The Daily Planet
It was on one of those adventures that the men found themselves on a street in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they were overcome by a parade of carousing graduates lighting off fireworks and carrying gas cans. The two gringos were pulled into this mobile party, ...
Small-batch mezcals, from the heart of Oaxaca
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Ophir men launch mezcal importing business
By Katie Klingsporn
Editor
Dylan Sloan and Judah Kuper were 19 years old when they met, a couple of ski bums camping in Bear Creek before their first ski season in Telluride.
They struck up what has become an enduring friendship, and in those early years, would often travel together during the off-seasons. It was on one of those adventures that the men found themselves on a street in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they were overcome by a parade of carousing graduates lighting off fireworks and carrying gas cans. The two gringos were pulled into this mobile party, and soon the students were urging Kuper and Sloan to drink from gas cans, chanting “Toma! Toma! Toma!”
“What hit my lips was so smoky and powerful that, momentarily, I though it might actually be gasoline,” Kuper recalls. “In fact, it was my first taste of mezcal.”
That was the beginning of a love affair with Oaxaca and its people, food and spirits that led Kuper to settle in the southern Mexico state, open a beachside bar there with Sloan, start a family, and most recently, launch Mezcal Vago with his longtime friend. The import/export company aims to bring artisanal small-batch mezcals from the tiny family-run palenques — mezcal production facilities — of Oaxaca’s hills to the restaurants, bars and tables of the U.S.
Mezcal Vago, which has sister companies in Mexico and Ophir, has brought three of its mezcal varieties to Telluride, and is planning to offer more soon. Sloan said businesses from Honga’s to La Marmotte, Siam, The Chop House and Floradora are serving Mezcal Vago, and all three liquor stores carry it.
“Telluride has been an extremely warm environment to get kick-started,” he said.
Along with its Colorado distributor, the business is working with distributors in Texas and New York to sell the mezcal and hopes to expand to further states in the near future.
The goal is to share Oaxaca’s finest mezcals — which Kuper says convey the earthy, arid and smoky qualities inherent to the state — with the world. None of the mezcal producers they work with have produced commercially before, and none of them are producing commercially for anyone else. The result, Sloan and Kuper say, is that they are making available the kind of handcrafted spirits that could previously only be found at farmers markets in Oaxacan pueblos.
“This repesents truth in mezcal,” Kuper said. “It’s not us looking for the smoothest, or the least smoky or the most smoky, it’s us bringing a mezcal that gives you a sense of place, that takes you on a journey to where my father-in-law is from, where my wife grew up.”
Mezcal Vago’s products are a far cry from the bottles of brown mezcals that come with worms floating in them. All of Mezcal Vago’s mezcals are made in the traditional Oaxacan style — joven and clear — and their only ingredients are agave and water. They are produced by roasting agave underground and are not aged in oak.
The result is a sophisticated, complex set of flavors and a potent spirit of around 90-110 proof.
“We’re bringing it back in its truest form,” Sloan said. “It’s incredibly smooth and you can get past the burn and get these great flavors. It’s such an awesome representation of a beautiful heritage.”
Mezcal is akin to wine in that it comes in many different varieties with flavors influenced by the dirt, climate and water specific to each region, Kuper said.
“Mezcal is an incredibly complex and elegant spirit,” Kuper said. “The difference in flavors from one to the next is mind-blowing.”
Each bottle of Mezcal Vago comes with a label detailing who made it, what pueblo it is from, the size of the batch and other specifics. Bottles start at around $50.
The formation of Mezcal Vago is part of a larger story about travel, love and continuing a centuries-old tradition.
Sometime after their first taste of mezcal, Kuper settled on an island west of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca, where he and Sloan opened a small beachside bar. One day, Kuper developed an ear infection and went to a rural health clinic. Out walked a beautiful little nurse, and Kuper was thunderstruck. He ended up courting, then marrying, the nurse, Valentina Garcia, whose father’s family has been manufacturing fine mezcals for generations. Kuper started selling his father-in-law’s mezcals at his bar, and said patrons were impressed with its quality.
The more he learned about the craft, the more he realized this was top-notch stuff. He ended up traveling all over the state to research different brands and flavors.
