Shirley Leigh-Wood Oakes of Mezcal Campante
Written by Clare Sivits Goggin
Mezcal features heavily in Shirley Leigh-Wood Oakes’s earliest memories of Mexico. Her mother was born in the country, in fact, and she herself spent time there with family. “Mezcal was always, always there — always on the table,” she recalled.
So when she stepped into her role as the CEO of Mezcal Campante, co-founding the brand with three partners, Leigh-Wood Oakes brought not only a wealth of business experience with her but also those familial ties. It’s almost as if she’d been destined to lead a mezcal brand to success from the very beginning.
Leigh-Wood Oakes spent her career building up brands throughout the premium and luxury spaces. Everything from tech and car brands to hotels and other hospitality ventures — she has had her hands in it all. But she was never far from the spirits industry.
“We'd always have spirit brand partners or collaborations,” Leigh-Wood Oakes explained.
“In the last few years, I definitely started to gravitate more towards the industry and to really focus on it for so many reasons.”
As she shifted from marketing and communications to more brand-building roles, she also focused more on spirits brands she’d like to work with. Already a spirits lover, Leigh-Wood Oakes was drawn to the industry by a deep interest in how craft beverages were made. Mezcal lured her with its technique, its history — and its own family.
“The whole process is so unbelievably beautiful,” Leigh-Wood Oakes reflected. The traditional craftsmanship of the spirit moved her deeply. When she became involved with the industry, she found another family — one within the mezcal industry itself. And she’s come to care for the industry and the spirit as a family member should.
In fact, Leigh-Wood Oakes shared her concern about the industry and how it could become a victim to bad actors. “As great as the rise of mezcal is, it does mean that the market — the industry — is opening up and there is potential for it to be slightly abused.”
This concern remains at the forefront of what Leigh-Wood Oakes is attempting to accomplish with Mezcal Campante. As she seeks to deliver a spirit that is accessible to a larger audience, she wants to ensure that the product is still crafted in the traditional way — that unbelievably beautiful way.
“Our mezcal has to be made the artisanal way,” she insisted. “But yes, we do want a mezcal that people can really drink.”
Leigh-Wood Oakes warned of industrial-made mezcal that could flood the market and mislead consumers. The traditional mezcal must be crafted carefully and in small batches. But she’s quick to say that a drinker needs to find the way that they enjoy mezcal.
Even through that small-batch artisanal method, Campante aims to be a versatile beverage that any drinker can easily navigate. It’s in many ways an accessible product with a name that can be easily pronounced and understood across a number of languages.
To extend that even further, Leigh-Wood Oakes and her three partners seek to educate consumers about what mezcal is and the many ways it can be enjoyed. It’s a passion for her to not only introduce drinkers to Mezcal Campante but to the spirit overall. Acknowledging that so many drinkers confuse tequila with mezcal or think of mezcal as an overly smoky beverage, she says, “There are so many different types [to try] that really it makes it so exciting for the drinker.” She adds: “Everyone should be able to find the way that they like to drink it.”
As mezcal — and agave spirits as a whole — finds a home with new customers daily, Leigh-Wood Oakes reminded us that female consumers are a growing market for all spirits. And women need to be represented more and more within the industry as well.
As she tells it, that representation is well established in the mezcal industry — at least in Mexico. “When you're down in Mexico in the mezcal industry there, they're very open to women,” she says. “It's beautiful. It's very very welcoming and you really start to see how much women are involved in the industry.”
For Mezcal Campante specifically, Leigh-Wood Oakes’s partner José Luis Bustamante Brambila directs production and operations in Mexico, overseeing a largely female team. A number of women occupy executive roles alongside Bustamante Brambila, functioning as equals within the industry.
However, when she travels through the U.S. and really anywhere outside of Mexico, she recognizes that women are not well represented — or even well respected — in the spirits industry as a whole. “You do start to lose women at the higher end and that is disappointing,” she admitted. In fact, recently, she recalled an experience she had where a sales guy at an unnamed liquor store grilled her about spirits, doubting her authority on the topic.
The absence of women in leadership roles within the spirits industry helps fuel this attitude. Leigh-Wood Oakes is pushing back through her own efforts. She knows women are capable of running the show and acting as experts in the field. In fact, at Mezcal Campante, a female-led sales team — staffed by experts on the spirit — is working to open eyes and educate consumers. Together they’re reaching new heights and celebrating their wins.
Leigh-Wood Oakes believes it is incredibly important to raise a glass of mezcal to every achievement. “Just take a beat and just be like, ‘hey we did it!’ Still a long way to go, but yeah we did it.”
