Mexican Spirits Aim For An Upscale Image And An Audience Willing To Pay Top Price

Let’s face it: Were it not for the margarita cocktail, tequila might still be regarded as the stuff Mexican cantinas served in western movies where gringos like John Wayne and Joel McCrea knew enough to ask for “the good stuff.” These days tequila, along with its brash cousin mezcal, are ringing up $8 billion in sales of 30 million nine-liter cases, with U.S. consumers drinking up eight million—José Cuervo is the top seller. Of that only a fraction is “sipping tequila,” meaning it escapes getting blended with Triple Sec, lime and cracked ice.

But that category is where the competition has gotten fierce, with bottles selling for more than $100 for top tequila labels and not much less for mezcal.

The difference between the two spirits is that both are made from the agave plant, but tequila must use only 100% blue agave. It is not true that mezcals are by taste smoky, which many mezcal connoisseurs sniff at as being a gimmick for the American consumer who likes to think of mezcal as a more macho spirit. Today mezcal is made in more than 20 states of Mexico under strict regulations. And if you find a worm in the mezcal, it’s still another gimmick.

I’ve been tasting a lot of tequila and mezcal lately that is not meant (solely) for the margarita blender. Here are some I found of most interest.

DEL MAGUEY VIDA MEZCAL ($40)—This is a single-village mezcal

produced in San Luis del Rio, Oaxaca, located in Axocopan. Visual artist Ron Cooper, who’s lived in Mexico for 25 years, founded Del Maguy to make artisanal mezcals in an array whose master distillers proudly appear on the brand’s website. Paciano Cruz Nolasco is the man behind Vida, which is bottled at 40% alcohol. The village of Puebla is printed on the bottle, as are the other villages. It has fine floral bouquet and peppery finish.

CALIROSA REPOSADO TEQUILA ($60)—The distinction of Calirosa, evident in its name, is that the tequila is aged for nine months in red wine barrels that impart a rose color. The Real family has been making their spirits for 80 years, and, with Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo as partners, Calirosa launched in 2021. The reposado (aged for nine months; $69), an añejo (three years; $75) and a Cinco Anos Extra (five years; $200). Each successive bottling adds nuance and leathery notes, making them true sipping tequilas that would get lost in a cocktail.

CENOTE BLANCO ($43)—Cenotes (“sacred wells” to the Aztecs) are natural subterranean holes formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock that filters the water used in this aqua blue-colored tequila. It spends only three weeks in American oak barrels but acquires pleasing citrus notes. It is a very good tequila for margaritas, though its iterations as reposado ($50) and añejo ($60) make more sense on the rocks or served neat.

MEZCAL AMARÁS MEZCAL ($22)—Santiago Suarez and Luis Niño de Rivera founded the company in 2010 as the world’s first carbon-neutral mezcal company, planting 10 agaves harvested from three mezcal regions: Oaxaca, Guerrero and Durango. Additionally, 20% of the net sale of each bottle is allocated to the development of internal initiatives associated with social and environmental responsibility. It is made from agave cupreata in the Rio Balsas Basin. They make several kinds, including a verde ($35), reposado ($49), an Espadin($40), a Cenizo ($60) and tobala ($148).

TEQUILA KOMOS—Former sommelier Richard Betts began making tequila ten years ago in conjunction with the not-for-profit Komos Foundation, which repurposes byproduct waste from tequila production and turns it into adobe bricks given to the community to build housing, schools and hospitals. The bottles are handmade vitrified porcelain, also recycled, in four varieties: Añejo Cristalino, aged for 12 months in French Oak ($100); Reposado Rosa ($106), aged in French oak red wine barrels; Añejo Reserva ($180), aged for a year; Extra Añejo ($360), aged for three years in both French white wine barrels and classic bourbon barrels. Before bottling the tequila is aerated to soften the spirit.

CHINACO.—Guillermo González Diaz Lombardo created Chinaco, (“warrior”), a nickname for his great-great-grandfather who was the president of Mexico in1880-1884. Guillermo’s son Germán became manager of the estate, not in Jalisco but Tamaulipas (his father died in 1996). Initially just for some friends, he set out to create a special reserve never intended to be sold. That idea didn’t last long and, under the new name “Tears of Llorona” (named after a ghost story his father told him) it became the first premium tequila sold in the U.S. as of 1983. Today the company makes a blanco ($42); reposado, aged 12 months ($42); añjeo($80), 35 months; and a Limited Edition ($700), made from one-third of the last batch and two-thirds of the finest from two decades, with only 600 bottles sold and only in Mexico and the U.S.