12/28/2025: Wood to Whiskey, The Tequila Heist, The Mezcaleros

Summary

60 Minutes Presents: "Wood to Whiskey, The Tequila Heist, The Mezcaleros"

Air Date: December 29, 2025
Host: Bill Whitaker (CBS News)

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Episode Overview

This special holiday edition of 60 Minutes explores the fascinating world behind beloved spirits—whiskey, tequila, and mezcal. The episode delves into the vital role of oak barrels in whiskey-making, uncovers the intrigue of a high-profile tequila heist involving celebrity figures, and traces the artisanal craft (and recent global boom) of mezcal in Oaxaca, Mexico. Through in-depth reporting and interviews, the program showcases tradition, innovation, and the challenges of a rapidly changing spirits industry.

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Segment 1: The Life and Magic of the Whiskey Barrel

Start: 01:41

Key Discussion Points

• Historical Importance of Wooden Barrels

  • Oak barrels, first crafted by Celts and Romans over 2000 years ago, remain indispensable for wines and whiskeys today.
  • While other shipping materials have eclipsed barrels for general goods, for spirits, barrels are essential for flavor and character.

• Barrel Construction and Role

  • Staves from white oak are seasoned for months, then coopered without nails or glue.
  • Barrels are toasted and charred, each step imparting unique flavor characteristics to the whiskey.

• Bourbon's Legal Requirements

  • U.S. law since the 1930s mandates bourbon must age in new, charred oak barrels.
    Quote:

    "If it's not in one of these barrels, it's not bourbon."
    — Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO), 07:06

• Flavor Development

  • The barrel contributes between 50-80% of bourbon's flavor, coloring, and aroma.
  • Temperature swings in rickhouses force whiskey in and out of the oak, enriching its profile.
  • Investors now buy "new fill barrels" as assets, banking on increased value with age.

• Afterlife and Global Trade of Used Barrels

  • Each freshly dumped barrel contains about 2 gallons of whiskey soaked into the wood.
  • Used bourbon barrels are highly prized: exported globally for finishing scotch, tequila, rum, beer, and more.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “A whiskey barrel is a breathing time machine.”
  — Unattributed, referenced by Bill Whitaker, 04:09

• Brad Boswell on the magic of the barrel:

  "Most of the barrels we make today are bespoke. We know exactly who this barrel's going to, which is stellar."
  — 06:41

• Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender):

  "Depending who you talk to, some would say 50% of the flavor, maybe up to 70, 80% of the characters derived from that barrel."
  — 08:08

• On the investor market:

  "Somewhere in the $600 to $1,000 range is sort of the price of what's called a new fill barrel of whiskey."
  — Chris Heller (Cordillera Investment Partners), 12:21

  "At the end, what do you sell it for?"
  "It can be anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 by the end."
  — Heller, 12:30

• On the global market for used barrels:

  "Kentucky exported more than $300 million worth of used barrels last year, just to Scotland."
  — Bill Whitaker, 14:45

• On experimental aging:

  "This is the first of its kind. It is an American whiskey finished in Indian whiskey barrels."
  — Dan Calloway, 15:44

  "We sourced wood in the Loire Valley, the Bersee Forest... Most of the wood went [to Notre Dame repairs]. We were fortunate to obtain six barrels made from that wood."
  — Calloway, on the Cathedral expression, 16:25

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Segment 2: The Tequila Heist – Modern Cargo Theft in the Spirits World

Start: 18:42

Key Discussion Points

• The Disappearance of Santo Tequila

  • Two semi-trucks with over 24,000 bottles ($1 million+ value) vanished en route from Texas to Pennsylvania.
  • Co-founders Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar blindsided; logistical confusion grew as GPS and drivers' stories seemed plausible at first.

• The Mechanics of the Heist

  • A shell game in the freight industry: a logistics company outsources shipping; subcontracted companies were actually criminal fronts.
  • Thieves used sophisticated online identity theft, spoofed GPS signals, and fake documentation (“double brokering”).

• Investigation and Impact

  • The physical product was rerouted from its declared destination to Los Angeles by unwitting drivers.
  • Most of the shipment (11,000 bottles) was recovered; one truckload and the perpetrators are still missing.

• Broader Trend of Cargo Theft

  • Cases like this are increasingly common, especially in California—last year, $230 million in goods lost to cargo theft and cybercrime.
  • The price is ultimately paid by consumers.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Guy Fieri's disbelief:

  "It's not like we're sitting on huge reserves... we lost two truckloads of Santo Tequila."
  — 19:41

• On the trickery involved:

  "The email that came to you guys was fake. The picture was fake. The GPS was phony."
  — Reporter, 23:32

• Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator):

  "It happens multiple times a day."
  — On the frequency of such thefts, 25:17

  "We pay at the pump for this. We pay at the grocery store at the point of sale."
  — 25:22

  "You can be anywhere in the world, go online and book that load, and... we don’t do business face-to-face anymore."
  — 27:18

• Alan Hamilton (LAPD):

  "Just for instance, in 2024, the Los Angeles Police Department Cargo Theft Unit alone: $42.8 million in recovery, just in the city of Los Angeles."
  — 29:56

• Guy Fieri:

  "If it can happen to us... then everybody's vulnerable."
  — 31:25

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Segment 3: The Rise of Mezcal and the Mescaleros' Journey

Start: 32:06

Key Discussion Points

• Mezcal’s Roots, Process, and Distinction from Tequila

  • Mezcal is an ancient, artisanal spirit made mainly in Oaxaca, Mexico, traditionally served at every life milestone.
  • Distinct from mass-produced tequila (a subset of mezcal), mezcal is crafted by wood-roasting agave hearts, horse-drawn crushing, and open-air fermentation.

