Tobala - San jose rio minas

Batch: CAN-03

Release date: February 2026

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Tobala (A. Potatorum)
  • Producer: Crispin Aguirre Navarro & Son Sebastian
  • Region: San Jose Rio Minas, Mixteca, Oaxaca
  • Cooking: Classic in-earth horno: 1 week roast
  • Milling: Horse drawn tahona
  • Fermentation: 1 week in dugout tree trunk
  • Distillation: Double pass in hybrid filipino still: stainless steel boiling pot with clay condensing pot
  • Batch size: 80 litres
  • Date of production: February 2024
  • ABV: 46.6%

Deep in the Oaxacan Mixteca, a good 5 hours drive west from Oaxaca City, sits the community of San Joé Río Minas. Within that community Crispin and his son Sebastian grow both agave Espadín and agave Tobala in their nursery before transplanting them to the surrounding hills.

Once mature, the agave is cooked in a classic earthen mezcal horno, crushed by horse drawn tahona, and open-air fermented in a hollowed out tree trunk or canoe.

The fermented mash is then double distilled in a stainless steel bottom pot / clay top pot filipino style set up.

Sebastian checking the perlas of fresh mezcal running off the clay still

young agave growing to become future mezcal

Crispin surveying his baby Tobala at sunrise

Rosario showcasing a fermentation Canoe

Rosario showcasing a fermentation Canoe

Historically this region would have used clay pots for both the top and bottom chambers of the still. But being such a remote community with access to new clay pots being difficult, at some time the change was made to the significantly more durable stainless steel.

New stainless steel boiling pot

Distilling through the night

Crispin & wife Rosario at the still

Gracias Crispin, Rosario and Sebastian

House Tasting Notes:

Nose: Dusty butterscotch

Palate: Rice pudding, condensed milk vibes. It's full of creamy flavours, but with an intriguingly dry mouth feel.

Finish: Sweet & sour tones cream into the back end, like some kind of Chinese vegetable dish. With time in the glass it becomes more vegetal, with agave forward notes presenting themselves more clearly.

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