Las Milpas, Oaxaca
Las Milpas is made from the stuff of fantasy. A dreamy, isolated place some three hours away from Oaxaca City, with only a handful of houses overlooking the rolling hills in the open landscape. It is the only village not named after a Saint, but after the very landscape: The Milpas (The Cornfields). Everything around the Palenque is plots of corn and agave fields, overflown with birds of prey. The air smells fresh and sweet, and daily life is lived in the mellow rhythm of nature.
LAS MILPAS MEZCAL: AS PURE AS THE AIR ITSELF
Don Anastasio’s concern is simply to make the best mezcal possible. From his many espadín fields, he chooses what is ripest and closest to the palenque: a natural act of sustainability, practicality and wisdom, yielding mezcales that are both complex and delicious.
His mezcal tastes as the air smells: pure, fresh, clear, and mellow.
A Village That Fits in Memory
Las Milpas is a small rural village: so small one could call it a rancho, in the municipality of San Dionisio Ocotepec, in Oaxaca’s Central Valleys. About 100 people live here, at an elevation of 1,695 meters. The community speaks almost exclusively Zapotec and lives self-sufficiently from the land.
Where Work and Laughter Flow Together
Las Milpas is pure. It feels less serious than other villages. The family laughs and tells stories in Zapotec and Spanish, while never forgetting to check on the mezcal production, as if the cycle lived within their bodies. Each man knows what to do, when to check the yegua, the distillation, and the fire, and they do it smiling, in between sharing stories of rain or of weddings.
The result
The combination of altitude, tradition and traditional methods produces a mezcal that is not a standard profile, but a spirit that reflects its origin - unmistakably of this place, and true to the way it is made.
See ProductsMezcales from Las Milpas
Las Milpas
Price for Standard Shipping. Price may vary per store. Exclude delivery fees.Perched high on the edge between the Oaxacan Central Valleys and the Sierra Sur the Cruz Antonio family roast Espadín ag…
Shaped by the Land
Explore the regions where each mezcal takes its character.
Axocopan
At around 1,900 meters above sea level, Axocopan, Puebla, sits in the foothills of the Popocatépetl volcano, where mineral-rich soils, cool mountain air and summer rains shape VIDA Puebla’s fresh, bright character. Made from Espadín agave using traditional artisanal methods, it offers notes of roasted agave, citrus, white peach and candied pine—an approachable introduction to...
Discover the village
San Baltazar Chichicapam
San Baltazar Chichicápam, about an hour from Oaxaca City, is a desert valley shaped by microclimates that create astonishing diversity. In just a few steps, the arid, stony landscape turns into a misty zone beneath ancient sabino trees (Moctezuma cypress), beside a river, the Río de la Amargura. As with the almost unreal nature that...
Discover the village
San Jose Rio Minas
San José Río Minas is a very small village in Oaxaca’s Mixteca Alta. It takes about four hours to get there, but the drive is surreal: it runs through microclimates, milpas, small streams, and wild agave fields as far as the eye can see. The town sits at high altitude but inside a valley, on...
Discover the village
San Luis Del Rio
San Luis del Río is dramatic: mountains rise so sharply they seem to lean over the road, their slopes packed with spiky agave plants that turn the landscape blue. The car feels tiny against these vertical walls, and at the valley floor, a fruity humidity gathers; palm trees grow along the Río Hormiga Colorada (Red...
Discover the village
San Pedro Teozacoalco
San Pedro Teozacoalco lies about three and a half hours from Oaxaca City, in the great mountains and dormant volcanoes of the Mixteca Alta. The road twists through shifting ecosystems: conifer forests, dry desert valleys, and stretches where both overlap, with fan palms, pines, and plump magueyes sharing the same landscape. The town appears after...
Discover the village
Santa Catarina Minas
Santa Catarina Minas is a striking blend of Oaxacan beauty with a Mediterranean touch. The blue-and-white church anchors the center, and across town, fenced gardens (rare outside the capital) overflow with flowers and tall pines. Streets are wide and paved, and one notices trees that seem out of place among typical Oaxacan flora: tabachines, araucarias,...
Discover the village
Santa Maria Albarradas
At the foot of Mount Tobalá lies Santa María Albarradas, a small village of fewer than a thousand people, high in the cloud forests of the Mitla region of Oaxaca. Mount Tobalá is an almost mythical mountain, its peak so high it hides in the sky. A captivating forest grows there, rich with wild agaves...
Discover the village
Santo Domingo Albarradas
After a three-and-a-half-hour drive through forests, climbing up and down the mountains, Santo Domingo Albarradas feels like arriving at a small utopia. The town sits at the end of the road, tucked into a gorge, surrounded by steep green walls. You drive down into it. The air grows humid. This is a high-altitude tropical zone,...
Discover the village