• Family Legacy and Hardship

  • The Hernandez brothers (Armando and Alvaro), 4th generation Zapotec Mescaleros, learned from their father but nearly lost the business to low prices in the ‘80s/90s.
  • Both emigrated to the U.S.; their return coincided with mezcal’s newfound international demand.

• Revival and Global Partnership

  • Collaborated with John Rexer, founder of Ilegal Mezcal, after years of hardship.
  • Built steady trust and business, propelling their tiny palenque to an operation producing 3,000 bottles a day.

• Tradition Amidst Growth

  • Despite Bacardi’s acquisition of Ilegal, the team stresses commitment to artisanal methods, local employment, and community benefit.
  • The Palenque now employs more than 100 locals, strengthening communal ties.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Armando Hernandez on Tradition:

  "We make mezcal without hurry, meaning everything in its time. We don't add or do anything to speed up production, but we make it nonstop. 365 days a year. The entire day."
  — 34:05

• Reflecting on hard times:

  "Sunday was the only day we could afford a cup of milk and a piece of bread."
  — Armando Hernandez, 36:01

  "I was 12 years old. Very painful to leave the family behind."
  — Armando Hernandez on migrating to the U.S., 36:18

• The moment of change:

  "He asks me, do you have more of this mezcal? And we said, yes, we have 10,000 liters. It took us, like, two years to make. And John says to us, I want it all."
  — Armando Hernandez and John Rexer, 39:12

• On authenticity and respect:

  "The best mezcal is the one in front of you. It's not entirely true. You don't want to cover it in smoke. You want to taste the agave."
  — John Rexer, 39:39

• Preserving the craft amid globalization:

  "How do you fall in love with something and then not destroy the thing you fell in love with by making it grow?"
  — John Rexer, 42:59

• On legacy:

  "That’s why I drink it. If not, I wouldn’t drink it."
  — Silverio Hernandez (patriarch, deceased), 44:01

• Ending on the “Mexican Dream”:

  "It's the Mexican dream. It's something we never imagined."
  — Armando Hernandez, 44:18

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Memorable Moments & Final Reflections

• Cathedral Bourbon — A Whiskey Made with Wood Sourced for Notre Dame:

  "We sourced wood in the Loire Valley... selected to repair Notre Dame after the fires... and we picked our best stocks of Kentucky bourbon, up to 19 years old, filled the barrels."
  — Dan Calloway, 16:25

• The Scope of Global Spirits:

  • Used bourbon barrels end up everywhere: Scotland, Ireland, China, India, Brazil.
  • Collaboration and innovation in barrel technology connect distillers globally.

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Notable Timestamps

• [04:09] — Introduction to the whiskey barrel as a “breathing time machine”
• [07:06] — Legal importance of barrels for bourbon
• [10:06] — The “alligator char” process inside the cooperage
• [12:21] — Whiskey barrel investing economics
• [15:44] — Experimental finishes: American whiskey in Indian whiskey barrels
• [16:25] — The Cathedral bourbon and Notre Dame connection
• [18:42] — The Santo Tequila Heist begins
• [25:17] — Frequency of freight theft in the U.S.
• [29:56] — $42.8 million in stolen cargo recovered in L.A. in 2024 alone
• [32:06] — Mezcal’s rise and entry to Oaxaca
• [34:05] — Mescaleros discuss traditions and hard work
• [36:18] — Armando Hernandez’s migration story
• [39:39] — “Best mezcal is the one in front of you”
• [42:59] — Reflections on global expansion and preserving tradition
• [44:18] — “The Mexican dream”

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Episode Tone

Inquisitive, respectful, often nostalgic but forward-looking. The reporting balances admiration for tradition with a clear-eyed look at innovation, vulnerability to crime, and globalization.

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For Listeners

This episode is a rich tapestry of craftsmanship, culture, and modern challenges in the spirits world. Whether you drink bourbon, savor mezcal, or just love a good true crime story, the hour dives deep into what really goes into every celebratory glass—wood, water, tradition, risk, and a global web of hands and hearts.

Transcript

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[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

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[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Yeah.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

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[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

On this special edition of 60 Minutes Presents. Cheers. Tonight we explore the fascinating life of the whiskey barrel, an ancient product that still plays a vital role in global commerce. Millions of new oak barrels are built in America every year, fired up and then filled with what will become bourbon through years of aging. As the wood decreases, delivers magic to the whiskey.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

This story involves a celebrity chef, a rock star, and a highway heist that even Hollywood couldn't dream up.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Well, when the president of your company calls you, says, you're not gonna believe this, but you lost two truckloads of Santo Tequila.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Lost?

