By Stephen Witt
When Hollywood’s cameras slowed down, Marco De Molina found a new way to tell stories — one sip at a time.
The Sherman Oaks-based filmmaker and his wife, Roza, a Ukrainian-born producer and classically trained violinist, built careers in entertainment that included a Grammy nomination as producers of Lil Nas X’s culture-shaking “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” music video and executive producer credits on El Rey, Vicente Fernández, the Netflix biographical series about the Mexican mariachi legend.
But as the entertainment industry contracted — a story which LACP continues to cover — the couple chose not to wait for the old jobs to come back. In February 2025, they launched ONE OF US Mezcal, an ultra-premium small-batch spirit made from wild Cuishe agave in the valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico.
“When the industry that had given us our livelihood changed dramatically, we chose not to wait for things to go back to the way they were. We built something new,” Marco said.
A war, a pitch, and a plane ticket
The idea was Roza’s. When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, she became the pillar of her family both financially and emotionally — and instead of letting fear define that chapter, she spent five months quietly researching the world of spirits.
“She came to me and said, ‘Why don’t we follow our other passion?’ That conversation ultimately became ONE OF US,” Marco said.
By January 2023, Roza had handed her husband a plane ticket to Oaxaca with instructions to figure it out. Marco, originally from Mexico City and an Angeleno since 1998, said he went south not to find the best mezcal, but to find the ultimate maestro mezcalero — the master distiller.
After days of driving lost through the Oaxacan valleys, he arrived at a small palenque — the traditional term for a mezcal distillery — and met Jacinto Gutiérrez, a third-generation mezcalero of Zapotec heritage. The two men spent half an hour talking family values and work ethic before Gutiérrez poured mezcal into jicaritas, small traditional cups, and tipped a few drops onto the ground before drinking.
“I asked him why he did that, and he said he always gives back to Mother Earth before sipping. I found that so beautiful,” Marco said. “It was the most fantastic mezcal I’ve ever tried in my entire life.”
That ritual is now part of the brand’s identity, and Gutiérrez is part of the operation. The company controls everything from the plant to the bottle — nothing is white-labeled — and its 7,200-bottle first edition arrived stateside in Christmas 2024.
The wild one
ONE OF US is made from Cuishe, a wild agave that grows in the sierras of Oaxaca and takes 10 to 14 years to ripen — roughly double the time of Espadín, the cultivated agave most mezcal comes from. The result is an additive-free joven mezcal, bottled at 45 percent alcohol and positioned in the prestige category: not a shot, but a sipping experience.
Marco said Roza’s research found a gap between mass-produced brands with slick packaging and modest liquid, and true artisanal producers who never reach the luxury customer. ONE OF US is built to bridge it, with a filmmaker’s eye evident down to a hidden label bearing the trademarked tagline: WHAT’S YOUR STORY?®
The brand is California-only for now, poured at high-end restaurants across Los Angeles and Orange counties, with recent placements in San Luis Obispo, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Silicon Valley.
Less red tape than a film shoot
Asked whether the county’s notorious red tape slowed the couple down, Marco said spirits surprised him in the other direction.
“For alcohol, it is totally different. We have not had any challenges getting permits and licenses, because it is all either federal or state, and on the state side, the distributor handles all the licensing,” he said — adding that film production permits are another story entirely.
The couple runs the business from their Sherman Oaks home office, a genuine wife-and-husband operation in a county where the industry’s contraction has pushed many creative professionals toward reinvention.
“In many ways, we didn’t leave storytelling behind, we simply created a different canvas,” Marco said. “This journey may very well be the most meaningful production we’ve ever undertaken.”
Where to find ONE OF US Mezcal
Retail: K&L Wine Merchants, Hollywood and Culver City (klwines.com); Beverly Hills Liquor & Wine (beverlyhillsliquorandwine.com); Tarzana Wine & Spirits (tarzanawineandspirits.com); Hi-Time Wine Cellars, Costa Mesa (hitimewine.net).
Poured at: Alma Cocina de Mexico at The Grove; Scopa Italian Roots, Venice; DAMA, Downtown LA; The Hideaway, Beverly Hills; Lenny’s Casita, West LA.
ONE OF US ships nationwide at oneofusmezcal.com.
