jabalí y madrecuishe - amatlán

Batch: IGG-01

Release date: November 2022 (Dia de Muertos special release)

From this community and palenque we work closely with, we are very pleased to present this micro batch from Ignacio Garcia Gutierrez - brother of our more regularly featured producers Nicolas and Camilo.

At just 30 litres, this batch was too small even to feature in MAS. But, as genuinely one of our favourite agave spirits of all time, we couldn’t leave it behind. It makes a perfect special release to celebrate Dia de Muertos 2022.

Jabalí (A.Covallis) foreground, Madrecuishe (A.Karwinski) background, these two agaves are quintessentially Miahuatlán.

While Madrecuishe has been successfully domesticated and is now very commonly seen growing in cultivated lines in the region, Jabalí remains wild, generally only seen growing in groups like this (or perhaps very young in a new nursery).

The Jabalí plant itself is far from rare. In fact it’s probably the most common wild agave in the wider Miahuatlán region. That’s because it hasn’t been widely used for agave spirits production. It’s known to be particularly low yielding and difficult to deal with.

The theory goes that the plant contains high levels of saponis, creating foaming and expansion during fermentation and distillation. It’s rare to see a Jabalí batch, and possibly rarer still to see an ensemble of Jabalí and Madrecuishe.

Co-roasted with whatever other plants were mature at the time in an earthen pit, the selected wild Jabalí and Madrecuishe piñas were then chopped by machete and milled in a shredder.

Fermentation in open air wooden tinas created the alcohol that would then be increased with a triple pass via a classic alembic still. The resulting distillate was proofed to taste with heads, hearts, and tails.

Tasting notes: This batch is particularly hard to pin down as that rascal maguey Jabalí jumps all over the palate. It’s particularly excellent at the same time. On the nose it’s a damp meadow with lots of grassy and woody tones. Theres a touch of starch and a faint smoke in there. None of that betrays the surprising butterscotch upfront hit on the palate. That sweetness is followed by wet leather and the return of the woody notes in the mid-palate. It even get’s a little vegetal before fading back to a long caramel finish. Quite incredible.

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