Raicilla Sierra 2023

Batch: J-SBP-01

Release date: August 2024

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Raicilla (A. Maximiliana)
  • Producer: Sergio Briseño Peña
  • Region: Navidad, Sierra Occidental, Jalisco
  • Cooking: 2 days in adobe oven
  • Milling: Hand mashed with wooden mallets in dugout canoe
  • Fermentation: 4 days plastic drums
  • Distillation: Double pass in copper/wood alembique
  • Batch size: 140 litres from single oven / 20 litres from single ferment
  • Date of production: March 2023
  • ABV: 40.6%

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.

  • a road in Mexico leading to a small town where you'll find people making their own mezcal
  • a church in Mexico in a town where mezcal is made

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 growing in a field in Mexico ready tobe harvested for mezcal

    Agave Maximiliana

  • An agave plant
  • Above ground brick oven for making mezcal

    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.

  • The cooked and crushed agave was then fermented with well water in various 200 litre capacity plastic drums before being double distilled.
  • Wooden mallet & dugout canoe

    Wooden mallet & dugout canoe

  • Warm piñas from the oven fresh for milling mezcal

    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.

  • barrels for Fermenting Mezcal

    Fermenting

  • Masa sealed for making mezcal

    Sergio’s stills

  • Masa sealed for mezcal

    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!

  • 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
  • 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

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.

Multicolumn

Multicolumn

a man standing with large containers filled with mezcal ready for the bottling process

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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