Guides / The best women-led mezcal brands
The best women-led mezcal brands
Women have made mezcal for centuries. What's new is the bottle credit. Five producers where the woman on the label is also the woman on the still.
By The Editors · · 7 min read
Mezcal production has always involved women – the village-level division of labor in mezcal-making historically gave women the fermentation and bottling work, while men handled the field and stills. The change in the last decade is that women are increasingly named on the bottle: as maestras, as founders, as the producer of record.
We've kept this list to bottles where a woman's hands are on the spirit – either as the maestra distilling, or as the producer-founder running the project end-to-end. A brand named after a woman doesn't qualify unless the woman is actively making the mezcal.
The picks
Real Minero – Graciela Ángeles, San Baltazar
Real Minero Largo – 5.0/5 · Real Minero · $170
Graciela Ángeles is the daughter of Don Lorenzo Ángeles and has run Real Minero since his death in 2017. The estate is one of the two or three most respected ancestral palenques in Oaxaca; bottles run 47-55% ABV across multiple agaves. Real Minero is the most-scored brand in our catalog above 4.5/5 – the one ancestral house with a woman fully at the helm of production decisions. The largo bottling at $170 / 5.0 is the brand's clearest statement.
Pasión Ancestral – Crispina Cebrián, Santa Catarina Minas
Pasión Ancestral Arroqueño-Tepextate – 5.0/5 · Pasión Ancestral · $70
Doña Crispina Cebrián is one of the senior maestras working today. Her clay-pot ancestral mezcals – the arroqueño-tepextate ensamble in particular – score 5.0 in our catalog. The bottles are limited and not always in US distribution, but when they appear they're some of the most textured liquid in mezcal.
Mestiza Negra – Doña Juana, Santiago Matatlán
Mestiza Negra Espadin – 4.5/5 · Mestiza Negra · $20
Doña Juana is the maestra of record at Mestiza Negra. The bottle is a 45% Matatlán espadín – clean, mineral-bright, with a late-tobacco finish. We score it 4.5/5. The cheapest bottle on this list by a wide margin; the production tier matches anything else here.
Lalocura – Sósima Olivera, Santa Catarina Minas
Lalocura Tobala – 4.5/5 · Lalocura Mezcal · $70
Sósima Olivera Aguilar runs the production side of Lalocura alongside her brother Lalo. The estate makes some of the most aromatic clay-pot ancestral mezcals in Oaxaca; the tobalá at 49%/$70 scores 4.5/5. Sósima is one of the few women publicly acknowledged as a maestra mezcalera in the ancestral category.
NETA single-maestra releases – multiple producers
NETA's importer model focuses on Miahuatlán palenques, several of which are run or co-run by women maestras. The single-maestra releases – where the bottle is bylined to a specific producer rather than the brand – are the ones to look for. Not every NETA bottle qualifies; the maestra-credited ones do.
There are dozens of other women working at the maestra level whose names don't appear on US-distributed bottles yet. Village-level production credit is well ahead of what makes it onto an export label. The list will grow.
Starting points by budget: Mestiza Negra at $22 is the entry-point on this list. The serious money sits at Real Minero's largo or Lalocura's tobalá.
Frequently asked
Are there many women-led mezcal brands?
More than the labels suggest. Mezcal production has historically involved women at the fermentation and bottling stages, and several maestras now run estates outright – Graciela Ángeles at Real Minero, Sósima Olivera at Lalocura, Crispina Cebrián at Pasión Ancestral, and Doña Juana at Mestiza Negra are among the most prominent in current US distribution.
What's the cheapest woman-led mezcal?
Mestiza Negra Espadín at $20-29, made by Doña Juana in Santiago Matatlán. Of the maestra-made bottles in current US distribution we've tracked, it's the entry-price option.