Excomulgado · Social Initiatives
People
first.
Every bottle is made by a family.
Every family deserves more than a fair price.
We don't bargain. We ask what they need.
When we agree a price with a maestro, we don't start low and negotiate up. We ask what they want for their work. Then we look at the full picture: the distance the agave had to travel from mountain to palenque, whether donkeys could reach the harvest or whether it had to be carried on human backs, whether the production was organic, whether the batch was unusually labour-intensive. We pay accordingly.
In Mexico, selling locally means losing up to 70% of revenue to taxes and levies. Exporting changes that equation. Being part of Excomulgado gives the maestros access to international markets on terms that actually make sense for them — not terms extracted by middlemen who never visited a palenque.
We support them in any way we can, as long as they tell us how we can help.
"We ask what
they want.
We pay what
is fair."
When a school needs new blackboards, we fund it.
The maestros' communities are our communities. When a need is raised — a school that needs a coat of paint, a printer, new blackboards for the children — we respond. We fund those projects as much as we can reach them.
We also support individual people doing meaningful work. One project we are particularly proud of: a young man who won Mexico's national youth prize — in 2023 or 2024 — for a project that cares for elderly people left behind when their children emigrated to the United States.
He visits them at home if they cannot move. He gathers those who can. He teaches reading and writing to those who never learned. He gives them community, attention, and small moments of dignity — birthday treats, someone who shows up. We fund that work.
"He gives them
community.
Attention.
Someone who
shows up."
Every peso we spend stays in Mexico.
The bottles, the corks, the carton boxes, the labels — everything that carries an Excomulgado spirit is sourced from Mexican family-owned businesses. Artisanal, independent, and accountable.
If Excomulgado is a platform for the maestros, it is a platform for Mexican craft at every step of the chain. We are not interested in the cheapest option. We are interested in the right one.
"Bottles. Corks.
Boxes. Labels.
All Mexican.
All family-owned."
Grass paper. 30% grass fibre, FSC-certified.
Our labels are made from grass-based paper. Compared to conventional wood-pulp paper, the production of the grass fibre requires 97% less energy and 99% less water. Overall, producing grass paper generates approximately 20% less CO₂ than standard paper.
A small detail on the outside of the bottle. A deliberate choice about what we are willing to put our name on.
grass fibre production
grass fibre production
vs. conventional paper
This is not charity.
It is how any business
that touches people's lives
should operate.
We would not operate any other way. The maestros are not suppliers. They are the reason Excomulgado exists. Their knowledge, their land, their families, their communities — these are what make every bottle worth drinking.
Every industry that touches living people and living land has a choice: extract and move on, or invest and return. We have chosen a side. We intend to stay on it.
"The maestros
are not suppliers.
They are the
reason we exist."