Douglas French has been making mezcal in Oaxaca for more than two decades, and selling it in the United States under the Scorpion Mezcal brand. Recently he decided to try another spirit - whiskey. Whiskey is not commonly distilled in Mexico, so we decided to interview him about this new product, which is now available in the U.S. under the Sierra Norte brand name.
el Restaurante: People usually don't associate whiskey with Mexico. Is there a history of whiskey making there, or did you start something new?
French: There is some folk history of corn distillates in ancient times and even currently being produced. However I have never seen any, nor can I find any way to get some to actually see what it is. I have also seen some stories about people making whiskey currently, but again I have never seen any appear in the market. As best I can tell I'm the only American distiller in Mexico who rolls up his sleeves and goes out into the fields and plants 10, 20, then 50 acres of specialty heirloom corn and then harvests the tonnage to bring into the distillery. Aside from the agriculture I believe that I am the only distiller in Mexico of any nationality mashing and distilling whiskey and laying down hundreds of barrels. So, I think I can safely say that I have started something new. I like to think that I have been immersed in Oaxaca, Mexico for 28 years all the while working with the wonderful Zapotec people and their thousands of years old culture and traditions and plants that I add a bit of good old American ingenuity to the equation and I am now making wonderful whiskey with these people.
el Restaurante: Tell us about your own story - how did you get into making whiskey in the first place?
French: I was a bourbon drinker in the USA before moving to Oaxaca 28 years ago.
Since there was virtually no whiskey in Mexico or it was an extremely expensive luxury, and I was just a poor boy, I had to drink mezcal, which I love and have been distilling for 23 years now. However there is an agave shortage and because of the lack of raw materials my distillery is virtually shut down. I am also my own financial manager and I know that if I am not distilling, I am not making money. If I am not making money I will not be able to pay the employees or other bills a some point in time. I am aware that between my direct employees and the indirect employees and their families, about 200 people eat 3 meals a day with a roof over their heads, because of the jobs my projects generate. So I decided to quit worrying about the problems of the mezcal industry and get on with things and make some other products and get the stills fired up again. My favorite new project is whiskey and so that is what we are distilling. If the market and consumers like my whiskey as much as I do and they buy and consume it , then all those jobs are again secure and we will grow and create more new jobs.
el Restaurante: What's special about the ingredients or process you use that is distinctly Mexican?
French: I'm so glad that you asked. This is for me a magical situation. Oaxaca is the birthplace of corn in the world. There is a debate that corn originated anywhere between 7,000 and 14,000 years ago, right here in Oaxaca (or the Oaxaca/Puebla border area) . Some of the original strains of this corn is still being cultivated in the remote agriculture villages. There are dozens if not hundreds of varieties of the heirloom corns. I classify them by colors. I have been able to buy white, yellow and black corn. I mash and distill each color separately and I have discovered that each color gives me a different flavor of whiskey.
This surpasses being distinctly Mexican due to the origin of the corn, but it is also the basis of the USA American Corn/Bourbon whiskey industry.
Corn migrated throughout the Americas before Cristopher Columbus discovered America. When the Europeans migrated to America they found corn to be the grain cultivated by the indigenous peoples living in the Americas. The English, Scottish, Irish peoples immediately started distilling corn mashes and making whiskey, which is a tradition that continues greater than ever to this day. So those whiskies were made with corn that originated in Oaxaca probably up until the 1950s, when the green revolution in the USA took over and changed agriculture and the base seeds with hybrid and GMOs, etc., therefore changing the flavor of corn. So my Mexican whiskies probably taste like the early American whiskies made in the USA, verses the GMO corn whiskies of today. Everyone should try my whiskies and see what they think of these heirloom corn whiskies. Also for collectors who have pre 1950 bottles of whiskey, please compare them and send me your impressions of the flavor profiles.
el Restaurante: Do you have any recipes for Mexican whiskey cocktails?
French: Yes, I have four of them. Click on the links below:
Hot Buttered (Yellow Corn) Whiskey
Reach Douglas French at scorpionmezcal@yahoo.com