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

I said, well wait, wait, wait. Is this a hijacking?

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Not quite. International cyber criminals have found new ways to steal hundreds of millions of dollars of goods. It looks like a Costco in here. You've got everything.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Yes.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Artisanal mezcal resists machinery. The agave is roasted in underground pits for days. Then it's crushed by horse drawn mill. The mash is fermented in wooden barrels and distilled twice in copper vats. No temperature dials or controls. Bubbles indicate the alcohol content. Who knows more about the process?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

I think he may know more, but.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

I drink it more.

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[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Good evening, I'm Bill Whitaker. Welcome to 60 Minutes Presents. During this holiday season, when there's no shortage of toasting, we thought we'd share a few stories about the spirits behind the cheers. We'll take you to Mexico to see how mezcal is made, and we'll bring you along as a tequila heist is investigated. But we begin with whiskey and one of its essential elements. If someone asked you to name a product that was first made 2000 years ago, still looks and works as it always has and still plays a vital role in global commerce, would you be stumped? It turns out the answer is the simple wooden barrel almost always made of oak. Barrels have a long and fascinating history. First built and used by the Celts and Romans, they have held nearly every commodity over the centuries. Metal and plastic and cardboard long ago eclipsed barrels for the shipment of most items. But as we first reported earlier this year, when it comes to wine and whiskey, especially bourbon whiskey, the oak barrel still reigns, not just as a container, but for the magic that the wood gives to the whiskey. We were speaking with someone and they called a whiskey barrel a breathing time machine.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

I love that.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Brad Boswell is the CEO of Independent Stave, the largest maker of wooden barrels in the world. Brad's great grandfather founded the company in 1912 in Missouri. It now has operations worldwide. We met him in Kentucky.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Most of our barrels would have a useful life of 50 plus years.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Fifty plus years.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Fifty plus years. Yeah. Like, I'll go to different places and look at barrels at distilleries or wineries around the world. And I can see barrels that my grandfather made, you know, in the 1960s. I still see them.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

A barrel begins as a log from a white oak tree fed into what's known as a stave mill, where it's cut into ever smaller pieces staves which are then arranged in Huge Jenga style stacks and seasoned outdoors for three to six months before heading to a nearby cooperage with where the barrels are built.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

There's no nails will go here, no glue.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Brad Boswell's newest cooperage produces thousands of barrels every day.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

How many of these go into a typical barrel? Typically between 28 and 32 staves per barrel.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

After a barrel is raised mostly by hand, it travels through a host of other steps and checks to make it ready to begin its life, including. Including being toasted and then charred on the inside.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Most of the barrels we make today are bespoke. We know exactly who this barrel's going to, which is stellar. How about that?

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

The demand for such a huge volume of barrels can be attributed mainly to one thing. Bourbon.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

President Franklin Roosevelt in the 30s became more specific about what bourbon whiskey should be. At that time, he said, you know, bourbon should be in new charred oak barrels.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

So if it's not in one of these barrels, it's not bourbon.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

That's correct. Bourbon has to be aged in a new charred oak container.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

That rule, plus booming consumer demand for bourbon starting in the early 2000s has been very good for the barrel business. 3.2 million new barrels were filled with whiskey last year in Kentucky alone. And more than 14 million full barrels are aging in the state in massive warehouses known as rick houses. How many barrels are in this Rick house?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

23,500 on six floors.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Dan Calloway is the master blender for Bardstown Bourbon, a young but fast growing Kentucky distillery.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

To make a great whiskey, you have to start with a great distillate, a clear spirit. But then the magic comes from the barrel. The fact that it's new charred oak, it's just incredible.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

So the barrel is crucial to your product?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Absolutely. Depending who you talk to, some would say 50% of the flavor, maybe up to 70, 80% of the characters derived from that barrel.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

The rest of the flavor comes from what's known as the mash bill. Grains like corn and wheat and rye that are mixed with water and fermented with yeast. Despite bourbon having recently been threatened or hit with tariffs by other countries in retaliation for President Trump's tariffs, Bardstown's huge distillery is still producing enough new whiskey to fill more than 5,000 barrels a week. You take the clear liquid, which is basically what people call moonshine, goes through this process and comes out as this beautiful, brown, tasty liquid here. How does that happen?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

So I always compare it to a seesaw. Okay. So when it comes off the still moonshine, like you said, It's a seesaw that's out of balance. But every year that goes by of the barrel aging, the seesaw comes into balance. And what the barrel is bringing is caramel, vanilla, baking spice, all this rich, beautiful color.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

How can solid oak produce all those flavors and spices back where the barrels are built? Brad Boswell gave us a vivid lesson with a barrel that had just been toasted. A process that brings sugars in the wood to the surface.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Smell that. Smell the. I mean, that does smell delicious. It's incredible. It really does. It's amazing. There's a reason why people still use oak barrels 2,000 years later.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

So when I'm sipping the bourbon, I'm sipping this barrel.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

That's right. Absolutely.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

After toasting, we and the barrels move to the visually stunning char oven.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

