The agave spirits category continues to grow. With a focus on traditionally made spirits and a spotlight on heritage, the worlds of tequila, mezcal, raicilla, bacanora, and sotol are attracting customers thirsty for authentic flavors.

When it comes to tequila, production elements like the use of a tahona, the traditional large stone wheel, used to crush the cooked agave hearts before fermentation has become a point of interest for bartenders and spirits buyers. The proof is the flavor, as we saw with one of our top finalists, San Matias Tahona Blanco, with 94 Points.

As the market sees a barrage of new mezcal brands, those that stay true to artisanal production methods continue to score the best and be the preferred brands of both trade and consumers. A long standing staple of the traditional mezcal world, a Del Maguey offering took the Chairman’s Trophy this year with their Del Maguey Single Village Wild Jabali with 95 Points and an Ultimate Recommendation. Happily, the top scorers in 2018’s mezcal category were split between rare and wild varieties and cultivated espadin, the most common agave variety used for mezcal production.

The next wave of spirits to hit the shelves and back bars are the more regional expressions of mezcal, with their own legally protected denominations of origin or governing councils. These include raicilla from Jalisco, bacanora from Sonora, and sotol from Chihuahua and Durango which is technically made from the dasylirion wheeleri plant, a close cousin of agave. While new to the international market, many of these spirits have built in heritage that goes as far back as tequila and Oaxacan mezcal. Considering the current and growing preference for traditional flavors, these offshoots of the mezcal category are well positioned for their own rapid growth in the year to come.