Mezcal Is Your New Favorite Spirit

After decades working with top vodka producers such as Absolut and Stolichnaya, Lisa Derman was looking for a challenge—a flavor or brand she might be able to introduce to a wider audience. So when she was offered a job running Gem & Bolt, an upstart maker of the Mexican spirit mezcal, she jumped at the chance. “There’s still a lot to do to educate the consumer, but as soon as you say, ‘You remember mezcal, tequila’s sexy cousin,’ there’s an immediate connection,” says Derman, now Gem & Bolt’s chief executive officer.

Like Derman, much of the spirits industry is betting on mezcal, a smoky liquor distilled from agave, the succulent plant native to Mexico used to make tequila. To give mezcal its distinctive flavor (and no, it’s got nothing to do with the hallucinogen mescaline), agave is cooked in an earth-covered pit. In February, Diageo signed an agreement with Mezcal Unión, a five-year-old Mexican brand, to boost distribution in the States. And rival distiller Pernod Ricard is creating a brand it expects will reach U.S. shelves in the first half of 2017. “Mezcal is something we’ve been looking at for a while,” says Pernod Ricard CEO Alexandre Ricard.