So we'll see this barrel coming through right here.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Oh, look at that.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Yeah. So actually, the inside of the barrel is on fire. So you just light the barrel on fire? Yep, we light the barrel on fire. And that teases out more and more of the flavors. And we call that an alligator char because the inside of the barrel actually looks like kind of an alligator's back.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

And you can see, we could see that blistering inside a newly charred barrel pulled off the line.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

I mean, people, you know, expect this to smell like a campfire. It smells more like a confectionary product. It does. I can smell the car and the vanilla. Yeah.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

What that barrel can give to the whiskey is evident in these glasses.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

So this is the same exact distillate that came off the still at the exact same time, went into a barrel four years later. And this we just kept in a glass bottle.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

It's also apparent in the taste. First, the white lightning. Wow, that gives a punch.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Yes, it does. It does.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

And then the barrel. Aged bourbon. Oh, big difference.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Huge difference.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Smooth.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Oh, it's smooth.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Some of that smooth comes from temperature swings in the Rick houses. According to Bardstown Bourbon's Dan Calloway.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

We want those swings when it, you know, when it gets really hot, things expand, lets the liquid in. When it gets cold, it contracts. And it's that natural progression of in out that ages the bourbon so beautifully is the liquid interacts with the wood.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

As those barrels are aging whiskey for four, five, or six years, some savvy investors have figured out there's money to be made.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Whiskey is an interesting asset in the sense that as it ages, it becomes more valuable.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Chris Heller is co founder of California based Cordillera Investment Partners. So explain to me how this Works. You go up to a distiller and say, I want to buy those barrels filled with what will eventually become bourbon.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

So that is exactly right.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Heller and his partners buy thousands of newly filled barrels from distillers, pay to store them as the whiskey ages, then sell them to craft bourbon brands. What are your starting costs?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Somewhere in the $600 to $1,000 range is sort of the price of what's called a new fill barrel of whiskey.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

At the end, what do you sell it for?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

It can be anywhere from 2000 to $4000 by the end.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

That's a pretty good return on your investment.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

We really find it an interesting and compelling investment area.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Nice way to say it, huh? Whoever made, makes it, owns it, or ages it. When bourbon is emptied from a barrel after five or six years, that barrel's life is just beginning, and it's likely to travel the world.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

It's really interesting that when the bourbon barrel is freshly dumped, there's still around 2 gallons of actually bourbon trapped in.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

That wood that is just seeped into the wood.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Seeped into the wood. So then a lot of secondary users actually look forward to putting their product into the barrel again for 4, 6, 10. A lot of scotches. 12 years, 18 years.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

And it can pick up that American bourbon taste.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Absolutely. Then it pulls out that sweet bourbon.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

That sweet taste in the wood makes used bourbon barrels very hot commodities.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

We really view our role in the industry as moving as many barrels from the original source to the next stopping point as fast as possible.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Jess and Ben Loeski own Midwest Barrels. Their Kentucky warehouse is stacked to the rafters with empty barrels.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

So we're the next stop for the second use of that barrel. So in Kentucky here, we bring in barrels from all the major distilleries and then send them back out.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

These barrels will be shipped out and then refilled with something else, correct?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Yeah. So the idea is to get these barrels in here and out of here as quickly as possible. So we'll turn over this entire warehouse every two to three weeks. Probably 70 to 80% of our business is overseas.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

It started as a hobby. While Ben was finishing his PhD in Nebraska, he began buying barrels and selling them to local craft breweries. You said that a few barrels were a big order in the beginning.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Yeah.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

What's a big order today?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

10,000.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

10,000?

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

Yeah.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Yeah. India and China and Scotland and Ireland are by far four biggest markets.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

The Kentucky Distillers association says that the state exported more than $300 million worth of used barrels last year, just To Scotland, where they'll be used to age Scotch whiskey for up to 40 years. Could you just tick off for me the different spirits that these barrels will hold?

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

They start with bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, Scotch whiskey, tequila, rum, pisco made in Peru, cachassa made in Brazil, will use these barrels.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Beer.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Beer uses them. These barrels for sure end up in China. A lot of these barrels end up in Japan. It's everywhere.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Beautiful.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Now, master blenders like Bardstown's Dan Calloway.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

This will be cast strength direct from.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

The barrel, are bringing barrels back to Kentucky to do special finishes for their whiskeys.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

So this is the first of its kind. It is an American whiskey finished in Indian whiskey barrels. Okay. Indian whiskey is traditionally aged in a bourbon barrel. So the physical barrel has left Kentucky, gone to Bangalore, filled with barley, and then sent back here.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Calloway finished this whiskey in those barrels for 17 months. My God, that's good.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Yeah.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

One of Dan Calloway's newest creations, called Cathedral, may be his most miraculous yet.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

We sourced wood in the Loire Valley, the Bersee Forest. And this plot, this lot in the forest was selected to repair Notre Dame after the fires. So most of the wood went there. We were fortunate to obtain six barrels made from that wood. And we picked our best stocks of Kentucky bourbon, up to 19 years old, filled the barrels. They age for 14 months.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

You know how wild that is?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Yeah.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

That the beans that restored Notre Dame come from the same forest as your casks.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

