We spoke to Perro Verde co-founders Juan Santiago Rodriguez and Mariana Carvajal about their ambitions for mezcal and getting an Oscar-winning actor on board with the brand.
Perro Verde made its US entrance last November with an exclusive dinner in Beverly Hills, complete with a guest list of celebrities and high-profile cultural figures – a display of how the brand wants to be perceived and who its customer base could be.
The brand was founded by husband-and-wife duo Juan Santiago Rodriguez and Mariana Carvajal, along with mezcal producer Porfirio Chagoya. Since its debut on the scene, it’s received the backing of Oscar-winning actor Benicio del Toro and won industry awards such as a Master medal at The Luxury Masters 2023.
The choice of location to celebrate its launch was demonstrative of how Rodriguez and Carvajal want the brand to be viewed. As Rodriguez explains: “We don’t necessarily want to be the brand that is everywhere. We are not targeting the mass consumer in that sense. We want to enter particular markets, with those being at the high-end.”
“Our initial, let’s say, short-term goal as a company, is that we want to be that reference of premium mezcal,” he says of the brand’s ambitions.
“We want to be the mezcal of special occasions, the go-to gifting mezcal. If someone wants a special bottle, we want to be top of the mind,” adds Carvajal.
On bringing Del Toro into the fold, Santiago says he and Carvajal met the actor in 2023.
“Some of our investors have close ties to the entertainment industry, and one of them invited us to an event at The Proper Hotel,” Santiago explains. “He works with Benicio del Toro, who was also a guest. At that time, we had just received the final bottle prototype from our glass suppliers, and I had it with me in my backpack after attending some meetings. I felt a bit uncomfortable carrying the bag, but it turned out to be useful.
“As we were chatting with our friends, sharing details about the project, Benicio arrived and was introduced to us, which meant he overheard our conversation about Perro Verde.
“Later that night, he shared his life story, his family, and his passion for collecting rare items. It struck me then that he perfectly embodied what Perro Verde represents. He is an authentic individual, a master of his craft, who has chosen to take the road less travelled and has distinguished himself, earning respect within the industry. Attractive, but not in a conventional way, you know?
“It reminded me of the discussions Mariana and I had while building the brand and defining what it means to be Perro Verde; an enigma. As the night unfolded, the conversation circled back to Perro Verde, and he asked about the meaning behind the name. He was captivated by the story, intrigued by the fact that our partners had been producing mezcal for over 120 years. Holding the bottle and caressing the Nahual on the back, he said, ‘Well, I am a Perro Verde…’ And that was the beginning of our story.”
Perro Verde offers three expressions: Espadín (priced at US$72), Tobasiche (priced at US$325) and a blend of Espadín and Tobasiche called Ensamble (priced at US$150).
These prices aren’t at the low end for a spirit that is still finding its feet in the mainstream, which Rodriguez acknowledges: “We understand the restriction, in terms of pricing, that this brings – but the product is of such high quality, and it takes so long to produce and so long to harvest correctly, that it is necessary.”
Betting on the liquid
The Perro Verde liquid is created by part-owner Porfirio Chagoya’s family, fifth generation mezcal makers who have been making mezcal for over 120 years.
Rodriguez and Carvajal are firm in the belief that ‘premiumness’ needs to also be about the ease of drinking.
To be convincing as a premium mezcal, Carvajal stresses the importance for Perro Verde in creating a liquid that is smooth and easily drinkable. She explains that “we profiled mezcal in a way where we found the plants that are more gentle because some are either too herbal or earthy. We did a lot of research to find plants that are more balanced.
“We also looked into the alcohol volume in the mezcal because locally there’s a tendency to have mezcals proofed at around 45% ABV and we found that at 42% we got a better experience of the flavours, and they were not overpowered by the alcohol. This is very important for the brand and for the category in general, to find mezcals that are more appealing to the global palate.”
