Cuishe - San Luis Amatlán

Batch: NGG-16

Release date: October 2024

Main image of the Cuishe - San Luis Amatlán for the Sin Gusano mezcal library
Main image of the Cuishe - San Luis Amatlán for the Sin Gusano mezcal library

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Cuishe (A. Karwinski)
  • Producer: Nicolas Garcia 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: 70 litres
  • Date of production: October - December 2021
  • ABV: 48.2%

We’re always pleased to return to the Gutierrez family in Amatlán, who consistently create wonderfully mineral and moreish spirits.

In this instance, Nicolas used 100% wild maguey Cuishe (A.Karwinski), harvested from a lower plain area outside of San Luis Amatlán.

Unusually, Nicolas took the decision to leave the harvested plants in the field, under the shade of a tree, for a few weeks before coming back to collect them for production. This allowed the plants, harvested at the end of the wet season, to dry out before the roast.

Young Cuishe growing wild

Young Cuishe growing wild

In the hills of Miahuatlán

In the hills of Miahuatlán

Harvested biquix waiting to roast

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.

You can read much more about this genus of maguey via our original research piece that accompanies this limited release.

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.

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).

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.

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 a clean 70 litres, which we’ve had resting for almost 3 years until this release.

Nicolas created the Cuishe - San Luis Amatlán small batch mezcal

Gracias Nicolas

House Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s that Amatlán nose we know and love – what a thing! Umami in the nostrils with a strong mineral salinity, but a background note of split resinous wood and fresh leather.

Palate: For us it’s the salty terroir upfront and the woody base plant lurking in the background. On first sip there’s pine needles and pepper, salinity comes on pretty strong in the mid-palate.

Finish: Sweet and nutty with a lot of fresh roasted peanuts.

a bottle of the Biquix mezcal created for the Sin Gusano project

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