An unlikely collaboration Feature – 
maestro tequilero, maestro mezcalero, y maestra environmental scientist

Campanilla’s unique charm and sustainability potential

Salmiana Blanco

a mezcal for the future

Greetings from Chava Peribán, yet one more time

This month, we have the privilege to present a Salmiana Blanco that has been distilled using the “Campanilla clay-pot” system. For those that may be new to the club we want to say that this is the ultimate treat. Many of our most beloved mezcales have been produced using this still, and the last time we featured spirits from the town of Palmar Segundo people were delighted across the board. So, we are taking this opportunity to revisit a bit of the history behind this unique piece of technology, but this time, with a focus on an exciting new regenerative farming collaboration.

Distillation in the new world

There are many ways of explaining the origins and evolutions of spirits in Mexico. Some have speculated that there was distillation prior to the arrival of the Spaniards using Capacha-style vessels (we won’t explore that right here, but if you want to learn more about this you can read here an article we published a while ago). Yet, for this newsletter, we’ll agree that distillation was brought to Mexico from the East and the West. From the West, we got the Arab-style alembic, made out of copper (or some metal) and capable of condensing alcoholic vapors using a chilled coil (serpentín); while from the East, well, we got plenty of weird designs that we’ll discuss in the following paragraphs.

Asian distillation

One could arguably group all of the Eurasian stills into three different categories: Mongolian, Chinese, and Gandharan. In this case, we’ll just talk about the first two because the latter has never been found in Mexican territory.

Instead of trying to write a very detailed description that may be too complicated, I decided to use an image (taken from the article “Huichol Stills: A Century of Anthropology—Technology Transfer and Innovation,” which will be loosely quoted from now on) to illustrate this better.

As you can see, the main difference between these two stills is where the final distilled product is collected. In the Mongolian style, the condensed spirit is collected inside a vessel situated right above the fermented juices that are being distilled (exactly like Campanilla), and in the Chinese style, the alcohols are collected outside, just like it is done in the clay pot stills found in Oaxaca or the clay pot-wood condenser systems found in Michoacán.

Most of the articles we found on this matter suggest that the Chinese style still is more efficient and that most cultures that first integrated the Mongolian system (like Korea) decided to abandon it gradually.  This is very understandable, in the Mongolian all-enclosed still, it is impossible to see how fast you are distilling, so you have to trust your gut and experience. Opening the vessel before you are done can result in losing a good amount of alcoholic vapors. Also the internal vessel can explode or crack at any time, rendering a complete distillation cycle useless.

Mexico behaved in the same way. Although it is unclear which regions used which alembic early on. There are accounts of a very healthy production of coconut wine (as strong as brandy) already in the early 1600s, but we don’t know exactly how they made it. What we know is that today, the only guys still using the Mongolian still design are the folks at Campanilla. Here is another map that illustrates the current distribution of Asian-style stills in Mexico.

After this very brief history lesson, it is very clear that this spirit is the equivalent of a relic that should be housed in a museum. But, against all odds, this is also one of the most groundbreaking expressions we’ve ever bottled, and it may offer a blueprint for sustainable mezcal.  We believe that mezcal can mix the oldest traditions with the most innovative mindsets, and this was a unique opportunity to showcase such a happy marriage.

All of this was only possible because three brilliant minds—Sophia Trapp, Daniel Navarro Hernández, and Germán González—found in mezcal a common playground.

To explain each one of these characters would take several pages. Still, in a nutshell, Sophia Trapp has been planting probably the most extensive new population of Salmianas in all of Guanajuato, bringing back life to thousands of acres that had been eroded by overgrazing at Cañada de la Virgen; Daniel Navarro is, as many of you may know, one of our favorite “Campanilla-style” maestros and Germán González is the master distiller behind Chinaco (looking at you tequila old-school fanatics) and more recently for Tears of Llorona (looking at you fancy kids that can throw $300 bucks for a pretty bottle).

Traditions for the future

During this month’s posts, we’ll try to tell the whole story of how they’ve worked together to create a methodology that considers sustainability in its more expansive form. Here are just some examples of what they’ve implemented to date.

By incorporating agaves into a keyline berm system for rainwater harvesting, they have established a symbiotic relationship between plants and water that revitalizes soil health. The contoured berms act as natural sponges, reducing evaporation and redirecting precious water deep into the bedrock.

Salmianas are also incredible at sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. The pilot program shows the agaves will absorb about 95 tons of CO2 per hectare over the course of 10 years. When including other native plants like mesquite, Spanish oak, and nopales, estimated sequestration could reach up to 150 tons per hectare.

Given the large amounts of biomass generated by Salmianas, Sophia created a pence-derived feed that can give a lifeline to ranchers during prolonged periods of drought. To complement this, she created a mineral supplement, which means that animals no longer require anti-parasitics or as many medications, the manure that returns to the soil does not kill existing microorganisms with harmful chemicals, and consumers get healthier dairy and meat.

Finally, at the end of the agave’s life cycle, they can be harvested to make spirits with minimal energy inputs and whose waste can be upcycled and recycled. A perfect way for sequestered carbon to remain in the cycle and not be released back into the atmosphere when it decomposes.

This may be a lot to digest, but we’ll do our best to translate this long and convoluted story into bite-sized posts so you can get a clear understanding of everything that happened behind the scenes.

Want to know more about this feature?

Follow along throughout the month on facebook or instagram to get all the videos, fun facts, and conversations about this month’s feature. Some topics to look forward to include:

• Plenty of discussion about Salmiana and the many varieties that make “El Bajío” one of the most exciting mezcal regions in Mexico these days.
• We’ve been doing some research around the origins of the Campanilla system, so we’ll be very happy to share even more context around it.

Quotes of the Month

“When we first arrived, there was nothing, it was all clear. Now thanks to the agave we’ve seen how the vegetation is finally coming back. “

~ Jesús García – Agave Farmer at Cañada de la Virgen

CRAFTSMANSHIP TRADITION SUSTAINABILITY