The same lot.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

That's a story to tell.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Absolutely.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

And a whiskey to taste.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

It's nice.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

When Bardstown put that Cathedral bourbon on sale earlier this year, bottles sold out in near record time. Remember, they only made six barrels full. Now on the secondary market, Cathedral is listed for as much as $2,000 a bottle. Shopping is hard, right?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

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[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

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[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

There is no shortage of unbelievable stories that start with tequila. And this is one of them. It involves a celebrity chef, A rock star, and a highway heist that even hollywood couldn't dream up. Last year, two semi trucks carrying more than a million dollars worth of santo tequila, A brand founded by food network star guy fieri and and former van halen frontman sammy hagar, Disappeared on its way to the warehouse. If you're wondering how in the world that much tequila could just vanish, we did too. As sharon alfonsi first reported in October, it turns out international crime groups have found new ways to infiltrate the global supply chain online to steal hundreds of millions of dollars of goods. Guy fieri got a crash course on this sophisticated high tech theft after a sobering call from the president of his company.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Well, when the president of your company calls you and says, we have a problem, what's up? And he goes, you're not going to believe this, but we lost two truckloads of santo tequila.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Lost?

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

I said, elaborate on lost. He says, well, they disappeared. I said, well, wait, wait, wait. Is this a hijacking? I said, are the drivers okay? I said, is this a. Because all my mind goes to is good fellas, and, you know, that's what I'm thinking is happening. He said, no, no, no, no. The trucks, they were appropriated, but we don't know where they are. I'm like, it's not a needle in a haystack. I mean, this is a semi tractor truck. My mind is swimming in exactly how do you lose, you know, that many thousands of bottles of tequila?

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

24,000 bottles of tequila. Enough alcohol to fuel a lifetime of bad decisions. The tequila started out like every other santo batch in western mexico where it was distilled and bottled. From there, it was trucked to the u. S. Mexico border through customs and unloaded in laredo, texas. The next day, it was moved into two semi trucks that were supposed to head to the santo tequila warehouse in lansdale, pennsylvania. When was the first indication? Something's not normal here.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

The product was due on Wednesday to our warehouse in pennsylvania. And on Thursday morning, the logistics company told us there was a water pump cooler problem with the truck. It's just going to be a slight delay.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Dan butkus is the CEO of santo spirits. He told us, like many small businesses, Santo doesn't have their own delivery trucks, so they rely on a Logistics company to hire trucking companies to ship their tequila. On Friday, two days after the shipment was supposed to arrive, the trucking company started sending more excuses about why it was late. Dan Butkus was informed that the truck was near Washington, D.C. with a water pump issue. The logistics company emailed him a video they received of a broken down semi with a note. Looks like the issue is bigger than he thought. Mechanics advise the truck will be fixed Saturday. He says he can deliver Sunday, but I know y' all are closed, so he can be there first thing Monday. So the tequila's late, but you don't think anything's wrong because they're sending emails?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Yeah, we don't think anything's wrong. We're a day or two behind delivery. And meanwhile, they track these with gps.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

So someone's checking to make sure the truck is where it says it is. And on GPS, it looks like.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Exactly.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

It's in D.C. where they say it is.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Then on Monday, we get an email that the truck is close. GPS says it's within a couple miles of our warehouse in Lansdale. Can you let us know when it arrives?

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

The tequila never arrived in Pennsylvania. Here's what happened. The logistics company that worked for Santo hired a trucking company to move the tequila from Texas to Pennsylvania. But then that trucking company outsourced the job to two other trucking companies who then hired drivers. The problem is those second trucking companies were fake, with phony letterheads, email addresses and phone numbers to appear legitimate. It's a bit of a tractor trailer shell game called double brokering. It happens more than you might expect. Santos CEO Dan Butkus learned it was all part of an elaborate ruse set up to buy time and steal the tequila. So the email that came to you guys was fake. The picture was fake. The GPS was phony. The GPS signal was spoofed.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

They call it spoofed or emulated.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

The thieves had manipulated the GPS to make it look like the tequila was still on its way to Pennsylvania.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

This is the essence of real tequila.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Making matters worse, Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar had been heavily promoting a new special tequila ahead of last year's holiday season that took three and a half years to make. And all of it was on those two missing trucks.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

It's not like we're sitting on huge reserves.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

So you can't just say, turn it up. We're going to keep making more.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

That's exactly what we couldn't do. And then you have to go back to the retailer and say you're not going to Believe this.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

How did this impact the business?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

Oh, it hurt.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

It hurt bad. You know, here we are, coming right into the fourth quarter. We lose all the tequila. We can't fill the shelves. We had to lay off players, you know, and that's the hardest thing, knowing how many people are counting on you. So, yeah, it hurt all the way around.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Did you think you were being targeted?

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Well.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

There'S a side of me that still says, yeah, it wasn't a truckload of screwdrivers. You know, it wasn't a truckload of baskets. They were coming across the border. Someone knew what it was. And tequila is a hot commodity.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

That's why Keith Lewis was called in. He's a former cop who runs operations for Cargo net, a company that works with law enforcement and to solve these kinds of crimes. Lewis says last year, US businesses lost more than $230 million of goods to physical heists and those engineered online. Let's start with the tequila case. How common is something like that?