Rodriguez says the train of thought on why they want with certain varieties – Espadín and Tobasiche – is “really about finding the right smoothness of a product”. He continues that at times mezcal has “gone down a route of needing to have extreme flavour and extreme power”, rather than acknowledging that at certain ABVs, with certain agave species, it can be more palatable.
In that sense, the pair are very particular about the agave variety they select, Espadín, which is commonly used, and Tobasiche, which is less so. While these agaves are not as efficient in terms of volume production, they bring a profile “that is very aromatic”, Rodriguez says, and one that is also “easy to drink”. “This is what we base the brand on,” he says.
Perro Verde’s bottle designs are said to represent the old pots that would hold mezcal when it was first made 500 or so years ago, and while “minimalistic and very beautiful” in their appearance, Rodriguez maintains that “the bet of the brand is on the liquid itself”.
“I think that obviously everything comes through the eye first, clearly in premium and luxury products, you want to be an eye-pleasing brand, but you also want to make sure that the liquid quality that you have is incomparable – and that is where we stand.”
Sophisticated spirit
Another goal for Rodriguez is to one day get drinkers to order mezcal by the variety, such as they do with wine. The two liquids, after all, share similarities in the way that flavour derives from condition of the plants and land.
“I believe that is where mezcal is headed,” he says, in regards to the parallels with wine. “Mezcal is a graduation from Tequila, yes, and Tequila is a very good drink, but it’s more industrial and mezcal brings more sophisticated profiles. I would say mezcal behaves more like wine than another spirit. You have terroir, flavour of the land and the same plant actually has different flavours even if it’s cultivated from across the street. You also have domaines, or fields from where people grow agave, and vintages. Depending on each year, some vintages are better than others, so it behaves very much like wine.
“In retail, we want people to not simply order mezcal, but a variety of mezcal. You don’t go to a restaurant and just ask for ‘white wine’, you would say I want a Chardonnay from this region or domaine. I think mezcal also brings this sort of sophistication.”
In regards to Tequila, Rodriguez describes mezcal’s agave peer is a “shallow spirit”, but not in a bad way, he explains: “Tequila opened the world’s eyes into agave spirits, but mezcal has a depth that no other spirit in general has. The different aromatic profiles and the amount of flavours that come directly from a plant in a spirit is uncommon. In Tequila, a lot of flavours come from ageing the product, so from wood and therefore from outside of the plant.”
Carvajal adds that the “spotlight on mezcal has even made the Tequila category evolve and change”.
She says: “Organic is something that has become a big thing in Tequila, or no additives, or even going back to less industrialised processes and trying to make Tequila in more of a traditional way [like] mezcal.
“There’s been a rethinking of the whole agave category, and how value is perceived and appreciated within Tequila. I think this has made processes better because now mezcal and Tequila have a kind of a parallel, which is, in a sense, a lot more purist.”
Additionally, another category that can be likened to mezcal is single malt whisky, which Rodriguez says is “a good comparison, but again, whisky’s flavour is given from the casks, not the plant. Single malt is incredible, but you don’t find a spirit where automatic profiles come directly with such a depth of flavours from the plant itself. That’s what’s really given the next step for the agave and the mezcal category to grow.”
Eyes on Europe
While it’s early days for the brand in the US, the pair entertain the idea of entering Europe, and specifically the UK.
“The UK and London is the sphere in terms of sophistication and introducing premium spirits and premium brands, and for us it is a very important market,” Carvajal says.
“The UK has the tendency to bring trends out into the world. We’ve won three awards with the IWSC and this is needed because you need that sort of feedback from the industry if we are to have what we’re claiming, right?
“When we visited Europe, every restaurant there that we spoke to (and we went to several important bars in London, as well as hotels) was very excited about the mezcal category. And everybody that tasted Perro Verde was very surprised as well. It’s a very interesting market that we would want to explore quite soon.”
“We don’t believe there’s anybody out there, positioned there, doing the work that we are doing and putting a product with the standards of quality that we have,” Rodriguez adds.
“So we want to be that go-to brand, the reference point in the premium market.”
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Author: Rupert Hohwieler
