mexicanito - san jose rio minas

Batch: AR-01

Release date: June 2023

A long way off the beaten path, in the Mixteca Alta region of western Oaxaca, Anatolio Ramirez and family keep their palenque in the community of San Jose Rio Minas.

We’re please to bottle this slightly mysterious batch, having unearthed it from the back of Anatolio’s bodega in 2020 and kept in in glass since. Its exact distillation date is unknown, forgotten by Anatolio since his sons have largely taken over production during the pandemic years.

Here in the Mixteca Alta, a smaller version of the Mexicano from the central valleys is known as Mexicanito. It’s the same family of agave Rhodacantha as its larger Mexicano close relative.

Anatolio’s agave is semi-cultivated on his family land, amongst the livestock, avocado and lime trees, and of course the milpa.

The hearts of the agave are delivered to the oven in nets, strapped across the back of a donkey that transported them from the fields where they were harvested. It’s a remote and hilly region with little infrastructure.

After roasting, the agave is chopped by machete and milled with a donkey drawn tahona. The roasted and crushed agave is then ope-air fermented in wooden tinas.

Distillation in Rio Minas is filipino style, with two demountable pots and a condensing lid made of copper. Historically both of these pots would been made of clay, but today just the top pot is clay and the boiling chamber is a kind of tall saucepan made out of stainless steel.

Presumably this change was implemented as a matter of practicality as Rio Minas is so remote. Other more famous clay mezcal communities like Santa Catarina Minas can quite readily source a new clay pot if one breaks, but Rio Minas is 5 hrs drive from the city. Distillation is a double pass of this mixed steel, clay, and copper apparatus.

As mentioned, the exact distillation date of this batch has been lost to the ages. But it was certainly a while pre-pandemic, as we picked it up from Anatolio’s bodega in early 2020.

Since then we’ve kept it in glass in our Oaxaca bodega, before finally bottling for this June 2023 release.

Tasting notes:

Nose: A little lactic, while also rather fresh and mineral, with a background of white pepper.

Palate: It’s a big funky earthy hit upfront, undoubtedly with some smoke. At the same time it’s also somewhat tart, with those lactic tones dominating the mid-palate initially. There’s something distinctly Rhodacantha about it – reminds us a little of batch SJP-02 from Ejutla, despite the entirely different region and process. As it opens in the glass there’s more peppered cold meats and a little stone fruit, and a few sips in its rounded out to be quite spectacular. Complex yet moreish.

Further thoughts: This bottling was released to MAS members alongside the bodega blend. When returning to it after tasting the blend, that slightly lactic and smoky “mixteca taste’ is extremely evident. Definitely fresher also. Love it

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