Announced for years as the next big thing in the world of mixology, the boom of Mexican distillates based on agave seems to have finally arrived. The numbers, the cocktail bar’s drink lists and the curiosity of consumers for a symbol drink like the Paloma say so. Fortune Business Insights, a company that monitors investment opportunities, has put the spotlight on the tequila market, which in 2023 has crossed the €10 billion threshold and is expected to reach 16.5 billion by 2032, with an annual growth rate of 5.9%. 

The engine of this growth remains North America, where more than 60% of the value is concentrated, but it seems that agave has managed to sail from the Americas to conquer the rest of the world. The authoritative International wine and spirit research has crowned tequila as the second fastest growing distillate in recent years, obviously after gin. The IWSR 2024 report also analyses the situation of the Italian market, historically marginal for consumption of agave distillates, but which in the medium-term outlook presents two significant data: the peak of growth in the gin category by 2025 as a result of increased curiosity among bartenders and consumers about the agave spirits family; the stagnation of the vodka category, supported for years by a popular drink like Moscow Mule, Precisely because of the increasing migration towards Paloma, seen as an equally trendy and affordable drink even for occasional consumers.

But agave does not mean only tequila, it brings with it a whole family of distillates, in which stands a drink with centuries of history and great charm: mezcal, or the most artisanal among the great distillates. While it is true that mezcal is still a niche distillate, a natural fact due to the lower product availability and the resulting ultra premium positioning, the figures in Italy speak of a 22.7% growth in volumes from 2018 to 2023, against 7.4% of tequila in the same period. 

To influence, certainly, the good performance of the premium segment in our country, which go hand in hand with the valuable work of dissemination of some bartenders struck by agave and Mexican culture, First of all, Roberto Artusio and Cristian Bugiada who in 2016 decided to make their Roman restaurant, La Punta Expendio de Agave, a temple for all lovers of agave distillates. 

Tequila By Velier

The distillate is named after the homonymous city of the state of Jalisco. It is in Tequila, in fact, that in 1795 Charles IV of Spain granted the Cuervo family the right to distill this fermented agave. In 1873, Don Cenobio Sauza is the first to export tequila to the United States and a century later, in 1974, the entry into force of the Tequila production regulations, which among other things requires the exclusive use of Agave Azul Tequilera Weber as raw material. In recent decades, thanks to the boom of this distillate, many things have changed in Tequila, with most of the distilleries acquired by multinational groups that have not favoured the preservation of artisanal production techniques, both in the cultivation of agave and its subsequent transformation. 

Velier, a distributor based in Genoa, is committed as usual to establish commercial relations of import and distribution with companies that preserve the authenticity and quality of tequila. This is the portfolio of tequila from the Genoese importer:

• Fortaleza: founded in 1999 by Guillermo Sauza, fifth generation descendant of the legendary Don Cenobio. The agaves used by Fortaleza are cooked for 36 hours in a stone oven, very slowly, for an optimal caramelization of sugars. Traditional milling with the exclusive use of a "tahona". Fermentation for 4 days in open-air wooden vats, with the help of a special yeast that has belonged to the family for generations. No sugars or chemicals are added. The distillation is double, in traditional copper stills.
• El Tequileño: founded in 1959 by Don Jorge Salles Cuervo, descendant of one of the most important families of tequileros who decided to find his own way to produce a tequila of absolute quality: the selected agave is ripe, with at least 6 years of life, and comes exclusively from the Los Altos region. Fermentation in open vats influenced by the many mango trees surrounding the distillery; distillation takes place in copper stills and the absence of cold or charcoal filtration allows to preserve the natural fatty esters of agave.
• Other brands are Rooster Rojo, El Jimador, Herradura, Tapatio, Cenote, Kah, Pm Spirits.
  
  Mezcal By Velier
  
  The production of mezcal is traditionally linked to small family businesses in the state of Oaxaca. The distillate has always been produced according to artisanal methods, often passed on orally, and agaves were cultivated in harmony with agricultural work in close relation with other crops. It can be said that the main difference between mezcal and tequila is precisely this productive trait: while tequila has been partially contaminated by industrialization, mezcal has preserved its ancestral soul. 

Today this characteristic seems to be strongly threatened by the success of this distillate, since the entry of big players intending to transform producers into distributors is causing pressure both on the cultivation of the agaves and on the production methods. In this context, the Mezcal Regulatory Council was created in 2004 to manage the authorisations of the DO (Denominaciones de Origen) and to authorise the use of the word "mezcal" on labels By means of very strict legislation requiring the production of data and analysis which is not within the reach of all producers. 

If, therefore, on the one hand, this regulation guarantees today quality and some original characteristics of mezcal, on the other hand obtaining certification has become an expensive and laborious process for the most authentic and traditional farmers-producers of mezcal. In fact some small producers are pushed to work for the larger ones, so as to obtain certification, but they give up quality in the name of quantity, as well as the "author’s" value of their product.

This theme has obviously influenced the construction of the Velier portfolio for the mezcal category:

• Palenque Spirits, a project born in 2018 from an idea of Luca Gargano that through a series of bottlings aims to enhance the work of some micro producers of mezcal putting for the first time in labels their faces. One of the most important results of the project was to push mezcal producers to transform themselves from local artisans into real entrepreneurs in the sector, despite an initially more genuinely peasant approach. In July 2024 the second series of Palenque Spirits was launched, with the involvement of five Oaxaqueñi palenqueros.
• Siete Misterios, since September 2024 Velier distributes in Italy the brand born in 2010 from the passion of brothers Eduardo and Julio Mestre. Siete Misterios focuses on the promotion and development of local microeconomics, working actively with mezcaleros to obtain the certifications imposed by the Consejo Regulador del Mezcal. The Mestre brothers buy agaves at a fair price, that is above the average, and then turn them into the distillery built in Sola de Vega. In addition, to mitigate the negative effects of excessive consumption of wild agave, Siete Misterios assists mezcaleros in introducing good practices for domestication of certain varieties.
• Alipus, a project of the Los Danzantes group which since 1999 has allowed a number of producers to bottle their mezcal under a single label that shows the names of the villages in which they are distilled, giving a great weight to the terroir and the mezcalero master who followed the production.

Other brands are Los Danzantes, Encantado, Monte Alban, Se Busca, Vago,