distilleries

Production of mezcal in Mexico is booming. That is to meet growing demand of the increasingly popular spirit in the United States. The boom in production has both created opportunities for producers, particularly in the state of Oaxaca, and come with environmental costs.

A Senate panel has approved a measure allowing craft distillers to sell more spirits directly. The idea is garnering support from unlikely sources.

In the unregulated heyday before Prohibition, distilleries in New York produced whiskey, gin, rum and other spirits. Then the industry was all but wiped out for the next 80 years. But state laws regulating distilling have been loosened and now dozens of new distilleries have sprung up.