Mezcal’s Dance with Extinction

*I’m a big fan of Craftmanship Magazine. This piece about Mezcaleros in Mexico is good reading. VL

By Grace Rubenstein, Craftsmanship Magazine

Our burly white pickup truck is rolling down the highway about ten miles east of Oaxaca, Mexico, when the ominous dilemma that will define the future of mezcal rises into view. To my left, sitting beside me on the pickup’s bench seat, are Cuauhtémoc Lopez, a mezcal maker who is carrying on his family’s traditional production process, and Iván Saldaña, a biochemist and businessman who sells the Lopez family’s liquor under the label Montelobos. They are believers in mezcal as a specialty—an ancient spirit made by hand, using rustic methods that impart distinct and diverse flavors.

[pullquote]What was for centuries an unknown drink—the everyday firewater of poor Mexican farmers—is suddenly a premium global spirit with the cachet of whiskey.[/pullquote]

Then, to my right, appears the Benevá mezcal factory. It rises like a kind of misplaced mirage out of the dusty valley, its expansive, silver-roofed buildings and gleaming metal tanks making it look like a futuristic thing dropped into this age-old landscape. With its mechanized operations and autoclaves, Benevá represents mezcal as a commodity, a mass-market product promoted by pretty young women who offer samples on the streets of Oaxaca City. Saldaña and Lopez shake their heads.

When the world suddenly wants an abundance of authentic, homespun goods, can the tiny foundations of their production survive? “We have arrived at a crossroads,” says Saldaña. “There is no time to lose.”

Suddenly, I realize I am literally, physically situated between the two sides of the great question confronting mezcal.

Click HERE to read the full story.