coyote - logoche

Batch: N-3C-01

Release date: June 2022

Special notes: Neta collaboration. Batch tech sheet:

Ramón García Sánchez produces agave spirits at palenque ‘tres carnales’ in Logoche, Miahuatlán. Our collaborator, Neta, is doing great work to raise the profile of this region and its spirits.

In Miahuatlán and much of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca the agave colloquially known as Coyote, or Coyota is revered for is beauty, scarcity, and distinctive aromas and flavours. This maguey is not to be confused with the Agave americana type from the Sola de Vega region that goes by the same name. The maguey used in the production of this batch was in recent years classified as Agave lyobaa, but those that work with the plant know that it is in fact a hybrid between large- sized A. karwinskii types and the A. potatorum and A. seemanniana plants that are colloquially known locally as Tobalá.

As such, they are generally found in the wild, exclusively in the arid and rocky zones where these different species overlap in proximity, flowering times, and the sharing of common pollinators, such as bats and hummingbirds. These wild Coyote are remarkably rare and take around 12 years to mature. The plant and its distillate remain highly prized by producers and discerning drinkers alike.

However, recent cultivation efforts by master magueyeros in Logoche have demonstrated that these Coyote are abundant in the seed grows of their Madrecuixe cultivar, often comprising up to 50% of the grown out stock - thus the reason many prefer to reproduce their Madrecuixe plants through rhizome (offsets) or bulbil cloning. Amongst these Coyotes, there exists great variance, with notable differences in length of its tallo (stem or stalk) the shape/size/color of both the penca (leaf), as well as the terminal and margin spines. Some grow significantly larger than others, but all maintain an egg-shaped piña and similar flavours.

Cultivated, these plants mature impressively quickly, in around five years, with the first experimental batches from Logoche being made in 2021. Worth of note, seeds gathered and grown from a Coyote mother-plant have yielded 100% Coyote types, but with dozens of different morphological expressions. The choice by growers and producers to cultivate these special agaves is reflective of a desire to innovate and maintain tradition by adapting practices that allow the preservation of culture and ecology. 

In the crafting of this 40L experimental batch, Ramón harvested around one ton of capón Coyote in September 2021, from two separate family lands that had been planted just five years earlier in 2016. This was their first attempt at cultivating this particular endemic agave, and in doing so, experimented with two very different soil types.

Fifteen of these piñas came from his mother’s mixed white and black soil parcel in neighbouring Lachigüizo, and another ten were harvested from a rocky and red earth parcel owned and cared for by he and his brother, Wilfrido. Interestingly, the agaves grown in these two completely different fields, about 4km apart from each other, begun to flower and mature in the same space of time, but with vastly different sizes and sugar contents. The red and rocky parcel, with good drainage, proved to be the cultivated Coyote’s preferred habitat, yielding larger and more sugar-rich maguey. The results of this comparative test serve to help Ramón better manage his different lands and the diverse stock of agave species that he and his family cultivate.

Gracias Ramón, the tres carnales, and collaborators Neta.

This collaborative bottling is only available via MAS. More details were sent to society members along with the June 2022 subscription delivery.

Until the end of July 2022 and while stocks last, you can pick up the June box which contains this bottling as a subscription trial here.

Continue your agave spirits journey, receive special members only expressions, and join our regular online tastings via the Mezcal Appreciation Society: