From handcrafted to heritage, how spirits are mining new design trends
In a market undergoing rapid change marked by the rise of no/low products and RTDs and declining consumption, spirits are competing through the refinement of precious details. While authenticity and rarity are defining codes at the heart of brand narratives, a few players are taking a different stance.
Contrary to formal innovations, the past has a future. Indeed, numerous brands are turning to handcrafting and materiality to reactivate vernacular knowhow as a route to a more rooted, sustainable luxury. At Clase Azul México, tequila and mezcal come in ceramic totem pieces, shaped and hand-painted in the brand’s workshop in Santa María Canchesda. This artisanal production is complemented each year by an Edición Limitada from Master Artisans—a collection that pays tribute to the great Mexican folk-art tradition. The new range—comprised of 100 coffrets, each containing three carafes of tequila in different expressions—was entrusted to master artisan Ángel Ortiz, “guardian” of the barro bruñido. This ancestral ceramic technique, calling for neither glaze nor varnish, achieves brilliance and luminosity through hand polishing with pyrite.
