Imbibe 75 Person to Watch: Chava Peribán

Distilled spirits can be thought of as a perfect convergence of agriculture, art, and engineering. For mezcal expert Chava Peribán, life has taken him through each of those stations. “I studied industrial design, but I realized early on that I didn’t want to spend my life making models of chairs, cars, or jewelry,” Peribán says. “I was more interested in the manufacturing side of things.”

Having grown up on an avocado farm in Michoacán, Peribán (whose formal first name is Salvador, but, he says, “Salvador means ‘savior’ and that’s a lot of responsibility”) took a circuitous route after college, through glasswork and ceramics in Oaxaca for six years and, almost by accident, into designing combustion systems for the process of distilling mezcal. A knack for the work and enthusiasm for the spirit led to a career shift, first as a distiller for Sombra mezcal for a year and later as a designer and consultant on, he says, “everything related to mezcal except selling it.”

Now based in Mexico City, Peribán is continuing his work with agave spirits, traveling to consult on palenques, and bottling small batches of agave spirits from different producers to showcase the category’s depth and breadth. Along the way, he’s also sharing his experiences on the digital airwaves, first as a co-host (with Imbibe 75 alum Lou Bank) of the Agave Road Trip podcast, and more recently as solo host of the Heritage Mezcal podcast.

The goal, he says, is to explain the depths and nuances of the agave world with a wider audience, while also giving insight into what mezcal means for Mexico. “I like to say Mexico isn’t a country, it’s a continent,” he says. “I made an episode about baseball, because if you don’t understand the relationship of Mexicans with baseball, you may not actually understand our relationship with mezcal. It’s how we celebrate, how we spend our weekends, how families come together while watching this sport that you think is mostly American. For me, actually, it’s almost like I’m doing it for myself.”

Click here to read more about some of 2024’s other Imbibe 75 People and Places to Watch.