Del Maguey

Del Maguey was founded in 1995 by Ron Cooper, an artist who inadvertently came across the mezcals of rural Oaxaca while headed south toward Panama on a road trip with his friends. They stopped in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, and never left. Fascinated by the culture of the Zapotec farmers and the traditions centred on mezcal, it was during a journey back across the US border that seeded the idea of Del Maguey. A Texas border patrol apprehended Cooper with a 5 gallon jug of sacred wedding mezcal, forcing him to pour out the contents. Right there, Cooper decided to start exporting this spirit to the US.

Del Maguey is a bottler, working with small mezcal producers from all over Oaxaca and Puebla, who make mezcal from farmed and wild agave, using ancient, traditional techniques. The operations of these palenqueros (producers) are sometimes minuscule—no larger than a garden shed, sometimes without walls—run by the same family for generations, passing down techniques and knowledge for hundreds of years. The Del Maguey range explores the sense of terroir, when ancient techniques combined with agave that express the micro-climate and conditions in which they are grown. Without doubt, Cooper and Del Maguey showed the world just how great and characterful mezcal can be—and for that, we should be thankful.