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

It happens multiple times a day.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

How does all of this impact consumers and the prices they pay?

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

100% falls back on the consumer's shoulders. 100% we pay at the pump for this. We pay at the grocery store at the point of sale.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Lewis started investigating and began to piece together how the tequila heist was pulled off. He says the criminals created fake online profiles of trucking companies, bid on jobs they suspected might be valuable, and hired unsuspecting drivers online. Then, instead of sending the drivers to the Santa warehouse of In Front, Pennsylvania, the criminals redirected them to deliver the shipment into their hands.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

And instead of taking it to the destination that was on the bill lading, they told them to take that load to Los Angeles.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

The drivers are not in on this.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

The driver that picked it up has no idea that he's committing a crime.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

He thinks he's taking a legitimate load to a legitimate place.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

Yes.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Doing his job.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

Doing his job.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

And he's being directed instead by criminals.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

Correct.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Once investigators determined how the tequila was diverted to California, they tried to figure out who did it. But that was tougher because unlike the kind of cargo theft you typically think of like this, with guys in masks breaking into trucks with bolt cutters, there was no suspect description or fingerprints. Lewis says the tequila heist was orchestrated entirely online. You're saying that these folks don't even need to be in the same country sometimes?

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

No. And we've tracked them to over 40 different countries around the world, and investigators.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Say the tequila heist had all the characteristics of a criminal Gang operating out of Armenia, 7,000 miles from the u. S. Mexico border where the tequila was last seen. Keith lewis says that kind of theft where criminals remotely redirect cargo to steal it has spiked 1,200% in the last four years.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

If you think about online dating, for example, you can be anywhere in the world and set up a date with someone. It's the same thing in the supply chain. You can be anywhere in the world, Go online and book that load, and we don't do business face to face anymore. We don't have the hand to hand transactions. We're doing business by PDF file, by rate confirmations. We booked that load with this individual, we've never met him, and bam, you have a million dollar load of electronics going down the road, hopefully to the right destination. Or maybe it's not. It's become a global threat to our supply chain.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Nowhere is that threat higher than california. Last year, California had more goods stolen from trucks, trains and by cyber criminals than any other state. That's because california's ports and highways make it a favorite target and hiding place for cargo thieves. To respond, the los angeles police department created a special unit to tackle all kinds of cargo theft. We were allowed to tag along with them. One morning in august, before dawn, officers swarmed the this block in southeast los angeles where they suspected a shipment of rifles stolen from a train were being hidden. They found the rifles, but also stacks of stolen sneakers, piles of power tools and designer clothes. They've also recovered pallets of protein shakes, energy drinks, and vitamins. Typically, it all ends up in an lapd warehouse until the rightful owner can claim, looks like a costco in here. You've got everything.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Yes.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

This is from a major manufacturer.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Alan hamilton is the chief of detectives at the lapd. He told us all this had been recovered by the cargo theft unit just a week earlier.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

So we've got beer here that was stolen. We've got washing machines, we've got large appliances. You see the sub zero back there?

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

These are high end appliances.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Some of these are very high end.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

In high priced computers, the technology will be turned back around and sold for.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Like 30 to 40% on the dollar.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

The LAPD says the stolen swag is typically sold online or in stores, including this one, to unsuspecting customers. In August, they busted two hardware stores stocked with stolen goods. $4.5 million worth. What's the value of all the goods that you've recovered over the last year?

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

So just for instance, in 2024, the.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Los Angeles Police Department Cargo Theft Unit.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Alone, $42.8 million in recovery, just in the city of Los Angeles.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

And it was that unit that cracked open the case of the missing tequila. Detectives tracked down one of the drivers who picked up the tequila in Texas. He'd moved on to other jobs, but told investigators he. He was directed by what he thought was a legitimate trucking company to leave the shipment at this industrial site in the San Fernando Valley. That information ultimately led police to this warehouse in southeast l. A and 11,000 bottles of Santo tequila. Guy Fieri told us the thieves and that second truck of tequila were never found. It feels like a movie plot.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

The celebrity chef, the rockstar, the small tequila company, you know, it all comes together. The special shipment.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Did you think they were going to find it?

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Gosh, no.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

They found it. When?

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Three weeks after, I'll say. So by then, who knows what's happened to it, who knows what condition it's in, so forth. I'm just thinking this is all going to go down the drain.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

But after an inspection of the recovered bottles, Santo was able to put it back in stores and take a shot at a happy ending. There's a lot of companies that this has happened to, but they don't want to talk about it. Why did you decide to speak about what happened?

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

It's not a thing I want to go and brag about like, hey, we got ripped off. You know, that's not fun. But if it can happen to us, with what I believe, we're pretty strong measures and security and awareness and, you know, communication and, you know, the way we do business. And to get ripped off for two full semi truckloads of tequila in today's age, then everybody's vulnerable.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Have a news tip to send to 60 Minutes? Learn how you can send information to our journalists [e-mail].

