguey, Sombra, Ilegal, and even one rare Mezcalero sighting at Vin 48 in Avon.
Behind the bar, we spied a bottle of Ilegal Reposado and they even had an associated mezcal cocktail on the drinks list! Things were looking Up (the Creek)! We began chatting with the bar manager, Wes Cole, and quickly figured out he had some serious mixology cred. I asked him what he was making with the Ilegal Repo, and I was soon drinking this gem: Continue reading