Del Maguey Minero Mezcal
Santa Catarina Minas is recognized in Oaxaca as the Cradle of Mezcal (La Cuna de Mezcal). Village maestro Luis Carlos Vásquez and son Luis Carlos Martinez are truly master of their craft. Every detail, from agave cultivation, ripeness, roasting heat and method, an arduous hand-milling process and extended wild yeast fermentation contribute to its distinctive balance of fruitiness and minerality. In Minas, everyone maintains honors the legacy and tradition of clay pot, ancesntral mezcal production. The work is hard, the yields are abysmal, but the flavor is divine. Deep and warm it maintains its sweetness, acidity and fruitness through to the finish.
Flavor Profile
Tasting
Flower essence, vanilla, figs, burnt honey, lemon rind, minerality
Flower essence and vanilla with tropical fruit
Burnt honey and lemon rind with extraordinary creamy clay richness
Long and mineral with sweet warm finish
Origin
Central Valley
Santa Catarina Minas
5900 ft
Clay and Limestone
Espadín (Agave angustifolia Haw.)
8 to 14 years
The Process
Luis Carlos Vásquez, Luis Carlos Martinez, Alejandra Arellanos
Hand-cut in clay and limestone soils after 8 to 14 years, hand-milled with wooden bats
Earthen pits lined with volcanic rock
Hand-mashed with wooden bats · open wooden vats · extended 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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