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

For years, Mezcal sat in the shadow of its popular cousin tequila, known for its worm and deemed too smoky for a spot on the same shelf as premium spirits. But not anymore. Once banned and later sold in plastic jugs for pennies, the handcrafted spirit has found its way into cocktail bars and Michelin starred restaurants. As we first told you last year, no other liquor has seen a greater increase in production in the past decade. Mezcal gets its name from the Aztec word for cooked agave, a thorny plant sacred to Mexico for thousands of years. The vast majority of Mezcal is made in the southern state of Oaxaca where family owned distilleries dot the landscape. Cecilia Vega went to meet the Mescaleros as they labor to quench the world's thirst for mezcal.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Mescaleros harvest agave year round, but it's no low hanging fruit. Pried from the earth, the spikes are removed by machete, revealing the heart, the pina, which looks like £100 pineapple. Agave takes its sweet time to ripen, up to 30 years for some varieties. It grows in the valleys that run between the Sierra Madre mountains. Here in Oaxaca, the crossroads of indigenous and Spanish colonial cultures, the birthplace of Mezcal and Santiago, Matatlan is its cradle. The Hernandez brothers, Armando and Alvaro, are fourth generation Mescaleros from an indigenous Zapotec family. They learn the craft from their father, Silverio. Today they run Malde Amor, one of Matatlan's largest distilleries, or palenques.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

We make mezcal without hurry, meaning everything in its time. We don't add or do anything to speed up production, but we make it nonstop. 365 days a year. The entire day.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Is it different from the way your father made it?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

No, no, it's the same. We conserve all the traditions, everything we were taught, and everything is done by hand.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Agave was first distilled here in the 1600s. Mexicans have been drinking mezcal at baptisms, funerals and every occasion in between ever since. And let's clear this up early. Tequila is a type of mezcal made with blue agave, mostly in the state of Jalisco. But most tequila has been mass produced made by machines since the 70s. Artisanal mezcal resists machinery. The agave is roasted in underground pits for days. Then it's crushed by horse drawn. The mash is fermented in wooden barrels and distilled twice in copper vats. No temperature dials or controls. Bubbles indicate the alcohol content. Who knows more about the process?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

I think he may know more, but I drink it more.

[Narrator/Reporter]

At Malde Amor, they offer Napa style tours of their agave fields. Mezcal is now a half billion dollar a year industry. But in the 1980s and 90s, Armando and Alvaro told us production of mezcal could barely support the family.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

The price of mezcal was very low. It was miserable.

[Narrator/Reporter]

What was it?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Siete pesos.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

Un liter of mezcal.7 pesos for a liter of mezcal.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Less than a dollar.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

And we were 10 children. Sunday was the only day we could afford a cup of milk and a piece of bread. So we decided to go.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Armando left Mexico first, alone, bound for California. Do you remember the day you left?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

Yes, it was the 3rd of December, 1992. I was 12 years old. I have children of my own now, and I could never bring myself to let them cross the border alone. It was a sad goodbye, Very painful to leave the family behind.

[Narrator/Reporter]

How did you get there?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

Like all migrants with a coyote smuggled.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Across the border, Alvaro eventually joined him in Los Angeles. They spent a decade working in bars and restaurants. When the plot twisted, artisanal became hip and Mezcal's popularity boomed, Alvaro began to dream about returning to the family business.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

I had plans drawn up for the.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Palenque and I showed Armando.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

Alvaro came in with the plan for his Palenque and he spread it on the bed and said, I'm going to do this. And I told him, you're crazy. How are you going to make a living?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Armando was skeptical until he noticed shots of mezcal going for $10 each. He says he looked down at the label on a bottle one day, and it was from their hometown. And you finally told your brother, I told you so. So Armando and Alvaro went back home to ramp up the family palenque. Enter John Rexer and Gilberto Marquez of the Mezcal brand. Illegal made from 100% espadine, a variety of agave that ripens the fastest. So how far out does the illegal agave go? I mean, is this all illegal?

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Yeah, there's about 2,500 plants per acre. There's about five acres out here.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This is a lot of espadine, right? Today, Ilegal is one of the top selling Mezcal brands. But it too started humbly. Rexer, an expat New Yorker, was in search of a steady supply of Mezcal to serve at a bar he owned in Guatemala.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

I would take a bus up from Guatemala. It's a 24 hour bus ride. Along the way. You can pull a string in that bus and say, I want to stop here, walk to a village, wait until lights came on somewhere and say, hey, do you know anybody who makes good Mezcal around here? And invariably, someone would have an uncle, a brother, a cousin.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Tengon.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

Tio Tengontillo. See, that's exactly it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Everybody has an uncle. As the name on the bottle suggests, Rexer's operation wasn't exactly legal. Is it true that you once dressed like a priest to have to get this across a border?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

Listen, I went through 12 years of Catholic school.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

You do?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

I knew how to play the role.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It was his friend Gilberto Marquez who introduced him to the Hernandez brothers.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

And we Rolled down here, and it was very, very, very tiny. And they were making very small amounts.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

And he asks me, do you have more of this Mezcal? And we said, yes, we have 10,000 liters. And it took us, like, two years to make. And John says to us, I want it all.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A sidebar. And this may go without saying that Rexer has swigged his fair share of mezcal.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Excuse me, do you want a water?

