Del Maguey Pechuga Mezcal
Del Maguey and the Carlos family´s Pechuga recipe is the original recipe approved for export from Oaxaca to the world. It is a seasonal and ceremonial mezcal, whose ingredients are a living testament to the sycretism of celebrations tied to Dia de Muertos in Oaxaca. Around these Day of the Dead traditions, wild mountain apples, plantains, pineapple, and plums mature. Old World ingredients such as almonds, cinnamon, star anise and rice are also macerated and placed in the clay pot along with 50% ABV Minero Espadin. In this third distillation a chicken breast is suspended in the still above the macerated ingredients and the spirit is slowly heated and distilled for up to 24 hours. No wonder this spirit is reserved for special occasions; baptisms, weddings and Dia de Muertos, and afterwards the pechuga is placed with reverance in the family altar.
Flavor Profile
Tasting
Harvest fruit and spices, basil, lemon, clove, ocean
Harvest fruit and basil with lemon and subtle savoury notes
Clove and seasonal spice with extraordinary complexity
Ocean salinity and sublime long complex finish
Origin
Central Valleys
Santa Catarina Minas
5900 ft
Clay and Limestone
Espadín (Agave angustifolia Haw.)
7 to 9 years
The Process
Luis Carlos Vásquez, Luis Carlos Martinez, Alejandra Arellanos
Hand-cut in clay and limestone soils after 7 to 9 years
Earthen pits lined with volcanic rock
Hand-mashed with wooden bats · open wooden vats · prolonged wild fermentation
What defines this mezcal
MINAS MEZCAL: THE NOBLE SLOW WAY
“The real value of this mezcal lies in not letting this town die. It’s like our dead: they don’t die unless they’re forgotten. We must not forget how this is done: its essence, its foundation, how it was first created.” “With a clay pot it’s slower, but nobler.”
What the Mines Left Behind
Once a hub for silver, gold and copper extraction, Santa Catarina Minas owes its name to the mines that shaped its land. Beneath its quiet streets lies volcanic-rich terrain where mineral veins once drew fortune seekers. Today, water remains its true treasure: wells and rain-harvested reservoirs sustain the clay pot stills and the agave fields that inherit the mine’s legacy.
The Learned Family of Minas
It’s unusual to find ancestral mezcaleros whose children all went to college, and even more so to see them return to the palenque. In Santa Catarina Minas, where ancestral production is guarded like a family secret, the Carlos family stands out for combining formal education with inherited knowledge. Luis, the eldest son of Luis Carlos, studied veterinary medicine; one sister trained as a chef, the other as a nurse. Each chose a different path, yet all three returned to mezcal with the same conviction their grandfather Florencio, Don Lencho, once had. That mix, education and tradition, is part of what makes Minas feel so singular, a place where cultured lives orbit around an ancient craft.
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