raicilla sierra 2023
Batch: J-SBP-01
Release date: August 2024
In the highlands of Jalisco, just a few hours’ drive from the major tequila producing zone of Mexico, sits the municipality of Mascota.
While in Tequila you’ll find nothing but endless rows of blue agave as far as the eye can see, we’re pleased to report that this region remains mercifully free of destructive mono-cropping.
This is ‘Raicilla’ country, where production has remained largely underground since colonial prohibition days, and distillers continue to use wild agave and artisan methods to craft their spirits to community standards.
About an hour into the Sierra Occidental from the town of Mascota sits the picturesque community of Navidad (actually one of Mexico’s ‘Pueblo Magico’s).
Here we met Sergio, known locally as “La Chivita” or ‘little goat’ continuing the traditions of his father… ‘the goat’.
Agave Maximiliana
The predominant agave species used for raicilla in the Sierras are Maximiliana and Inaequidens. For this batch, distilled in March 2023, Sergio worked exclusively with Maximiliana.
This agave reportedly contains significantly different chemical compounds to all others. Apparently, some producers in the region are even campaigning for it to be re-classified.
Above ground brick oven
As to the process: piñas were roasted above ground in a brick and adobe oven. While still warm from the oven, they were mashed by hand in a dugout canoe using a large wooden mallet.
We can’t speak to the chemical compound, but can say these piñas are particularly gelatinous, and crush particularly well offering a lot of liquid and little fibre.
Wooden mallet & dugout canoe
Warm piñas from the oven
The cooked and crushed agave was then fermented with well water in various 200 litre capacity plastic drums before being double distilled.
The stills at Sergio’s taberna comprise a 100-litre copper boiling pot topped with a slatted wooden chamber. A copper pipe funnels the vapours out of the wooden chamber into a simple serpentine coil condensing set-up.
Fermenting
Sergio’s stills
Masa sealed
Sergio keeps all his batches in glass from the moment of distillation. As it happens, each 200 litre fermentation drum roughly fills a single 19 litre glass garrafon with finished raicilla.
While it clearly makes sense to keep these all separate, it leads to a serious afternoon of tasting when you come to buy!
Driven by the local market, Sergio proofs his distillations to around 40% abv. We’re not entirely sure if this is how it’s always been, or whether the preference for a relatively low alcohol spirit is something that’s changed in the last generation or so due to influences from the giant tequila industry nearby.
But what we can say for sure is this is how it’s produced, sold, and consumed locally… and that it’s delicious.
Gracias Sergio
House tasting notes:
Nose: First nose is fruity yet acidic, with strong notes of grapefruit and pomegranate. Zero smoke to speak of. Soft and welcoming.
Palate: Fresh cut grass at a dairy farm… if such a thing were to exist… grass after the rain, while cutting open a wheel of hard cheese. Hints of pine into the mid-palate.
Finish: Melow and sweet
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