FROM OAXACA WITH CLAY, THE MENU!

Thank you so much for joining for Saturday’s tasting! Our event featured six clay-pot-distilled agave spirits from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Here’s a bit more context about what we tried. Feel free to email hello@mezcal.nyc with any questions!

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1. Lalocura tobala chino, Eduardo “Lalo” Angeles, Santa Catarina Minas, Oaxaca. (Labeled “Minas T.”) “Chino” (curly) subtype of tobala (Agave potatorum). Earthen pit oven, mashed by hand, fermented in wood, distilled in clay pots. March 2020. 47%.

Made from an uncommon, regionally specific and long-maturing subtype of the tobala agave variety, this spirit highlights what are arguably some of the characteristic flavors of Santa Catarina Minas, perhaps the most famous clay-pot-mezcal town in Oaxaca. Lalo, as he is known, is a particularly famous and charismatic maestro mezcalero (master mezcal producer) known for both his advanced sustainability and agricultural practices and the intensity and elegance of his spirits. Here, the bold, round flavors may be partly related to the use of the clay-pot still and the prevalence in Minas of a lengthy dry fermentation of the roasted agave hearts, among other facets of the local terroir.

2. Ensamble of six varieties, Felix Angeles, Santa Catarina Minas, Oaxaca. (Labeled “Minas E.”) Coyote (unknown, possibly hybrid agave), barril (Agave karwinskii), jabali (A. convallis), tobala (A. potatorum), tobasiche and madrecuixe (both A. karwinskii). Earthen pit oven, mashed by hand and shredder, fermented in wood, distilled in clay. 2019.

Just a short walk from Lalo’s palenque (the preferred word in Oaxaca for an agave-spirits distillery) is the palenque of his relative Felix, whose spirits, unlike Lalo’s, aren’t typically exported to the United States (with rare exceptions like one-off batches imported by Maguey Melate). Felix employs similar if not quite identical production practices, so to the extent that the flavors of this batch differ from the flavors of Lalo’s tobala chino, the contrasts result largely from the use of different agave varieties, as well as the so-called hand of the maker — the many tiny decisions unique to an individual producer. In particular, the use of various karwinskii agaves here contributes a fresh, green quality that is complemented by the presence of jabali, an agave that many people avoid because of its tendency to produce vast quantities of soapy foam that complicate the fermentation and distillation processes. If you look closely, you’ll notice the yellowish tinge of this spirit, probably a result of traces of jabali foam making their way into the distillate.

3. In Situ “Palenque Yeguesia” jabalin, “Mauro V.” and Ulises Torrentera, Yeguesia, Miahuatlan, Oaxaca. (Labeled “Yeg.”) Jabalin (Agave convallis). Earthen pit oven, mashing method unknown, fermented in wood, distilled in clay. 2017. Bottle 167 of 228. 48%.

A batch from the in-house palenque of Ulises Torrentera, owner and “curator” of the famous Oaxaca City mezcal bar In Situ, which features dozens of traditional spirits from all around Oaxaca and occasionally from elsewhere in Mexico. There are a few intriguing things about this spirit, the biggest one arguably being that because it is made in Miahuatlan, a southern Oaxacan region where a vast majority of mezcal producers use copper stills, it presents a rare opportunity to taste the effects of clay-pot distillation in combination with Miahuatlan’s characteristic, mineral-rich terroir. (Another way to put this is that Ulises is deploying a deeply traditional distilling technology in a nontraditional way, by using it in a region where it isn’t currently conventional.) The use of jabali also makes this mezcal unusual, while the spirit’s age — even a few years in a bottle, especially an open bottle, will cause many agave spirits to evolve — has also probably enabled it to mature and soften.

4. Cinco Sentidos sierra negra, Alberto Martinez, Santa Catarina Albarradas, Oaxaca. (Labeled “SCA.”) Sierra negra (Agave americana). Earthen pit oven, mashed by hand, fermented in underground stone tanks with tepehuaje bark. Distilled in clay. March 2018. 140 liters. Bottle 32 of 181. Batch SN03. 47.3%.

The only commercial U.S. release featured in this tasting, it’s nonetheless a singular offering — a rich, flavor-packed, potentially polarizing batch from a mezcalero, Alberto Martinez, who to your mezcal room host’s palate has an extremely particular “house character” for all of his spirits. Perhaps this is partly a result of his fermentation profile, which is distinctive because of the high-altitude fermentation in stone with tepehuaje tree bark, among many other possible factors. Either way, Alberto is consistently one of our favorite producers among the half-dozen or so mezcaleros that make up the core of the Cinco Sentidos lineup, his spirits consistently spicy and oily, often with underlying notes of ripe tropical fruit and a hint of something wild or volatile. If you liked this batch, you may want to seek out other bottlings from Alberto, because there’s arguably nothing else quite like his spirits — certainly in the United States, at least.

5. Tobala, Edmundo Altamirano, Santa Maria Sola, Oaxaca. (Labeled “SMS.”) Tobala (Agave potatorum). Earthen pit oven, mashed with shredder, fermented in horizontal wood vessels, distilled in clay. March 22, 2021. 45 liters. 52%.

After a couple of intriguing outliers, the tasting lineup loops back to somewhat more familiar territory: a spirit from greater Sola de Vega, an area around two hours southwest of Oaxaca City that, like the spirits from Minas that we started with, is especially famous for clay-pot distillation. Here, however, the local geography is quite different — you’re nestled in the hills and small mountains that mark the beginning of the mountains that separate Oaxaca’s Central Valleys from the southern coast, whereas Minas is in the valleys — and certain other practices, of course, are distinctive as well. The use of much smaller clay-pot stills than in Minas, for instance, is perhaps a result of being farther from Atzompa, the famous ceramics town where clay pots for distilling are manufactured. This batch of tobala from Edmundo Altamirano is particularly cool because it was distilled so recently, just several weeks ago. It’s also a tiny batch of 45 liters bottled at relatively high proof (52%), which may contribute to its bright and aromatic profile.

6. Papalomé, Emanuel Ramirez Lopez, San Jose Rio Minas, Oaxaca. (Labeled “Mixteca.”) Papalomé (Agave potatorum). Earthen pit oven, mashed with shredder, fermented in plastic, distilled in hybrid steel and clay still. March 1, 2021. 100 liters. 52%.

A final offering, this time from one of the farthest destinations of our late-March road trip: the Mixteca Alta, a high-altitude region west of Oaxaca City that despite being fairly close to the city is separated from it by a mountain range. It takes a long time to get there on bumpy dirt roads — which is one reason spirits from the area are arguably underrepresented among commercial bottlings, even though a large number of families produce mezcal for local consumption. This batch of papalomé (another term for what is basically tobala) was distilled by the young Emanuel Ramirez in a hybrid still with a steel boiling chamber and a clay condenser. Hybrid stills of this sort are relatively common in the Mixteca. Perhaps this is a result, again, of the distance from Atzompa, which makes it practical to replace the bottom part of the still — which is more likely to break than the top, because of the stress of direct heat and poking around with distilling tools — with metal. Another notable fact about this spirit is that Emanuel proofs it down with water, instead of the lower-alcohol “tails” of the second distillation run, a decision that may contribute to its powerful flavor and aromatics.