Spirit Type: Mezcal Artesanal Joven

Producer: La Medida

Agave Type: Espadín

Where: Río Golea, San Pedro Quiatoni, Oaxaca

Country: Mexico

Taste: Foreshadowed by a nose of bold dark fruit, sweet green herbs, and dry hard cheese, the explosive palate delivers a motherload of minerality, weighty mouthfeel, and smoky musculature

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About the Mezcalera: 

The man, the myth, the legend…the mysterious mezcalero Don Celso of Río Golea is spoken of in reverential terms by agave cognoscenti the world over. Celso distills only this one core varietal but does it so beautifully that we couldn’t dream of asking for anything else. This truly legendary Espadín speaks deeply of place, challenging every preconception about the variety you may have. Plants mature between 6–10 years. Cooked in an earthen oven. Milled using stone tahona. Fermented in wooden vats (tinas). Distilled twice using copper pot stills.

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La Medida, meaning “the measure,” is a collaborative brand created by the enigmatic mezcalero Celso Luis Santiago and Julián Vidal Gómez Rodríguez, a behind-the-scenes industry leader who has been one of the unsung legends of Oaxacan mezcal for over fifty years. 

Julián’s biography mirrors the evolution of the modern mezcal industry. After helping to instigate the shift from limited industrial mezcal to the legalization and rise of artesanal and ancestral producers, Julián helped to create the first incarnation of what became the Consejo Regulador del Mezcal (CRM), mezcal’s primary certifying board; he has since developed its premiere alternative competitor, the Asociación de Maguey y Mezcal, or AMMA. Since the 1980s, Julián has been instrumental in the development of many of today’s most significant and beloved artesanal labels, and in 2009, he struck out on his own to create La Medida, which emphasizes ethical sourcing and profit sharing. 

Alongside his son and Don Celso, Julián works in concert with several highly regarded mezcaleros around Oaxaca (such as Berta Vasquez, Jose Luis Santiago, and Jose Diaz Bustamante) showcasing a diverse range of wild and cultivated single-varietal bottlings. La Medida reduces the financial risk faced by most mezcaleros by paying a salary throughout the agave’s growth (sometimes spanning decades) as well as covering all costs associated with certification, and ultimately paying an additional thirty percent of each batch’s net sale price directly to the maestro mezcaleros, in cash. This transparency allows La Medida to offer better economic results for these tiny producers, helping to grow the category through equity rather than extraction.