Remote artisanal family distillery
The Cruz family operates its distillery in the small town (pop. 1231) of San Juan del Rio on the bottom of the deep canyon of the Hormiga Colorado river. Its mezcals are fermented in oak vats & distilled by Rodolfo Juan Juarez.
Hand distillation of mountain plateau agaves
Agaves planted above San Juan del Rio. The soils are clay-shale and ferriferous. Cultivated on mountain plateaus, these agaves (angustifolia, called espadín) have to struggle. Their flavors are more complex and better defined.
Well distilled (note the rags used to seal the still)
Fruity, rich, pleasantly sweet. A touch of smokiness from fire-pit roasting.
Remote artisanal family distillery
The Cruz family operates its distillery in the small town (pop. 1231) of San Juan del Rio on the bottom of the deep canyon of the Hormiga Colorado river. Its mezcals are fermented in oak vats & distilled by Rodolfo Juan Juarez.
Hand distillation of mountain plateau agaves
Agaves planted above San Juan del Rio. The soils are clay-shale and ferriferous. Cultivated on mountain plateaus, these agaves (angustifolia, called espadín) have to struggle. Their flavors are more complex and better defined.
Well distilled (note the rags used to seal the still)
Fruity, rich, pleasantly sweet. A touch of smokiness from fire-pit roasting.
Alipus Mezcal San Juan del Rio
Alipus San Luis del Rio "Best Overall Mezcal" – Saveur Magazine
Mezcal distilled using artisanal methods from local agaves in a family distillery southeast of Oaxaca city. Fruity, rich, pleasantly sweet. A touch of smokiness from fire-pit roasting. Brick masonry stills are uncommon. Brick is good for maintaining even heat.
The essence of the Alipus project: to keep artisanal mezcal authentic by protecting the way the distillers work and the way they live from the powerful forces of rapid modernization. It will take hard work and serious intention to keep the artisans who make great mezcal from being forced into the commercialization – and the changes in how they live and work – that took the heart out of bourbon, cognac, tequila....
Three generations of the Cruz family, who distill for Alipus, in their agave fields above San Juan del Rio
Brothers Jaime and Gustavo Muñoz are dedicated to bridging the profound gulf between Mexico’s colonial-derived ruling society and its millions of indigenous peoples. They started several restaurants for integrating regional indigenous cooking into fine cuisine, sourcing ingredients from local indigenous suppliers. To source mezcal for their restaurants, they founded Alipus in 1997, and are largely responsible for getting mezcal accepted as a world-class spirit. Their Los Danzantes restaurant in Oaxaca (whose population is 48% indigenous, most of it socially and economically marginalized) is now famous.
Ansley Coale of Craft Distillers, who brought Alipus to the USA, deeply shares this motive.
Alipus comprises now nine small family distilleries (some also distill for Mezcalero). Except for Potrero/San Miguel, where they distill semi-wild arroqueño (agave americana), all Alipus comes from cultivated espadín (agave angustifolia). Don Valente of San Andrés adds a little madrecuishe (agave Karwinskii), common practice in his area of Miahuatlan.
Here is espadín growing on a steep thin calcareous hillside near Santa Ana del Rio. These agaves have to work hard to mature: no wonder their mezcals are mineral and intense.
Here’s Karina Abad talking mezcal with Don Beto and Don Valente. Each Alipus distiller produces highly individuated mezcals. The agaves themselves have genetic differences from growing for decades in a unique part of the Oaxaca Valley. Their soils, the altitude, differing wild yeasts, different ambient temperature of fermentation, and above all the individual production styles, often developed over 3 or more generations: these create distinctive mezcals. San Baltazar is always soft: I can recognize their mezcals blind. The mezcals of Don Valente of San Andrés are complex and focused. His neighbor Don Beto, who crushes his roasted agaves with mallets, creates rich distillates that are amazingly clean.
The agave is the most complex and interesting plant distilled by humans. All the intense energy and flavorful components built up in the 8 to 15 years it takes the plant to mature, meant to be used to grow that huge stalk and produce flowers – just before it dies... is instead concentrated and purified by distillation into the agave spirit: mezcal, raicilla, tequila. Prehispanic indigenous peoples roasted the agave to eat, drank the sap (or let it ferment into pulque), used the thorns for needles, used the leaves for roofing, used the fibers for thread, cordage, and clothing.
So don’t talk to me about barley or corn or grapes. Mezcal fresh from the still is as complex and interesting and tasty as excellent brandies and whiskies after years of aging. At Germain- Robin, often called one of the world’s finest spirits, we made brandy from very good wine grapes, but they were all variants on one species, vitis vinifera: there was a stylistic uniformity. Some 25 or 30 genetically different agaves can be distilled, some of them so rare that they have not been given scientific names, and the range of flavor, aroma, intensity is astonishing.
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Remote artisanal family distillery
The Cruz family operates its distillery in the small town (pop. 1231) of San Juan del Rio on the bottom of the deep canyon of the Hormiga Colorado river. Its mezcals are fermented in oak vats & distilled by Rodolfo Juan Juarez.
Hand distillation of mountain plateau agaves
Agaves planted above San Juan del Rio. The soils are clay-shale and ferriferous. Cultivated on mountain plateaus, these agaves (angustifolia, called espadín) have to struggle. Their flavors are more complex and better defined.
Well distilled (note the rags used to seal the still)
Fruity, rich, pleasantly sweet. A touch of smokiness from fire-pit roasting.
