In a few short years, mezcal has leapt out of the smoking pits of Oaxacan obscurity on to the menus of the world’s best bars. The agave spirit is catnip to bartenders – it is full and uniquely flavoured, artisanal and often organic. In fact, in terms of ‘craft’, mezcal has more ticks than there are boxes.

But there is trouble in paradise. The latest mezcal trend is towards wild agave distillates, their virginal, organic credentials drawing swarms of moustachioed hipsters in the likes of New York, London and Mexico City. Brands offering the style have subsequently proliferated. 

But wild agave mezcal is not necessarily the paragon of ethical production its consumers signed up for. “As cool as it is to enjoy wild agave distillates, once they are harvested they are gone. Does the coolness factor wear off once they are gone?” asks agave spirits expert Julio Bermejo. “Producers do replant. However the ‘wild’ species, once replanted, are no longer wild.”

What’s more, many of the 30 or so agaves used to produce mezcal are rare and some take up to 30 years to grow.

Critical time

“Right now we are in a crisis. Wild agave is not in good shape,” says Iván Saldaña, who has a PhD in agave and was the creator of Montebelos, a mezcal that launched in Mexico in 2012 and sells through William Grant & Sons in the US. “The flavours you can get from all the different wild agaves are brilliant but there is no way of supplying all the new brands – it’s not sustainable.” 

Saldaña says the practice is fine in its traditional form but said there is no plan to regulate harvesting and no way to stem demand. “The number of brands that are coming out is incredible. People are starting to get worried. Oaxaca is beautiful but the people are trying to overcome economic difficulties there. They will take the money and will find the agaves for a buyer. “We need to take care of the community – not just buy the product and go. We need to make consumers and bartenders more aware of this.”

Mezcal is mainly produced using the agave roasting technique, so – just as peat is necessary for the smoky taste of Islay whiskies – wood-burning is key to mezcal. “A lot of wood is needed and it is not all coming from sustainable sources – Oaxaca is the second most deforested state in Mexico,” says Saldaña. “We use certified wood for Montebelos and there’s interest from other producers to move that way.”

An agave spirits insider, who wishes to remain nameless, told DI: “Everybody is blinded by the sound of how cool ‘wild this’ or ‘wild that’ sounds. In 20 years when the bar world moves on to pisco or something, all will be forgotten except a ruined environment.  “Tequila at least does as much as possible to produce a great product and be eco-friendly.” Saldaña says that the Consejo Regulador del Mezcal, which has regulated the mezcal industry since 2005 (see box) should legislate on sustainable sourcing, as the category would only benefit. 

The CRM, though, has come a long way in a short time – its legislation and controls have brought organisation and legitimacy to the product, enabling it to be discovered by the international drinks community and rediscovered by Mexicans.

Carlos Corcuera, of Mezcal 8 Viboras, has seen the rise domestically. “Two decades ago mezcal was not seen as a premium spirit – people thought it was a low-class beverage. But when people try it they find that it has quality and lot of different flavours.” Mezcal 8 Viboras sells in all 50 states of the US – mezcal’s major export market – Canada, Germany, Spain and is soon to debut in the UK.

Mixed feelings

Guadalajara bartender and chef – and alumni of London Mexican bar Green and Red – Ramon ‘El Tigre’ Ramos, has mixed feelings about the spirit. “Mezcal is a nice rustic and very traditional spirit but it has its pros and cons. “It is getting popular with the young crowd and hipster community and most of this mezcal is claimed to be wild agave but it’s a very inconsistent product. Sometimes I prefer to drink a good tequila as I know the abv and I know it is safe to drink, rather than a strange variety of mezcal that has been distilled with a chicken breast or a jabugo ham.”

According to Speciality Brands’ Tom Bartram, about 400 have gained CRM certification to market their products legally – but there are thousands of ‘palenques’ [small distilleries] out there that haven’t. 

Exported brands are all certified. 

Over at Ilegal Mezcal, a brand that is selling in the US, the UK, Italy and Australia, its co-owner Stephen Myers says production standards are high and his mezcal is heavily regulated by the CRM, who are present during bottling time.

The blueprint for mezcal is Ron Cooper’s Del Maguey. The brand launched so long ago Cooper owns the domain name mezcal.com, and has pushed the idea of Single Village mezcals, and now inexpensive variants for mixing. His brand is a pathfinder to the recent slew of quality-driven brands. Qui Qui Ri Qui, a spin off from the Mezcaleria pop-up bar in London, is one. “When I started the brand in 2012 there were only four or five brands in London – now it is double that,” says creator and director of the brand Melanie Symonds. 

“It’s great that there are more brands out there – I want the category to grow but I am concerned how it grows.” Because mezcal can fetch high prices (Illegal starts at $45 and runs to $100 for its anejo) industrial operators have entered the mix. “I am anti the industrial factories,” says Symonds.

Just as in tequila, industrial mezcals tend to favour steaming agave, rather than roasting. Myers says there is a clear difference between the two styles. “The proof is in the pudding. Industrial vs artisanal is apples and oranges. Tequila ran away with that with mixto but people are now moving to 100% agave.”

Ron Cooper has coined the phrase “you don’t find mezcal, mezcal finds you”. But if the spirit is to make a lasting, not fleeting, impression, it will have to find itself first. If mezcal can offer big-flavour, hand-crafted production with ecological credentials, it could continue to be the cool cousin of 100% agave tequila. After hundreds of years in the wilderness, mezcal needs to grow some roots. Only then will longevity be assured.