Arroqueño - Amatengo

Batch: LEJ-04

Release date: October 2022

main image for the Arroqueño - Amatengo mezcal page on the Sin Gusano project
main image for the Arroqueño - Amatengo mezcal page on the Sin Gusano project

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Arroqueño (A.Americana var.Oaxacensis
  • Producer: Sergio Juárez Patricio & son Luis
  • Region: San Agustín Amatengo, Ejutla district, Oaxaca central valleys
  • Cooking: 3 day roast in stone lined in-earth horno
  • Milling: Machete & huge tahona drawn by two oxen
  • Fermentation: 16 days in wooden tinas
  • Distillation: Single pass in reflux plated copper alembic with refrescadera
  • Composition: Adjusted with spring water
  • Batch size: 150 litres
  • Date of production: November 2021
  • ABV: 47.7%

In the community of San Agustín Amatengo, within the Ejutla district in the south of Oaxaca’s central valleys, two generations of the Juarez family operate a small yet mighty palenque.

If you’ve lucky enough to have been to Guelaguetza - Oaxaca’a annual celebration of regional diversity - you may have seen the dance of Ejutla. Bold and proud, mezcal of the region follows a similar vibe, with a process that leads to powerful profile.

Sergio Juarez Patricio is an old school mezcalero, while his son Luis - a qualified dentist - leads a new generation with more international ambitions. Most recently Luis’ younger brother Oliver has also joined production full time, allowing Luis more time for promotion and even opening a new bar in central Oaxaca - Gozona.

For this batch the family team have used 16 piñas of maguey Arroqueño (A.Americana var. Oaxacensis) totalling 1900kg. You can do the maths to understand these are huge plants - here in the central valleys they are said to take upwards of 20 years to mature, and can stand 3 metres tall.

the Arroqueño agave plant, twice the height of the man stood next to it

Pic for scale - stolen from the internet

Fermentation lasted a whole 16 days, in these classic slatted wooden tinas.The huge piñas were quartered with a machete and roasted for 3 days in a conical stone lined earthen horno, fired with wood from the huamuche and mesquite trees.

The roasted and sweet agaves were then milled by a stone tahona so huge it takes 2 bulls to pull.

Fermentation lasted a whole 16 days, in these classic slatted wooden tinas.

a group of men cooking pinas to make mezcal
Bulls pulling a tohano stone to crush and mill the pina for mezcal
Always keep a vaso veladora handy for tasting mezcal

Always keep a vaso veladora handy

Distillation is where things get really Ejutla specific. The coper alembic stills are fitted with a reflux-plate in the cooling chamber and a refrescadera water bath around the outside.

With this set-up, when the rising vapour hits the relatively cool plate, some if it re-condenses and falls back into the boiling pot. This smart reflux style allows for a 2-in-1 distillation, with the desired alcohol proof being reached with a single pass.

The resulting liquid was then refined to bottling proof with spring water.

Gracias to Luis and Family creators of the Tepextate - Amatengo small batch mezcal

Tasting with Luis at the palenque

Looking up into the cooling chamber and its plate used for making mezcal

Looking up at the reflux plate in the copper cooling chamber

Filling the refrescadra for more mezcal

Filling the refrescadera

Sergio, creator of the Arroqueño - Amatengo mezcal

Gracias Sergio, Luis, and Oliver

House Tasting Notes:

On first approach there’s a woody nose with notes of vanilla. On the palate there’s an immediate crisp bite that doesn’t hold back - reminiscent of sal de gusano. It leads into a deeper sweet and sour profile, leaving a lingering finish as if you just took a bite of an orange rind. Interesting to try with sal de gusano on the side - sweetens the finish.

a bottle of the Arroqueno mezcal exclusively bottled for the Sin Gusano project

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