Del Maguey's distinctive green bottles and colourful labels

Ron Cooper, Del Maguey's founder, was a fan of Paul Draper's California wine and the mid-century modern aesthetic of his Ridge Vineyards wine labels influenced the decision to use wine bottles. Ron preferred green wine bottles to brown, and happily, they were available in Mexico.

Ron's original plan was to feature a different artist friend of his for each different village label of mezcal. However, he was so taken with the work that the first friend he asked, Kenneth Price, that it is Ken's distinctive, vibrantly coloured artworks that adorn Del Maguey's labels.

Kenneth Price (16/Feb/1935 – 24/Feb/12) is an artist famous for his abstract fired clay shapes intricately painted with multiple layers of brightly coloured paints. From time to time, Ken also produced "imagined south of the border drawings" and it's these that make Del Maguey Single Village Mezcals instantly recognisable.

Ron met Ken in 1962 when they became next-door neighbours at the surf point on California Street, Ventura, California. Ron grew up in Ojai, California, but after graduating high school and spending a year in Europe, he moved to Ventura, where he enrolled as an art major at the Jr. College and rented a space in a Victorian two-story house. It is here that Ken and Ron became neighbours and life-long friends.

In 2011, talking about Ken's artwork and Del Maguey, Ron said, "My biggest Del Maguey label art challenge was the crazy circular drawing that I have used for our rare, wild mountain Tobala mezcal; it is of a narrow road through a winding high mountain pass with just a bit of sky and three big semi-trucks and a little pink car caught in the middle of them... it finally came to me that the huge racing trucks represent the "Big Guys" – tequila companies and tiny Del Maguey in the midst of them."

There are now more than 30 different Del Maguey labels.