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Regretfully, all too often it’s easy to become duped into trusting in the veracity of what we read and hear about brands of mezcal in Oaxaca. Be it in online or print publications, what we’re told in bars and mezcalerias, and even what’s on the labels of some familiar agave distillate brands, sometimes there’s a problem.
Contemporary brands of mezcal which have taken the spirits world by storm over the past couple of decades, dating to no earlier than 1995, are usually up front about what they state is in the bottle; but that’s not always the case. Certainly there’s some obligation on buyers to do their due diligence before forking over $100 USD on a product new to the market. But right now it’s still a challenge for consumers to be able to gauge, appraise and deconstruct all this bombardment. In 20 or 50 years imbibers will certainly be more educated about mezcal than is currently the case. However currently, to the extent that the information out there is deceptive, ambiguous, misrepresentative and even outright untrue, mezcal aficionados, and more importantly would be aficionados, are at a disadvantage.
The obvious solution is to purchase what you for sure know, and like. The best mezcal is the one you like the most. But what about an agave distillate you’re heard about and are considering buying? If you’re outside of Mexico, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to taste before purchasing. The best option of course is to visit a smattering of palenques in the hinterland of Oaxaca for example, where most of the nation’s certified mezcal is distilled. In the course of so doing, and even visiting state capital mezcalerias, you can sample before buying. Making that pilgrimage is just not feasible for many.
There are in fact brands which are not thrilled to receive consumers to their facilities. Why? For example a mezcal aficionado might be interested in learning what precisely is meant by online promotion such as “produced by modern and traditional ways.” He might be disappointed to learn that “modern” means highly industrialized; and similarly that “traditional” means no more than harvesting, cooking, crushing, fermenting and distilling which employs means of production and tools of the trade as high tech as can be.
What does “100% estate grown agave espadín” or “100% natural” really mean these days, at least in Oaxaca? Are madrecuixe, barril, mexicano and tobalá really all wild agaves used today to make mezcal? Does tepeztate really take 35 years to mature before it is then harvested and transformed into mezcal? Is there anything artisanal about agave having been steamed in a hermetically sealed brick room, then crushed by machinery, and finally distilled in a stainless steel column still fueled by diesel?
Yes of course we all want to make life easier for hardworking palenqueros and their families. However, there is a profound difference between modernization for the sake of churning out more juice to better line the pockets of entrepreneurs, and in some modicum advancing the cause of altruism for the benefit of those who toil in the fields and distilleries. In other words, using a gasoline powered machine to crush the sweet baked agave rather than for example a heavy wooden mallet to mash by hand, serves the latter and is difficult to view as objectionable. On the other hand, mezcal made through modern methods strictly to increase profits, is a completely different animal. In my estimation, motivation should figure into the equation.
A palenquero who produces for an export brand which labels its mezcal as made with “estate grown” agave asked me to sell him some maguey from my field. I had no idea that the espadín, madrecuixe, tobalá and weber on my land are estate grown! Perhaps I should begin referring to my land as my Estate, and put Don Alvin on my business cards.
Sarcasm aside, typically “estate grown” means that the agave is grown on the land owned by the distiller. In wine parlance apparently it can also mean the land is managed by the vintner but owned by someone else. With mezcal production it can connote a better quality spirit, but not necessarily, and perhaps not at all. One might surmise that the growth is better controlled by the palenquero who is carefully watching the land for a decade, if he is. But he might be chemically fertilizing and fumigating his estate. And there are almost innumerable factors which impact ultimate quality. If it’s estate grown and certified organic, I might be convinced, but anything short of that sends up red flags for me. So the buying public can in my estimation easily be misled. And more recently almost all artisanal and ancestral mezcal producers are seeking to buy agave from anyone selling it. Their own actual “estates” are either barren, or lined with rows of young succulents years away from harvest.
On to wild as opposed to cultivated. A downtown storefront in the city of Puebla, about four hours up the toll road from Oaxaca, is owned by a fairly well-known brand of (purportedly) traditionally made Oaxacan mezcal. It sells mezcal under that lable only. In its marketing it notes espadín as cultivated, but all the others are described as being made with wild agave; madrecuixe, tobalá, arroqueño, and the rest. Almost all species of agave used to make mezcal in Oaxaca are now cultivated. However one can still find mezcal which is actually made with wild tobalá, for example, and likely most tepeztate is still being produced with wild maguey. But most varietals, even jabalí, are now being cultivated, and most mezcal in the marketplace is produced with cultivated agave, an environmentally and sustainably responsible approach for the industry. The other day a friend was telling me about all the species and sub-species he has under cultivation, grown from seed in his greenhouses, 16 all told, about 200,000 plants he’s been offering to growers and palenqueros. While of course not impossible, it is extremely unlikely that the Puebla retailer is distilling all of its mezcal sourced from wild agave. It just does not make sense.
