Just when I thought it was going to be another quiet week, we got wind of a new lawsuit filed against Diageo. This new class action lawsuit, filed in the San Francisco division of the United States District Court alleges that Casamigos and Don Julio are not really tequila. The plaintiff accuses parent company Diageo of engaging in “fraudulent scheming” and “racketeering.” The complaint alleges that Diageo knowingly mislabeled its Don Julio and Casamigos tequilas as 100% agave—when both brands are purportedly adulterated with industrial alcohol.

Felisa Rogers breaks down the 60+ pages of the legal filing which was a bit of a page turner, not a usual thing with legal filings. It is damning, shocking, and if proven true, a huge blow to the tequila category. And none of this is fun to report. These charges go well beyond a disconnect between marketing and the actual product. It would mean a deep level of lying by a company, at best a lack of oversight by the regulatory company and a huge blow to the category itself, calling into question every bottle labeled 100% agave. Exactly who can you trust when buying products if everyone is in on the deception?

I have heard and seen some interesting responses from folks in the mezcal community, a kind of schadenfreude, which is incredibly shortsighted. Despite so many people in the world of mezcal saying, we are not tequila and we will not follow in its footsteps, well, take a hard look at what is happening. The production process for mezcal is certainly changing in order to meet the volume demand and it is a slippery slope when the focus shifts to the bottom line.

When I think of all of the people who don’t cut corners, who do things the “right” way, who at the end of the day are committed to quality first, even if that means being less less profitable, well I am outraged by the sheer injustice if these lawsuits turn out to be even half true. And also, even more committed to pushing for transparency across the agave spirits category.

In other news, be sure to check out Tess Rose Lampert’s take on the Mezcal Mule and a wrap up of my visit to Charanda Uruapan’s ancestral production. Also, if you want to get an idea of what makes our contributing writers tick, be sure to check out our summer reading list!

Saludos,

Susan and the Mezcalistas Team

MEZCAL NEWS

MEZCAL EVENTS

• July 12th-13th, Barra Mexico, Mexico City

• July 13th, Women in Spirits, Chicago

• July 20th-25th, Tales of the Cocktail, New Orleans

• August 1, Espaterra, Oaxaca

• August 23rd, Tequila, Mezcal and More Book Launch, London

• September 21st, Copita Mexican Spirits Festival, St. Louis

• September 27th, Piña Agavera, Madrid (Spain)

• September 28th, Copitas, Ostend (Belgium)

• SAVE THE DATE: October 5th, Mexico in a Bottle San Diego

• SAVE THE DATE: November 16th, Mexico in a Bottle San Francisco