A denomination of origin ties a product to a territory and to a way of making it. For mezcal, that tie is written into NOM-070-SCFI-2016, first published in Mexico's Official Gazette in 1994.
The territory
It covers whole states: Oaxaca, Zacatecas, Durango, Guerrero and San Luis Potosí. It also includes municipalities in Michoacán, Puebla, the State of Mexico, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Guanajuato. The list has grown over the years; Sinaloa is among the recent additions.
Who certifies
Certification is run by the Consejo Regulador del Mezcal (CRM), which checks compliance with the standard from agave to label.
The tools define the category
| Stage | Mezcal | Artesanal | Ancestral |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooking | Pit, masonry or autoclave oven | Pit or raised masonry oven | Pit oven |
| Milling | Mallet, stone mill, shredder, mill train or diffuser | Mallet, stone mill or shredder | Mallet or stone mill |
| Distillation | Pot still, continuous still or column | Direct fire; copper or clay pots, wooden, copper or steel stills | Direct fire; clay or wooden pots |
The classes
Blanco or joven; madurado en vidrio (over 12 months in glass); reposado (2 to 12 months in wood); añejo (over 12 months in wood, vessels under 1,000 litres); abocado con; and destilado con.
- Arellano-Plaza, M., et al. (2022). Mezcal Production in Mexico: Between Tradition and Commercial Exploitation. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6. www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.832532/full
- NOM-070-SCFI-2016, Bebidas alcohólicas — Mezcal — Especificaciones. camtomx.com/normas/nom-070-scfi-2016