Just think of the mezcal boom, and how much of the spirit made in the state of Oaxaca is now on the shelves of liquor stores, bars, restaurants and mezcalerías, in Mexico, throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere, including China. Can the labels be accurate if so many describe the juice as made with silvestre? Of course not. But some brand owners believe that the buying public will pay more if the mezcal is described as having been made with wild agave. If you visit Santiago Matatlán, the sides of the highway are filled with fields with almost exclusively espadín under cultivation. But venture further abroad to more remote regions, and traverse the dirt roads on the other side of the mountain, and you’ll find arroqueño, tobalá, mexicano, madrecuixe and barril, all in neat rows, awaiting harvesting and processing; then to be labeled as wild in some cases.
Let’s assume for a moment that every label describing a mezcal as having been distilled using wild agave is accurate. That does not mean that the mezcal is of better quality than the next bottle which lacks the word silvestre as a descriptor. Just think about it. One should consider microclimate (including airborne yeasts and water source), means of production, tools of the trade, type of wood used to bake, skill of the palenquero, and so on. Each is just as likely if not more so to impact quality, as is wild v. cultivated.
Some communities are dictating to their palenqueros that for each wild agave harvested, two must be planted. And some brand owners seek volunteers during the rainy season to plant small agave grown from seed up in the mountains. In both cases let’s assume that those magueyitos will be left to grow in the wild for a decade or so, without irrigation, fertilizers, weeding, or otherwise having been tended. How should the resultant mezcal be labeled? I suggest, as some have termed it, semi-wild. But once again, that does not aid us in determining the quality of what’s in the bottle. We must know more, much more, including the reputation of the producer. And of course the type of agave used will likely also impact our buying decisions.
One brand promotes its mezcal as gluten free, feeding off of the celiac frenzy. Are there any mezcals which are not gluten free?
Just because one liter costs 500 pesos, and another costs 1,000 pesos, both from the same palenquero yet different species, does not mean that the latter is of better quality than the former.
Does age really matter? Perhaps. But more likely than not, those brands which on their labels boast the age of the agave used to produce the particular mezcal, are simply trying to boost the price. One employee of a downtown Oaxaca mezcalería used to tell patrons that tepeztate takes 35 years to mature. As a palenquero friend once told me, if the campesino harvesting that tepeztate from the wild doesn’t know his own age, how does he know the age of the maguey?
Be wary of those who are overly dogmatic in their promotion of their own or other brands of mezcal, and of those who tend to speak in absolutes. What is their motivation? I would suggest that they are trying to either build up their reputations as mezcal experts, or inflate the price of the agave spirit they are flogging.
One might reasonably expect to pay more for a mezcal made with cultivated agave which has been in a nursery and then in a field for 15 – 40 years, given the attention paid to it for such an extended period of time, and the cost of having it occupy its own square meter on valuable land. If it’s cultivated, then on balance it would seem to have a more modest value, subject of course to how many kilos of raw agave it has taken to produce a liter, clay v. copper distillation, age, and the rest. But it’s unlikely that it’s been in the field for much longer than a dozen or so years. If it’s wild, then why should it cost more if it has simply been growing unattended in the hills for a couple of decades? True, wild agave in the field for 25 years might have a richer flavor because of the time it has had to take in rich minerals and an abundance of carbohydrates. But the same can be stated for cultivated agave grown on the steep slope of a deep river valley, or left for a year after the quiote has been cut down. If you are convinced that it’s wild, and that the person who has harvested it has toiled to get into the mountains and back out again, then sure. But wild can also mean grown on flat land adjacent to the palenquero’s distillery.
The global mezcal boom has been generous to growers and distillers. The pattern of exponential growth will hopefully continue for decades, despite the cyclical nature of and faddism in the alcohol business. Consumers have also been riding the wave. If brand owners and their reps, and retailers including stores, bars and restaurants, want to continue to reap the benefits, they should all recognize that the gravy train may be short-lived if the current pattern continues. Perhaps the industry needs better policing and regulation. For those opposed to that scenario, the solution is to heed this advice.
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Source by Alvin Starkman
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