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Paulo Benavides, former Mosto co-owner Tim Skirven, Matt Tarpey and Dave Michelow of The Veil Brewing Co., and Nelson Benavides
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Mosto Tequila Blanco
Mosto Tequila began with a casual conversation among pals — and perhaps a drink or two. Founded in 2022, the tequila brand marks a cultural and professional collaboration between restaurateurs and brothers Nelson and Paulo Benavides of Cochiloco, Pepe’s, and Y Tu Mama and Matt Tarpey, head brewer and co-founder of The Veil Brewing Co. Together, the trio have brought to life a small-batch tequila with cultural ties and a Richmond perspective.
Richmond magazine: How did the idea for this project come about?
Matt Tarpey: Paulo and Nelson were like, “Look, we live in Mexico and are Mexican culture, and we also know and love tequila and tequila culture. You guys intimately know the beverage world. I think it’s a logical thing for us to kind of team up together and try to do this in Virginia.”
Paulo had just moved back to Mexico and started going around and checking in with all the tequilerias and seeing if they had extra capacity for us. He has been insanely instrumental to everything with Mosto; it’s invaluable that he kind of lives in dual areas.
Paulo Benavides: I live about 40 minutes from the distillery, so I can check the production project. We found a very small distillery that only has about four brands, and they are award-winning brands. The fact that it’s so, so small gives us a little bit more control, and we were able to get our own master distiller there.
Tequila can only be produced in specific regions of Mexico due to strict regulations and oversight by the Tequila Regulatory Council.
RM: What’s it like bringing a product from Mexico to Virginia?
Benavides: We’re very proud. When I was growing up, my dad had a restaurant back in my hometown, and we used to go to the distilleries and get tequila in jugs because it would be cheaper for him to refill the bottles than buying the bottles. Also, growing up around the scenery of the agave fields is special; the contrast and the colors.
The whole culture behind tequila comes from Jalisco, a small town where we’re from. I think a lot of the things that people know Mexico for come from Jalisco, like mariachi music, the charros [horsemen] and tequila. We happen to be from the region, in our opinion, that has the best tequila, because we’re on a higher elevation, and it grows a better agave plant. To kind of showcase that stuff and be able to bring a quality premium product to Virginia, it’s an awesome thing.
RM: What sets Mosto apart from other tequila brands in Virginia?
Tarpey: There’s a trend in the tequila realm these days with the additive-free movement, and ours is produced with traditional techniques, and we use fully grown, oven-cooked, estate-grown agave plants. The distillery we’re working with has been in the family for years and years, and it’s (on) a 600-acre farm.
RM: What Mosto products are currently available in your lineup, and do you have any future releases?
Tarpey: We released our first blanco in Virginia in July 2024. We plan to release a new batch of reposado, which hopefully will be available by the end of summer, early fall.
Benavides: Our current reposado is in 200 ABC stores, and the blanco is in 100 stores. We’re doing a lot of the repping ourselves, so we kind of wanted to keep it a bit more regional. We’re also going to be releasing a still-strength version soon, too, called Palo 353; there’s going to be only around 700 bottles produced.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
