We’re always pleased to return to the Gutierrez family in Amatlán, who consistently create wonderfully mineral and moreish spirits.
In this instance, Camilo used 100% mature (roughly 13-year-old) maguey Cuishe (A.Karwinski), harvested from his small parcel of private land on the outskirts of San Luis Amatlán village.
Maguey Cuishe (A Karwinski) is endemic to this region and grows wild throughout. Traditionally, it’s just as widely used for agave spirits in this region as the Espadín (A.Angustifolia). You might say it’s the quintessential maguey of Miahuatlán.
Young Cuishe growing wild
In the hills of Miahuatlán
Cuishe (on the left) waiting to roast
Cuishe - also known locally as Bicuixe, and in Santa Caterina minas and Ejutla as Tobaziche - grows tall and skinny, with the sugar-rich piña of the plant often only at the top of what otherwise just looks like a tree trunk.
Broadly speaking this means distilled Cuishe can be less sweet (and arguably more complex) than spirits made from its fatter cousins like the Madrecuishe and Barril. It tends to offer quite woody flavours.
Loading maguey cuishe last onto the oven
Chopping roasted cuishe
Camilo opts for a relatively long and slow roast. His agaves often spend a week to 10 days in the ground (compared to just 1 or 2 days in some more high turnover regions).
After that, they’re cut down by machete before being milled with a mechanical shredder. The fibres are then loaded into a wooden tub with well water added, where they naturally ferment for a week of so.
Finally that fermented and alcoholic sour mash is distilled in the copper alembic’s of the family palenque.
The yield of this micro-batch was just 38 litres, which we have rested in glass for 4 years before bottling for consumption.
Gracias Camilo
House tasting notes:
Nose: Grassy on first nose with a little background dust and lots of peanut.
Palate: Much sweeter and smoother on first sip than the dusty nose suggested. Very round mouth feel from the time spent in glass. Peanut has become peanut butter. Very light on the smoke scale. Richly mineral and woody as it opens over time in the glass.
Finish: Grassy tingles fading to dark chocolate / cacao after longer aeration.
This batch has been bottled exclusive for The Emory, London.
For a copita, head to their hotel bars.
Continue your agave spirits journey via the Mezcal Appreciation Society:
