Wayne Curtis is the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails, a chronicle of America’s most ignoble spirit. He’s also a contributing editor at The Atlantic magazine, where he launched and wrote the “Drinks” column from 2008 to 2014, and he writes regularly for Imbibe and The Daily Beast. He’s also written about spirits for The New York Times, Sunset, Yankee, enRoute, American Scholar, American Archeology and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in New Orleans and Grand Lake Stream, Maine.

Your Guide to Sotol in Four Bottles
In this round of "Spirit Guide," get to know sotol, a regional Mexican spirit considered to be a close relative of mezcal.
- story: Wayne Curtis
- photo: Lizzie Munro