Mexicano - amatengo

Batch: SJP-02

Release date: February 2022

main image for the Mexicano - amatengo mezcal for the Mezcal library on the Sin Gusano project website
main image for the Mexicano - amatengo mezcal for the Mezcal library on the Sin Gusano project website

At a glance:

  • Producer: Sergio Juarez Patricio & Luis Enrique Juarez
  • Agave: Mexicano (A. Rhodacantha)
  • Region: San Agustín Amatengo, Ejutla, Oaxaca
  • Distillation style: Copper alembic with reflux plate, single pass.
  • ABV: 50.4%

Ejutla is the most southernly district in the central valleys of Oaxaca. Here you’ll find the community of San Agustín Amatengo, where Sergio Juarez Patricio and his son Luis produce delicious agave spirits in the family palenque.

What sets Ejutla apart from the other central valley districts, like Ocotlán and Tlacolula, is the tradition of using a refrescador (water bath) around the condensing chamber of the copper alembic. Moreover, in the case of this palenque at least, that chamber contains a reflux plate.

Luis demonstrates the refrescadera

Luis demonstrates the refrescadera

Looking up into the plated copper condensing chamber

Looking up into the plated copper condensing chamber

Sergio by the oven ready for mezcal

Sergio by the oven

The engineering of this set-up effectively creates a double (or at least 1.5x) distillation with one pass of the still, creating high-proof, clean-profile spirits.

The roast is 3 days in a classic earthen horno. Milling by machete and a particularly large and heavy tahona pulled by two bulls. Fermentation takes 8-9 days in open air wooden tinas.

Sergio & Luis work with the full spectrum of agave available to the in the valleys. This batch is 100% maguey Mexicano (A.Rhodacantha). 51 piñas produced a 150 litre batch.

Sergio and Luis, creators of the Mexicano - amatengo mezcal exclusively bottled for the Sin Gusano project

Gracias Sergio & Luis

House Tasting Notes:

Dry, clean, acetone nose, with no smoke. Sweet on the palate with agave-forward stone fruit flavours that get fuller in the mouth the longer you let it breathe. Not to be rushed.

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