The SOMM Journal

December 2014/January 2015

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{ SOMMjournal.com }  105 Del Maguey Mezcal: The Soul of the Village It's almost a cliché to say that making spirits is akin to making art, but in the case of Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal creator Ron Cooper, it's an authentic proposition. Before he made mezcal, Cooper was already an artist whose works reside in the permanent collections of major museums such as the Guggenheim, The Getty and the Whitney. And he refers to Del Maguey, a company he didn't expect to create, more often as liquid art than a business. "I just did it because this taste was so exquisite that I had to share it." he says. "I created the company to export mezcal from Oaxaca, but I never dreamed I would create this category, or that it would become a business or enable people to change their ways of living." Cooper has supported the art of women basket weavers in two villages for 20 years. There are 18 different expressions in the Del Maguey portfolio which he says "transcend all others" in purity. "I'm never going to do an añejo or a reposado, but I reserve the right to experiment. I reserve the right to enjoy myself and keep interested in this wonderful artful medium." —L. B. Mezcal Marca Negra: Small Is Beautiful When Pedro Quintanilla talks about the future of mezcal, he is not dreaming big. The co-founder of Marca Negra instead talks about mezcal staying true to its village roots—a small batch made with a big soul. "Mezcal is a cult and it is also a culture," he says. And while he'd like to see the spirit continue its journey on the world market—Marca Negra is distributed in 15 states and 12 countries—he sees the inevitable catch-22: "Once big companies go into mezcal, it will lose its charm as artisanal and independent. What's cool about mezcal is that it's small. Mezcal has to grow healthily in order for it not to lose its soul." Marca Negra reflects that spirit starting from its label—the imprint of a hand, which represents the hand of the maker. Each bottle is numbered and batch-identified. Inside each bottle of Marca Negra's five expressions, Quintanilla says they try to go for extremes—from fresh and green to smoky and dry. "I always compare mezcal to single malt Scotch—more crafted and with a sense of origin and a style defined by the region it comes from," he says, "while tequila is more like blended Scotch." "People who get into mezcal really try to explore and find a universe beyond tequila . . . and it's an infinite world. Mezcal's story is endless—you'll always find new expres - sions and one is very different from the other." —L. B. Mezcal Mestizo: A Complex Balance When Arturo Palencia and Jessica Rosman brought Mestizo Mezcal to market in 2013, Palencia, a native of Mexico City, knew the challenges they were up against. "It was a misunderstood spirit," he said. "But that's changing as some of the producers took a more concentrated effort to bring it back to a more authentic method and a higher level of processing. What you see in the U.S. market is, for the most part, more elevated." Indeed, Rosman describes that mezcal in general was referred to as the Cognac of the agave region, noting it can be "enjoyed on any occasion when you'd use a peaty whisky or Scotch." Mestizo tapped the skills of a fifth-generation producer in Santiago Matatlán, the historic agave region an hour southeast of Oaxaca City, where Palencia says the agave plants give a "distinctive sweet, flowery, spicy [flavor] and long finish." Production includes wild yeast and double-distilling in an alambique pot still before aging in American white oak barrels—the reposado for 8 months and the añejo for 16— and bottle-capping by hand. All three expressions deliver the juicy sweetness of the agave and balance it with the smoke of the mesquite, says Rosman. "We wanted a really well-balanced mezcal across the board, where the flavors of the agave come through. This is very smooth and sweet with a distinctive mix of smoke and sweetness," she says. "I think mezcal will continue to grow in the U.S. with mixologists, who love to play with it and have an appreciation for its full body." —L. B.

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