Doug French
Doug
French • 51 • Mezcalero, Scorpion Mezcal
& Marketer,
Caballeros Inc. • Oaxaca,
Mexico
PROFILE
Born in
Bronxville, NY, mezcalero Doug French grew up in
Beaumont, TX, Guadalajara, Mexico, and Europe. His
double major in business
administration/Latin-American studies from U.
Pacific helped him import hand-woven textiles and
run his own weaving factory, first in Menlo Park,
CA, then in Mexico. When textiles flagged, French
convinced Carl Doumani of Stag’s Leap Winery to
hire him on the spot to oversee his Encantado
mezcal contract, arguing: ‘I’ve successfully run
Mexican productions; I speak Spanish fluently; I
know the ins and outs of US/Mexican customs,
import/export regulations, international shipping,
tax requirements, labeling, packaging, quality
control – everything but the liquid inside the
bottle.’ The liquid French began learning in 1995
by judicious tasting and sowing his own agave (in
Spanish, maguey) plantation; he soon opened his own
mezcal business.
PURSUING
EXCELLENCE Working
for Carl, I gradually discovered why properly made mezcal
was invariably an excellent product, unlike the random (bad
to fair to good) bottles you’d find in the marketplace.
Being a curious fellow, I found out why, if you made it
right, every single batch was good. I sought that quality
and image for Encantado, and later, for my brand. In
textiles, I found that a niche sector always has great
appreciation for things well-made. I thought that in the
international liquor business that quality-minded audience
would be large enough to keep a commercial mezcal operation
going.
HARD
WORK and HORSEPLAY
Mezcals, like handcrafted textiles, are artisanal products:
labor-intensive, rare, made with a lot of time, love and
commitment. While the tequila industry does keep people
employed, its mass-production, high volume systems use
barely 1/1O the manpower needed to produce mezcal. 9O% of
mezcal is still made in small batches by families making
under 5OO liters a month. What’s more, once you harvest an
agave, you’ve nothing left but a hole in the ground, and it
takes 6 to1O years to grow and harvest another. Other white
spirits – rum, vodka – you can crank out in enormous volume
year after year.
WINE
and WHISKEY VARIATIONS
Agave’s growing conditions affect the mezcal flavor as
grapes determine wine – altitude, slope, degree days, cool
or hot zones. Up to 16 different varieties of agave may go
into mezcal, making it in a sense like Rhone to tequila’s
Burgundy. Then every mezcalero’s hand is a little different.
Each batch and blend differs, like single-malt Scotches. I’m
pleased that whiskey and scotch drinkers are favorably
impressed with the flavors of añejo mezcal. They’re
finding they have the same qualities they demand in better
whiskeys.
CRUNCH
LESSONS Most
Oaxacans – especially those of the dozen indigenous cultures
with their own languages and traditions – earn less than
$2OO a year. They survive on hardscrabble subsistence
farming – corn, squash, beans – and barter. When the crunch
hit in tequila production in 2OO2, desperate Jalisco tequila
producers plundered the Oaxacan farmers’ agave harvest (a
one-time gap-closer than is unlikely to be repeated.) One
upside of this one-time shortage was the lesson it taught to
the dirt-poor local farmers: agave is their only chance to
accumulate wealth with a cash crop. When the tequileros paid
these farmers outrageous, undreamed-of sums, they added
rooms on their houses and bought pickup trucks. Today that
bubble has burst and prices are back to normal, yet still,
in these harsh, arid plains of Oaxaca, maguey is all that
grows – slowly to be sure – but more readily and profitably
than corn.
SOCIAL
CONSCIENCE I get
along with my fellow mezcaleros, who regard me a respected
businessman, another who employs the labor force in a
severely depressed economy. I meet with the Governor of
Oaxaca half a dozen times a year at social and business
events. (Do liquor guys in California get to hang out with
the governor?) Our businesses, if successful, will keep
bread on the table for workers who might otherwise emigrate
– or sneak into – the US.
MARKET
ATTACK For our
consortium of mezcal producers, we developed a bar program
for the Bar Show in Las Vegas, and an exposition tasting
program for Wholesalers to Distributors Show in Orlando.
Though we’re now in 14 states and Canada, we’re still new to
this sophisticated, incredibly competitive marketplace with
its own techniques, rules and regulations, so we have to
work twice as hard to build our niche.
NEXT
CHALLENGE The main
thing is to get people to taste. The flavor is what makes
people love mezcal. Cracking the bars is gonna be hell. Can
you believe Jagermeister sent out 1OOO women to do bar
tastings? When you’re drinking, they say, the first drink’s
the worst and the second is better. I say, throw out the
first and get right to the good stuff. Mezcal, made right,
is a really good drink. When I finally started to make it, I
never, ever cut corners, and every single batch has been
good! So now drinkers can now start enjoying their first
one!
FLAVOR
WATCH Flavored
mezcals are not yet ready for introduction to the US, though
they have a fine following in Mexico. Firms like Pensamiento
are producing a wide (6O+) spectrum of flavored mezcals,
called cremas whether or not they have dairy added. Carlos
Leon Monterubio of Joyas Oaxacenas, a four-generation
mezcalero family in Tlacolula, has created a repertory of
bar drinks based on dozens of flavored mezcals. (Author’s
note: Mezcals flambe well with fruits, as noted at Mezcal
Beneva’s Rancho Zapata’s extensive dessert menu pairing
mezcal blanco with banana, peach or pineapple. Anejos go
well with chocolate torte. We tried a mezcal-flambed steak
at Paco Paco – sensational!)
NOW
READING Mostly
accounting statements! Seriously, industry magazines
fascinate me with their diversity of information. More
in-trade than consumer magazines – they’re more
hard-hitting, less flighty. I love reading about the wars
between big and little distributors, connoisseurs dissecting
fine nuances of wines and spirits, statistical charts, hot
brands, new product presentations. Real issues of new
closures: cork is out, plastic is in! Public perception
versus expert opinion. I find this all incredibly
interesting and valuable.
POP
POPS Decent Mexican
lagers are my usual pours, but I love red wine. As a boy in
France, I tasted vin ordinaire at table. My brother has
turned me onto Grand Cru Bordeaux. Down here we get a little
bit of French, Chilean, Riojas – but I’m starved to learn
how to pick out ones I like.
