By LaTASHA BOYD JONES
On a quiet afternoon in Indiana, far from the dry fields of Jalisco, Mexico and even farther from the slick glow of celebrity-backed liquor brands, Dominick Wilkins tells the story of a tequila that began with a simple truth: every person deserves a moment of connection.
Maxwell Park Tequila is only months old, officially first sold on July 8, 2025, but it carries the weight, warmth, and wisdom of something older, heritage-rooted and human-centered. At its heart is a man who never set out to become a tequila producer, a businessman and is believed to be the first Hoosier of color to launch a tequila brand. He simply set out to do something the right way.
But stories told with humility tend to become the ones worth hearing.
‘I was graced into a tradition’
Wilkins doesn’t talk about entering the tequila world through deals or corporate handshakes. He talks about being graced into it — welcomed into the Casa Aceves family’s generational craft. They opened not just their distillery to him, but their heritage.
“They allowed me to see the proper way things are done,” he said. “There are no shortcuts. You have to respect the process and the people behind it.”
So, he didn’t skim. He learned. He flew to Guadalajara. He walked the fields. He listened. He watched agave turn from firm green to the speckled brown sweetness that signals readiness. He saw the piñas split open, brick-oven roasted, shredded, fermented and distilled.
The debut release is a small-batch blanco, clean and bright, with naturally sweet agave notes carried from the slow-roasted piñas.
He didn’t want a surface understanding; he wanted hands-in-the-soil knowledge.
It shows.
Craftsmanship as accountability
Maxwell Park Tequila is a small-batch product, not because it’s trendy, but because it’s the only way Wilkins believes he can honor the tradition he was entrusted with.
Other brands speed up the process with younger agave or industrial shortcuts. He refuses.
Quality, for him, is not a technique — it is a moral stance.
“We’re not trying to be the largest producer,” he said plainly. “We’re trying to be the most responsible one.”
The partnership with his distillery works like a handshake between two people who expect honesty from each other. They keep each other accountable. They protect the culture they both represent. They honor a lineage.
It’s iron sharpening iron — agave field to bottle.
The crown has arrived — not as royalty, but as integrity
When asked what theme song would play upon opening a bottle, Wilkins laughed, caught off guard. But he found the answer anyway — not in a lyric but in a feeling.
“If there were a song,” he said, “it would be centered on the idea that the crown has arrived.”
Not a crown of ego.
Not a crown of fame.
A crown of transparency.
A crown of honor.
A crown of doing things the right way, even when no one is watching.
It’s a declaration, but a humble one:
You no longer have to worry; this spirit was made with integrity.
Maxwell Park moments: A language of connection
Ask Wilkins what success looks like, and he won’t talk about market share, expansion or celebrity endorsements. His brand wasn’t built on those metrics, so why measure its success by them?
“Success,” he said, “is when the message of embracing Maxwell Park moments becomes fully understood.”
What is a Maxwell Park moment?
It’s simple. Ordinary. Beautiful.
It’s your neighbor clearing your driveway before you get home. It’s being invited to a celebration because someone sees you as part of their joy. It’s a shared laugh, a shared story, a shared porch, a shared breath.
It’s humanity, unpolished.
It’s the spirit of Wilkins’ grandparents, the way they searched for something to love in everyone they met.
It’s the opposite of a world speeding toward disconnection.
Maxwell Park Tequila is not only asking people to drink responsibly, but also to try tequila in its natural habitat — not in a rushed, biting second, but as a settled, refined conversation starter that asks people to notice each other again and enjoy.
The doubt that fueled the dream
When Wilkins first mentioned he wanted to start a tequila brand, the most common response he got was: “How are you going to do that?”
He wasn’t a celebrity. He wasn’t located in Mexico. He didn’t come from money or a legacy of business ventures. He was a regular man living in Indiana, remembering his childhood home in Oakland, California, with the name “Maxwell Park, the foothills’ best-kept secret.”
He is an ordinary man with a vision bigger than his circumstances. And somehow, here he is — with a brand that feels less like a product and more like a love letter to humanity.
A tequila built for community
Wilkins has big dreams for Maxwell Park, but not in the usual entrepreneurial sense.
He wants to build a physical Maxwell Park in Indiana — a community space, a source of scholarships, a vehicle for giving back.
“If people put their trust in me,” he said, “I have a responsibility to give back to them.”
Part of that responsibility, he says, is making the spirit accessible. At $59.99 a bottle, Maxwell Park Tequila is already carried in over 150 locations from Gary to Evansville — a footprint that mirrors the community he hopes to serve.
A regular man with an extraordinary purpose
At the end of the interview, Wilkins offered one final truth about who he is, separate from the brand.
“I’m not a celebrity,” he said. “I’m the guy on the bread aisle at Kroger, trying to pick which loaf to buy. I’m the guy on the stair master, sweating and wishing I didn’t eat that Long’s Donut.”
He laughed when he said it, but it’s the most revealing line in the entire conversation.
Maxwell Park Tequila is not built on the mystique of a founder. It is built on the accessibility of one. The brand’s message is not ‘Look at me,’ but rather, ‘Look at us.’
Because we all deserve a moment of connection.
The heart of the story
In a world leaning increasingly toward speed, noise and artificiality, Maxwell Park Tequila rises as a quiet, steady reminder: A spirit crafted with care can remind us to care for one another. A small-batch brand can hold big truths. And a regular man can build something extraordinary when he refuses to compromise on doing things the right way.
Wilkins said, “Maxwell Park Tequila is more than a beverage. It is a belief: Every human deserves a moment — A Maxwell Park Moment: to be seen, to be valued, and to be connected. Open a bottle, welcome the human experience and let the crown arrive.”
LaTasha Boyd Jones is a journalist, poet and cultural critic exploring language, liberation, identity, fashion, beauty and Blackness.
