Ron Cooper is the grandfather of all present expressions of the global artisanal mezcal boom. He is the founder of Del Maguey Mezcal. For the past several years, when discussion about the history of the modern mezcal movement has arisen, he has been the recipient of praise; from me, and from even some of his competitor brand owners. But since 2017, Mr. Cooper and his line of agave spirits have been receiving unwarranted criticism.
A plethora of complaints about and protests against the purchase of any spirits in the stable of Del Maguey products has enveloped the mezcal industry. Some cantina owners and even novice mezcal aficionados who consider themselves “in the know,” are upset that the mammoth booze baron Pernod Ricard has purchased a majority of shares in the brand. The truth is that but for Mr. Cooper, consumption of mezcal would be nowhere near where it is today, and many of Del Maguey’s detractors would still be drinking pedestrian industrial agave products of nowhere near the quality of the mezcal now available; in the US, Britain, Australia, Mexico, Europe, and even China.
Mr. Cooper began developing the brand in the mid-1990s, when tequila was king and mezcal was its lowly cousin. Since that time no one has matched the marketing brilliance of Del Maguey’s moniker “single village mezcal.” Others have developed different ways to promote the spirit, but were it not for Mr. Cooper they would likely not even be in the mezcal business, and if so, nowhere near generating the income they now produce for themselves, and more importantly agave growers and hard-working artisanal Oaxacan distillers; and given the current mezcal boom, for tourism in the Southern Mexico state where most of the spirit is produced.
The year 1995, when Del Maguey began exporting, marked a dramatic change in the diversity of mezcal products available outside of Mexico. Until then, aside from unaged mezcal made with the espadín specie of agave, “with the worm,” product rested in oak barrels, and perhaps a bit of tobalá, there was almost nothing else around. Look at where we are now, with there being exported from the state of Oaxaca alone mezcal distilled from 8 – 10 different species, with each having between 10 – 20 sub-species. Every one of these 150 or so varietals of agave yields a different nuance.
In a lengthy conversation with Mr. Cooper during the first half of 2018, I asked the hard questions, except of course about the sale price of his interest in the brand; rumors abound of course, but to my thinking it’s no one’s business. Whatever he got and will get, he deserves. He has not given up control of the company, and in fact will continue to call the shots certainly at least well into the next decade. This will assure that the quality of Del Maguey will be essentially the same as it has over the past 20+ years.
Who else in the industry deserves whatever Mr. Cooper is getting? Who else in the industry would require of his purchaser that means of production and tools of the trade remain unchanged? The biggest change will be as a consequence of the Pernod Ricard global trajectory in the spirits industry, which will benefit not only Del Maguey, but the economic fortunes of the naysayers. Yes, demand for the brand will increase, but at least for now the need for increased production will be addressed by building more traditional ovens for baking, horses and tahonas for crushing, wooden vats for fermenting, and copper alembics for distilling; nothing more.
And what about the state of Oaxaca as a tourism destination? Journalists and the US state department are always at the ready to dismiss Mexico as a viable and attractive tourist destination. Every little ruckus anywhere in the country attracts both media and foreign government (mainly US) attention, and fuels the flames of hoards, the curious thing being that they are generally the ones who have never been to Mexico, and relish at every opportunity to paint the entire country with one broad stroke of the brush; “Didn’t you hear, the drug lords south of the border in Mexico are slaughtering people, so you’d be crazy to go to Oaxaca.” It would be no different than the US state department warning against travel to Banff Alberta or Niagara Falls Ontario because of civil unrest in Quebec or Greenpeace protests in the Arctic or off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Oaxaca need tourism to survive, and more importantly to thrive. Mr. Cooper is more so than any other person, or entity for that matter, responsible for the seed of mezcal tourism in southern Mexico, and its continued exponential growth. Other brands have helped the tourist trade in promoting travel to small Oaxacan artisanal distilleries, but it all began with Del Maguey. And the suggestion that the quality of Mr. Cooper’s line of agave spirits has changed since the Pernod Ricard buyout, is outrageous.
We live in a predominantly capitalist world. Other favorite brands will sell out as their owners decide to move on. If you base your buying decisions on distillery ownership and little more as in some instances has been the case with Del Maguey Mezcal, as much as it may seem unthinkable today, what will you have to drink tomorrow?