“We thought, let’s do a bunch of tours, learn everything we can, see how it really holds up … It held up,” he said. “His mezcal is totally unique, really good and really represents the truth in mezcal.”
As he became part of her family, he realized it was time to share these mezcals — and others like them — with the world.
For those who want to see what Mezcal Vago is all about, Sloan is hosting a tasting on Thursday from 4-7 p.m. at Pacific Street Liquors. To learn more about Mezcal Vago, visit mezcalvago.com.
They struck up what has become an enduring friendship, and in those early years, would often travel together during the off-seasons. It was on one of those adventures that the men found themselves on a street in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they were overcome by a parade of carousing graduates lighting off fireworks and carrying gas cans. The two gringos were pulled into this mobile party, and soon the students were urging Kuper and Sloan to drink from gas cans, chanting “Toma! Toma! Toma!”
“What hit my lips was so smoky and powerful that, momentarily, I though it might actually be gasoline,” Kuper recalls. “In fact, it was my first taste of mezcal.”
That was the beginning of a love affair with Oaxaca and its people, food and spirits that led Kuper to settle in the southern Mexico state, open a beachside bar there with Sloan, start a family, and most recently, launch Mezcal Vago with his longtime friend. The import/export company aims to bring artisanal small-batch mezcals from the tiny family-run palenques — mezcal production facilities — of Oaxaca’s hills to the restaurants, bars and tables of the U.S.
“Telluride has been an extremely warm environment to get kick-started,” he said.
Along with its Colorado distributor, the business is working with distributors in Texas and New York to sell the mezcal and hopes to expand to further states in the near future.
The goal is to share Oaxaca’s finest mezcals — which Kuper says convey the earthy, arid and smoky qualities inherent to the state — with the world. None of the mezcal producers they work with have produced commercially before, and none of them are producing commercially for anyone else. The result, Sloan and Kuper say, is that they are making available the kind of handcrafted spirits that could previously only be found at farmers markets in Oaxacan pueblos.
“This repesents truth in mezcal,” Kuper said. “It’s not us looking for the smoothest, or the least smoky or the most smoky, it’s us bringing a mezcal that gives you a sense of place, that takes you on a journey to where my father-in-law is from, where my wife grew up.”
Mezcal Vago’s products are a far cry from the bottles of brown mezcals that come with worms floating in them. All of Mezcal Vago’s mezcals are made in the traditional Oaxacan style — joven and clear — and their only ingredients are agave and water. They are produced by roasting agave underground and are not aged in oak.
The result is a sophisticated, complex set of flavors and a potent spirit of around 90-110 proof.
“We’re bringing it back in its truest form,” Sloan said. “It’s incredibly smooth and you can get past the burn and get these great flavors. It’s such an awesome representation of a beautiful heritage.”
Mezcal is akin to wine in that it comes in many different varieties with flavors influenced by the dirt, climate and water specific to each region, Kuper said.
“Mezcal is an incredibly complex and elegant spirit,” Kuper said. “The difference in flavors from one to the next is mind-blowing.”
Each bottle of Mezcal Vago comes with a label detailing who made it, what pueblo it is from, the size of the batch and other specifics. Bottles start at around $50.
The formation of Mezcal Vago is part of a larger story about travel, love and continuing a centuries-old tradition.
Sometime after their first taste of mezcal, Kuper settled on an island west of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca, where he and Sloan opened a small beachside bar. One day, Kuper developed an ear infection and went to a rural health clinic. Out walked a beautiful little nurse, and Kuper was thunderstruck. He ended up courting, then marrying, the nurse, Valentina Garcia, whose father’s family has been manufacturing fine mezcals for generations. Kuper started selling his father-in-law’s mezcals at his bar, and said patrons were impressed with its quality.
The more he learned about the craft, the more he realized this was top-notch stuff. He ended up traveling all over the state to research different brands and flavors.
“We thought, let’s do a bunch of tours, learn everything we can, see how it really holds up … It held up,” he said. “His mezcal is totally unique, really good and really represents the truth in mezcal.”
As he became part of her family, he realized it was time to share these mezcals — and others like them — with the world.
For those who want to see what Mezcal Vago is all about, Sloan is hosting a tasting on Thursday from 4-7 p.m. at Pacific Street Liquors. To learn more about Mezcal Vago, visit mezcalvago.com.
