With both tequila’s and mezcal’s growth rates soaring, the agave spirits category could surpass vodka in a number of years, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. While not an agave spirit, another new product from Mexico is starting to build an audience: Sotol.
The traditional Mexican distillate is actually made from the desert spoon plant or Dasylirion, a shrub commonly referred to as sotol. The distillation process is similar to mezcal, but unlike agaves, the sotol plant can be harvested without killing it— a sustainable quality that could bode well for the future of the spirit. While sotol’s designation of origin (DO) restricts its official labeling to three northern Mexican states, the plant and distillates can be found as far south as Oaxaca and more recently up to the southwestern U.S.
Sotol might get its “mezcal moment” but like mezcal, which faced an incredibly slow trip before its trajectory took off, it could take a while, according to Yaremi Navar Quiñones, founder of Flor de Desierto Sotol.
“I can tell you that for many years there was no sotol category,” said Quiñones, who launched the brand to honor her home state of Chihuahua 11 years ago and began exporting to the U.S. in 2016. Flor del Desierto Sotol’s growth has been about 100% year over year except during the pandemic, and is now exported in Canada, Australia and ten countries in Europe.
While online retailer Drizly’s mezcal sales surged 600 percent year over year in 2020, that spirit first crossed first the border 25 years earlier with Del Maguey Mezcal. Sotol is even younger than that; Yaremi Navar Quinones, founder of Flor de Desierto Sotol imported her brand to the U.S. in 2016.
“Now you see more brands, and in the past few years we have seen a lot more,” she added.
More sotols, and sotol spirits
Unlike tequila and mezcal, sotol’s designation of origin (DO) is not recognized by the U.S., allowing a few Texas distillers like Marfa Spirits Co and Desert Door to recently get into the sotol game with American-made versions. With the rise in popularity of agave spirits, Mexican distillers outside the DO are also experimenting more with the plant.
“I think a lot of the growth of the sotol category can be attributed to the fact that there are now many big name mezcaleros all over Mexico producing sotol because of how prevalent the plant is across all of Mexico,” said Steven Sadri, partner in San Francisco’s agave-focused Tahona Mercado. “Inherently, mezcaleros love experimenting and trying new things so it only seemed like a matter of time until they would start to use Dasylirion Wheeleri to make sotol even if there wasn’t a family history of making it.”
Confusing matters more, distillates made with sotol but out of the DO in Mexico are still required by the TTB to put source materials on the label, which means there is an expanding roster of sotol and productions called “sotol spirits” on the shelf.
Growing, But Still Niche
One of the earliest brands to enter the market, Sotol Hacienda de Chihuahua, positioned itself as tequila-adjacent spirit with a low ABV and aged expressions, but Flor del Desierto represents the newer crop of brands expressing a range of terroir from different producers and regions that appeal to the mezcal aficionados. Other brands include Clande Sotol, La Higuera and Fabriquero.
“We have so many customers that utilize us as their Mexican spirits shop, and those educated ones who work their way through all of our mezcals are ready to try something new or different,” said Joe Keeper of barware and liquor store, Bar Keeper in Los Angeles. Both Keeper and Sadri expressed that they are meeting the increased interest in sotol with ample education, as even customers seeking out sotol are unaware that it’s not an agave spirit.
Still, sotol’s small presence in the market before other Mexican distillates like raicilla and bacanora may have given it a good foundation to grow from.
“No one was talking about raicilla or bacanora before mezcal, but they were talking about sotol,” said Arik Torren, founder of Fidencio Spirits and importer of La Higuera Sotol of Chihuahua and Origen Raíz of Durango. Markets like California and states in the Southwest have a natural affliction for the spirit, which is now also benefiting from other cities that want to stay ahead of trends, according to Torren.
“One reason for its growth would be that the general interest of traditional Mexican spirits has shifted away from just aficionados or the curious, and it’s rooted more and more in the U.S. market and in the mainstream consumer,” Torren said.
The importer also attributed his portfolio’s presence to educating and building strong relationships with distribution partners and bartenders.
Bars Play a Pivotal Role
Sotol’s future growth depends on the work of bartenders and restaurants pushing Mexican spirits into consumers hands, according to Sadri.
“Tequila got a great boost from the creation of the Margarita,” he said. “Mezcal got the attention of many top chefs and bartenders due to its complexity and how great it played with food ingredients just like wine.”
While these days tequila and mezcal cocktails have become the norm, sotol is still a relative rarity on the cocktail menu. That’s not the case at Baltimore’s Clavel, where the agave bar program earned a James Beard semi-finalist nomination twice. An aged sotol negroni has been one of the top sellers for seven years. Bar Director Andre Barnhill saw sotol immediately as a stand-in for a base spirit, lending itself well to aging and classic cocktails. The sotol flight is one of the more popular flights as well, providing customers on a budget a bridge between familiar and top-end mexican distillates
“I was able to make an experience that’s less expensive for people and it gives them something new as a spirit that maybe they hadn’t even heard of before,” he said.
But if sotol’s further success hangs on bartenders spearheading the category’s education, that might be a problem, according to Keeper. A mainstay for L.A. bartenders, Bar Keeper’s professional clientele has shifted since the pandemic as veterans of the industry moved on and their replacements have little bar knowledge or mentorship.
“We think it’s going to take a couple of years for those young neophyte bartenders to have the wisdom, knowledge and elegance to create as opposed to just emulate,” he said.
In the meantime, the sotol flask-sized bottles and other smaller formats have been a perfect entryway for customers learning about the spirit.
“It’s way easier to introduce a novelty without them having to spend a lot of money on something when they have no idea what it is,” he said.