Del Maguey Mezcal , which brought the characteristic spirit of the highlands of Oaxaca to the world’s notice, is the creation of Ron Cooper, who creates art in almost all he does. See Cooper, Ron. It was the artist and adventurer in Cooper that compelled him to Mexico and to the villages where mezcal was still made in the most deeply traditional ways. In 1962 Cooper first discovered agave spirits at Hussong’s Cantina on the Baja California coast, sixty miles south of Tijuana. But it wasn’t until 1990 that he tasted mezcal in a cafe in Tlacolula, Oaxaca, and was thoroughly hooked.
By 1996 he was importing “single village mezcal,” as he called it, into the United States under the Del Maguey label, beginning with four types, each made in a different Zapotec village in the highlands of Oaxaca. Cooper’s way was, and is, to find great mezcal and bring it to the market as is, rather than blending it to suit a brand. His model was Armagnac; he wanted each batch to be unique and different. See Armagnac. And he saw mezcal as capable of transforming the drinker the way art does its viewer. At the same time, he has transformed the communities from which he purchases his wares.
Del Maguey created a business model for premium, artisanal mezcals to find global markets, positioning the category for others to follow (at the time, the only Oaxacan mezcal widely available outside of Mexico was the industrial Monte Alban brand, whose main selling point was the agave worm in the bottom of each bottle). This was not just a replica or variation of tequila; it was a new category and a game changer. Others had to follow the Del Maguey example if they wanted to compete. “Mezcal is intrinsic to Mexican culture but rarely—speaking in general terms—[are] Mexicans … aware of this,” one member of the indigenous mezcal industry acknowledges, speaking off the record. “It took an American like Ron Cooper to discover what Mexicans had in their culture forever. He made this awareness.” The effects have been profound. Emigration patterns have been turned around by giving vitality to “farmer-produced” mezcal. Impoverished communities have seen their young people return, drawn home—often from the United States—by suddenly attractive wages and a rediscovered sense of pride.
Cooper’s emphasis on “single village” and “single mezcalero”—one who makes mezcal—has defined the mezcal category by distinguishing it from tequila, its more industrialized family member. Del Maguey has made economic, agricultural, and even social sustainability a focus of its mission. Virtually all of modern mixology’s brain trust is fixated on mezcal; its reputation is as an artisanal, historical, and culturally pure spirit, as a product with meaning, with real substance.
Del Maguey blew life into a magical spirit that has gone from less than half a million liters in 2005 to double that number in 2015. Mezcal brands increased 48 percent between 2011 and 2014 to 362. Not long ago Mexicans, even Oaxacans, showed little interest in the spirit; today mezcalerias have opened in Mexico City, San Francisco, London, New York, and beyond. The art of Del Maguey transformed the global mezcal category from proletariat industrial to indigenous chic.
In 2017, Del Maguey, a company that sold 6,400 bottles its first year, sold a majority stake in the company to Pernod-Ricard, the French spirits conglomerate, with the provisos that Cooper still call the shots and that Pernod-Ricard protect Del Maguey’s indigenous employees and their traditional practices.
See also Cooper, Ron; Mexico; mezcal; and Pernod-Ricard.
López, Antonio. “A Rare Creation.” Santa Fe New Mexican, February 15, 1998, D2.
“Press.” Del Maguey website. https://delmaguey.com/press/ (accessed March 2, 2021).
By: Tomas Estes
One of the iconic labels artist Ken Price created for Del Maguey Mezcal. Source: Courtesy of Ron Cooper.