Cuishe de Moho - Amatlán

Batch: NGG-09

Release date: February 2023

main image for the Cuishe de Moho - Amatlán mezcal webpage
main image for the Cuishe de Moho - Amatlán mezcal webpage

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Cuishe (A. Karwinski)
  • Producer: Nicolas Garcia Gutierrez
  • Region: San Luis Amatlán, Miahuatlán District, Oaxaca
  • Cooking: Classic in-earth horno: left for 20 days after rain
  • Milling: Machete & shredder
  • Fermentation: Slatted wooden tinas
  • Distillation: Double pass in copper alembic
  • Composition: Heads, hearts and tails
  • Batch size: 60 litres
  • Date of production: August 2021
  • ABV: 49.9%
  • Unusual notes: Moho (explained below)

We’re very pleased to return to amigo Nicolas Garcia Gutierrez, in the community of San Luis Amatlán, in the Miahuatlán region of southern Oaxaca. Nicolas is the maestro behind some of our all-time favourite batches, he’s always experimenting with something new and adjusting to the natural environment around him. This batch is no ordinary Cuishe, and an excellent example of Nocolas’ adaptive craft.

It’s not in the slightest bit uncommon for producers in the Miahuatlán valleys to be working with maguey Cuishe (A Karwinski). It’s endemic to the 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.

Young Cuishe growing wild

Young Cuishe growing wild

Agave In the hills of Miahuatlán

In the hills of Miahuatlán

Cuishe (on the left) waiting to roast

Cuishe (on the left) waiting to roast

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.

Nicolas 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). On this occasion a lot of rain came through the region toward the end of the roast, and the agave stayed in the ground for almost 20 days.

By the time they were finally un-earthed, the agaves were covered in a white fungus, known locally as ‘Moho’.

Jon & Nico looking at the moho

Jon & Nico looking at the moho

Agave con moho

Agave con moho

While it’s not entirely exceptional to see small amounts of this fungus on agave that has spent any time between roasting an milling, more often than not the small amount present is removed before the next stage of the process - see the video below of a moho-covered roasted Cuishe being brushed down in Santa Caterina Minas (of course in Minas it’s called a Tobaziche).

But, so dense was this particular covering of Moho that Nicolas decided to experiment by milling, fermenting, and distilling the fungus covered plants as they were. We’re very glad he did!

Nicolas, creator of the Bodega Blend - Amatlán mezcal

Gracias Nicolas

House Tasting Notes:

On first nose this batch has all the mineral salinity that we’ve come to expect from Nicolas and the spirits of San Luis Amatlán. Those grassy tones you would expect from a Miahuatlán Cuishe come through, but there’s also a kind of rich must that seems to be added by the moho. Then on first sip there’s clearly more going on. The Moho has added extra umami tones, that mustiness, and a hint of blue cheese that’s not present in Nico’s regular Cuishe. It’s warm and pleasing in the mid palate and leaves the sweetest notes for the finish, which is rather delicate for its near 50% abv. As you work through your copita the mouth feel of this batch gets thicker and richer as it opens up in the glass.

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