A restaurant family’s distillery, and a project for the villages around it.

Alipús is a mezcal label of Destilería Los Danzantes, the distillery in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca. Grupo Los Danzantes says on its website that it has been “distilling Mexico” since 1995. Harpers Wine & Spirit reported in February 2025 that the distillery was founded in 1997 by Gustavo Muñoz, later joined by his brother Jaime, and that it operates artisanal palenques in Santiago Matatlán and the nearby village of Unión Zapata, using earthen fire pits, stone tahonas, open-top wooden fermentation vats and copper pot stills.

Alipús was set up to do something different from the house brand. González Byass, whose website now carries the label, describes Alipús as a “social and artisanal mezcal project” founded in Oaxaca in 2000 to support and strengthen the rural economy of local producing communities. It works with family palenques in villages across Oaxaca and, in González Byass’s words, “acts as a bridge between traditional mezcal producers and the international market.” Harpers describes Alipús as owned and bottled by Los Danzantes.

The network is described in terms of families and villages. González Byass’s page gives the figure as eight families in one heading and eleven families in its text, in both cases across six villages in Oaxaca, each keeping its own methods and local character. The range concentrates on joven, or unaged, mezcals, so that, the company says, each bottling reflects the identity of its place.

Los Danzantes itself changed its approach to raw material over time. Harpers reported that the brothers first used wild-harvested agave and later, to meet demand, began cultivating and propagating indigenous agave varieties, and that the company had planted about 60 hectares of agave fields.

A village name, a family and a colour.

The Alipús identity is built on place names. Each bottling is named for the community where it is made — San Juan, San Baltazar, San Andrés and others — and González Byass’s product pages name the family behind each. It says Alipús San Juan is produced by the Familia Antonio Juan from 100 per cent espadín; Alipús San Baltazar by the family of Don Cosme Hernández; and Alipús San Andrés by the family of Don Valente García Juárez, from espadín and bicuishe. For San Juan and San Baltazar it describes agave cooked in underground, conical wood-fired pits, milled by a horse-drawn stone tahona, fermented naturally in 1,200-litre wooden vats and double-distilled in 250-litre copper stills; for San Andrés it describes an electric mill and 1,800-litre vats.

Colour separates the villages on the shelf. Reviewing the San Andrés Ensamble in July 2016, Max Garrone of Mezcalistas wrote that it carried “the pink label of the Alipús line” because it came from the same mezcalero and place as the original San Andrés: Don Valente Ángel García Juárez, in Santa María La Pila, Miahuatlán. The ensamble, he reported, was 80 per cent espadín and 20 per cent bicuishe, and its bottle was shorter than the espadín bottle while holding the same amount of liquid.

That release also changed the label. Garrone noted that the ensamble broke with previous Alipús labels by presenting an image as well as the brand name: a linocut-style picture of San Andrés holding a large crucifix and a bible, with a fish hanging from his belt that was repeated on the neck label, a reference to the apostle’s earlier life as a fisherman.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all mezcal names: Bozal, Alipús, Real Minero, Rey Campero, Mezcal Vago, Madre and Dos Hombres. Mezcal is distilled from cooked agave, and much of it is made in small production houses that Wikipedia notes are called fábricas or palenques, often in villages in the hills of Oaxaca. The traditional method roasts the agave hearts in pit ovens and crushes them with a stone wheel turned by a horse, and Wikipedia says mezcal has been recognised internationally as an appellation of origin since 1994.

A mezcal brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single bottle than by a label, a name and the village it points to, because the company that sells the mezcal is not always the family that makes it, and one brand can draw on several producers. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and which families and palenques actually make the mezcal.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its mezcal is made and how its labels have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From a family distillery to a sherry and brandy group’s joint venture.

In early 2025 Los Danzantes, and with it Alipús, took on new owners. Global Drinks Intel reported on 7 February 2025 that the Philippine brandy company Emperador had bought a majority holding in Los Danzantes through Casa Pedro Domecq, its Mexican joint venture with the Spanish sherry house González Byass, and that financial details were not disclosed. It noted that Los Danzantes owns both its namesake brand and Alipús. Harpers Wine & Spirit, reporting on 10 February 2025, described the deal as an alliance between Destilería Los Danzantes and Casa Pedro Domecq that followed a capital injection by Casa Pedro Domecq. Casa Pedro Domecq has held its stake in Los Danzantes since February 2025.

The people involved framed the deal around tradition. Gustavo Muñoz, described by Harpers as the founder and chief executive of Los Danzantes, said that “after 28 years of dedication,” the distillery “reaffirms its commitment to evolving within the mezcal industry while staying true to its roots,” and that the alliance would strengthen its sustainable agave practices, “particularly in conserving wild species.” César Sánchez, chief executive of González Byass, said Los Danzantes was “synonymous with excellence, craftsmanship, and Mexican artistry.” Emperador’s president, Winston Co, told Global Drinks Intel that the group would “continue to safeguard and protect the traditions, heritage, land, people and resources” behind the mezcal. Emperador, the same report noted, also owns the Scotch whisky group Whyte & Mackay. González Byass’s website now lists Alipús among its wineries and brands, with a contact address in Santiago Matatlán.

For a design guide, Alipús shows how a brand can let geography do the naming: one family of labels named village by village, with the label colour tied to the producer. Compare Ilegal Mezcal, another mezcal made in Santiago Matatlán, and Whyte & Mackay, now a sister business under Emperador. For this guide we use village pink, linocut black and copper with a slab serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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