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Mezcal is a spirit made from agave – but it’s more than just a drink.
The word mezcal is hundreds of years old and comes from Nahuatl mexcalli, which means ‘cooked agave’, from metl and ixcalli. To appreciate this spirit is to share an important understanding that biodiversity, sensorial experience and cultural variety are all worth experiencing and preserving.
Tasting notes: Light citrus peel on the nose, with a fresh salinity that can be expected from Amatlán. Grassy dry straw on first sip, reminiscent of sotol from the north. Highly mineral in the mid-palate. Go back in for another nose and it’s turned into fresh masa before being pressed into tortillas and tejate. Opens into peaches and cream with time in the glass.
In the community of San Luis Amatlán, in the Miahuatán district of southern Oaxaca, Camilo shares a palenque with his brother-in-law, Nicolas, and makes spirits in the style of the region.
While Miahuatlán has a long history of working with a wide variety of agave species that all thrive in its unique tierra blanca (white earth), producers are only recently experimenting with Cucharillo.
Cucharillo is not actually an agave, rather it’s a species of dasylirion. This type of plant has a much longer history of being distilled in the north of Mexico, where it’s known as Sotol.
As opposed to agaves, which flower just once before dying, dasylirion plants flower once every few years, after which the plant can continue to grow. This is quite exciting from a sustainability perspective, as it means seeds can be collected from a plant before it dies. Whereas an agave must be harvested before going to seed to be good for mezcal.
This winter batch was distilled in December 2021. After proofing with heads and tails (puntas y colas) the final yield of the batch was 60 litres. We’ve had it resting since, and now here it is!
Understanding artisan mezcal can be an awakening; our modern consumption habits are not only unsustainable, but less fun, less fulfilling and less tasty than following traditional methods and being led by our natural environment.
Mezcal can be almost unbelievably delicious.
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