VinePair50 2023: Max Rosenstock, Niki Nakazawa, Yuskei Murayama

VP: How did you each end up in the spirits industry? Was this something you would have imagined at the beginning of your professional lives?

None of us ever expected to be involved in the spirits industry. NETA is the cumulative result of serendipity and friendship that blossomed over the course of many years. As a business, NETA’s journey from spirit to bottle grew as Max’s relationship with producers in Miahuatlán deepened, opening a door to new possibilities and responsibilities. 

As is so often the case, many a shared copita initially brought the three of us together. However, our commitment to the idea that business should serve the needs of the community above the needs of the industry is what brought us together in earnest. Max’s deep knowledge of the spirit and its sociocultural/agricultural context planted our feet firmly in the community. Niki’s decade-plus living and working in Mexico City in the arts/natural wines/restaurant world gave shape to a unique sales and marketing perspective, grounded in a history of community activism and service work throughout Central America. Yuskei’s experience founding, scaling, and running a multinational import/distribution company brought structure and strategy to the service of the community’s needs. It was an unexpected turn for all of us, but one that has been tremendously challenging and fulfilling. 

VP: How would you describe NETA as a company, both from a mission standpoint and also your day-to-day operations?

Simply put, we are négociants of agave spirits made in a particular micro-region of Miahuatlán, Oaxaca. We work almost exclusively with over a dozen producing families and a cooperative in the community of Logoche, selecting exceptional batches for commercial bottling and sale. NETA is focused on the expression of terruño or terroir through the celebration of the inherent diversity of agaves and the families that care for, harvest, and make their living from them. However, we are acutely aware that our participation in this culture and community is a privilege, bringing with it concomitant responsibility.    

Against the backdrop of colonial and neo-colonial legacies that that continue to play out, our mission is to adapt the market model to serve the needs of the community in a way that reflects and respects the realities on the ground. In practice, this reveals itself in the way we work and celebrate alongside the community. This kind of deep and far-reaching dialogue has led us to invest in everything from third-party production costing analyses (that in some cases raised our own purchase prices), to sustainability studies that explore both the resource-depleting consequence of production and the means to address them. 

VP: I've noticed that you prefer to use the term "agave spirits" vs "mezcal," can you tell me a little bit about this distinction?

“Mezcal” is a term that is protected by Denomination of Origin (DOM), which sets forth the criteria by which a spirit can be certified as “mezcal.” Our use of the term “agave spirits” is a community decision that enabled producers to focus on preserving the family recipes and practices that grew from their specific historical context, as opposed to navigating a set of externally imposed criteria. The DOM is ever-changing and a highly politicized topic, so in part, our decision to operate outside of that space is also a decision to let the spirit speak for itself. 

As such, we are prohibited from using the term, despite the longstanding vernacular and traditions of the communities and families we work with. Paradoxically, this allows us to maintain other traditional nomenclature related to the plants in our labeling, and bottle what we feel is a truly unadulterated expression of the agave spirit. 

VP: For your work, how important is it to be based on the ground in Mexico?

Being here in Mexico is everything. NETA is distilled from place and community. There is no substitute to being here. Having a regular and accessible presence in Miahuatlán is what has facilitated the trust and communication that has allowed us to work the way we do.