Cuishe - San Luis Amatlán

Batch: CGG-04

Release date: The Emory, London exclusive batch pick

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Cuishe (A. Karwinski)
  • Producer: Camilo Garcial Gutierrez
  • Region: San Luis Amatlán, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca
  • Cooking: Classic in-earth horno - 1 week slow roast
  • Milling: Machete & Shredder
  • Fermentation: 8 days in wooden tina with well water
  • Distillation: Double pass in copper alembic
  • Batch size: 38 litres
  • Date of production: April 2020
  • Special notes: Rested in glass for 4 years
  • ABV: 45.7%

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.

  • The agave for the Cuishe - San Luis Amatlán Mezcal. Limited bottling only available at Sin Gusano

    Young Cuishe growing wild

  • In the hills of Miahuatlán, ready to make mezcal for the Sin Gusano Project

    In the hills of Miahuatlán

  • Cuishe waiting to roast for the limited release bottles of mezcal for the Sin Gusnao project

    Cuishe (on the left) waiting to roast

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.

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.

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.

  • Jon Darby from the Sin Gusano project and a group of friends sat in Mexico waiting for MEzcal to be prepared for them to taste

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.

Multicolumn

Multicolumn

Camilo producer of the Cuishe - San Luis Amatlán limited release mezcal for the Sin Gusano project

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.

exclusive mezcal bottled by the Sin Gusano project for the Emory in London

This batch has been bottled exclusive for The Emory, London.

For a copita, head to their hotel bars.

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