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

No.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Take a break. You're good. She's like, do I want a water?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

You know, there's an expression. The best mezcal is the one in front of you. It's not entirely true. You don't want to cover it in smoke. You want to taste the agave.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A lot of people say they don't like mezcal because of the smoke.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

Obviously, you're in a smoky environment, right when you dig up the pit oven, there's smoke everywhere. So there's a lot of early Mezcals that came into the States that are heavy smoked.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Has mezcal gotten a bad rap on that front?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

I think in the early days it did, but people began to discover, no. The agaves have particular unique flavors.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Rexer asked brothers Armando and Alvaro to go into business, and he made a promise. If they could produce the mezcal, he'd sell it around the world. They'd been burned by false promises before, so they weighed his offer in their native language. You spoke in Zapotec, so he wouldn't understand.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

I said to Alvaro, in Zapotec, do you believe him? And he said, I don't know. But we figured, let's see.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

I said, listen, I'll pay you up front so that we can get started.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

Two days later, we had the deposit in our account for all 10,000 liters. He said, each month, I'll keep making deposits. So we made more. 500 liters, 1,000, 2,000. And it grew like that.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Now their partnership produces 3,000 bottles of Mezcal a day, almost all of them for export. And every bottle is certified by the Mexican government, stamped with a hologram to mark denomination of origin, like champagne or cognac. We'd heard there are rules about how to drink this artisanal mezcal. The good stuff isn't for shots or diluting in cocktails. It's for sipping. So we asked Marquez, the former bartender who now promotes illegal favorite way to.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Drink it, spicy margarita.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Oh, wait a second. I thought you weren't supposed to drink mezcal in a margarita.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

You do want to enjoy Mezcal neat. But there's nothing wrong with having it in a cocktail, especially if we're trying to get folks to try it for the first time. It's an introduction to Mezcal.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Marquez poured us a choven, the colorless mezcal you'll find in most bottles.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

This is 100% espadin, so Joven means young.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

Joven means young.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Unaged.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

Salud.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

Salud.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This one tastes spicy to me.

[Dan Calloway (Bardstown Bourbon Master Blender)]

So smoke is not the first thing that you taste.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It's definitely there, but I would not call this smoky.

[Keith Lewis (Cargo Theft Investigator)]

Yes.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Aging mezcal is a Mexican tradition. Illegal does it in American oak. The same way bourbon is made.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

So this is the anejo, and this is aged 15 months.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Color's definitely darker.

[Brad Boswell (Independent Stave CEO)]

Yep.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Wow.

[Narrator/Reporter]

So good. How would you drink this one?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

Absolutely neat. 100%.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Has anyone ever said to you, hey, what's a gringo like you doing in.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

A place like selling Oaxaca?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Oaxacan Mezcal?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

Yes. I've gotten pushback over the years. You're a foreigner, but I'm someone who fell in love with the rhythm and the pace of Oaxaca and fell in love with Mezcal.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He's no longer the only foreigner in this partnership. Bacardi, the largest privately held global spirits company, acquired illegal last year in a deal worth a reported 100 million.

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

When we started to grow the brand, one of the questions I asked myself was, how do you fall in love with something and then not destroy the thing you fell in love with by making it grow?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Can you do that with an international conglomerate like Bacardi?

[John Rexer (Ilegal Mezcal Co-founder)]

I think it's a great question because it's not just the beautiful liquor, but it's certain things that we're trying to preserve and believe in. This is a family business. We have to respect the artisanal production. We can never let this become industrial.

[Narrator/Reporter]

What does the deal with Bacardi mean for you?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

What's going to change is many people's lives in this community. It's a benefit for the whole community.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The Palenque now employs 100 people from Matatlan and beyond, including their 87 year old father, the Mescalero emeritus. Armando and Alvaro translated from Zapotec to. So we asked what Senor Hernandez thought of his son's Mezcal. Does it live up to the family name?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

That's why I drink it. If not, I wouldn't drink it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The Hernandez brothers are expanding the family palenque. Construction is already underway. So if there's the American dream, is this the Mexican dream?

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

It's the Mexican dream. It's something we never imagined.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

We are sad to report Silverio Hernandez, patriarch of the Hernandez family, died in March. His sons say his legacy will live on in every drop of their mezcal. I'm Bill Whitaker. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back next week with an all new edition of 60 Minutes. Happy New Year.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Today we're going to talk about deep breathing, something we all need to do more of, especially when you're getting ready to call your health plan and deal with one of those automated phone trees. You know how it feels to get into an endless phone loop when you just have a simple question that could take two minutes or less, and then pretty soon you've lost your Zen. Shouldn't your health plan help you reduce stress? That's why you'll talk to a real person when you choose. Pacific Source Health Plans. Tranquil, tranquility.

[Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes Correspondent)]

Everything you've done has come to this. The biggest and wildest mission yet is now streaming.

[Armando Hernandez (Mescalero)]

I need you to trust me one last time.

[Narrator/Reporter or Announcer]

Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible the final reckoning.

[Guy Fieri (Celebrity Chef)]

Rated VT13, now streaming on Paramount Plus.