Welcome to
Palenque Cocina’s Maguey Melate
Tasting Experience!
Today’s journey is going to take you on a funky ride through some of Mexico’s most distinct agave flavors. This flight is designed to cover the widest spectrum of notes that will hit every part of your palate:
1) Jabali
2) Inaequidens
3) Papalmotel Chicken Pechuga
Like any spirit, we can evaluate these along dimensions such as:
Aroma – Flavor – Profile – Appreciation
But when it comes to artisanal agave spirits, understanding what’s behind a given flavor profile is as complex as the profile itself.
Let’s breakdown each spirit’s story in an easy to understand manner by:
Place – Plant – Person – Process
Let’s take a trip through southern Mexico and visit each PLACE.
P.S. While we discuss place, let’s focus our sensories on aroma first. For each expression, smell each and observe character strength, ethanol presence, and connections to familiar aromas. This is our strongest sense and often informs what we will taste.
Each place doesn’t only host its own unique ecosystem including terroir, agave species, and yeasts, but each place also hosts its own history including which cultures settled it, industries prevalent, and technologies adopted.
Santa María Zoquitlán,
Oaxaca
(Jabali)
Considered part of Oaxaca’s mezcal famous valley region, Zoquitlán is less popular and slightly further away than Matatlan, Oaxaca. It’s also less dry and hosts more fruits like mango, zapote, and bananas. This culture is still strongly indigenous and speaks Zapotec as their primary language.
Canel el Agua, Michoacan
(Inaequidens)
Not far from the 1000’s of acres of Michoacan’s infamous avocado plantations, this region is an agricultural power house. Although Spanish-Catholic culture is prevalent, their stills are of Filipino influence. The very unique and endemic Inaequidens plant can only be found here, high up in the mountains at 9000 feet and higher.
Zapotitlán Lagunas,
Oaxaca
(Papalometl Pechuga)
A.k.a the Mixteca, this town is on the border of Guerrero, Puebla, and Oaxaca. It was an old cattle and trade settlement between Acapulco and Mexico City full of diverse influences. Although their food and dance resembles that of Oaxaca, their mezcal is entirely of Guerrero style. The Mixteca is infamous for its water shortages and is extremely isolated and undeveloped. Their language is Zapotec and they often simply identify as Mixtecos.
Each place hosts its own endemic AGAVES.
45 – 50% of each sip is ethanol derived from these unique agave compounds.
Sense which agave is used is so critical to the final flavor, let’s begin to evaluate those. Taking slow soft sips, which connections to familiar flavors can you make? It can be as abstract (green, bright, earthy) or very direct (bubble gum, peppers, swiss cheese). There’s absolutely no right or wrong and it’s all about just making mental connections internally.
Jabali
One of the most bizarre wild agaves ever, this plant has a sap like chemical in it that creates excessive foam during the fermentation and distillation process. The first distillation comes out brown which is why many producers distill it three times in order to remove any yellow tint. This agave is primarily found in the Oaxaca valley and is extremely difficult to work with and it provides a very low yield. Many associate its flavors with spicy notes. Do you agree?
Inaequidens
(aka “Alto”)
- “Alto” because they grow at 2000 meters and higher
- It takes about 75 pounds of raw agave to make one liter of alto!
- The sugar content is so low that the mezcaleros must add pulque juice to the vats to jump start the fermentation process
- Often associated with lactic notes and funky stewy aroma.
Papalometl Pechuga
(with free range hen, platanos, raisons, almonds, and cinnamon)
- Papalometl can mean different things in different regions of Mexico. Here is the Mixteca, it is more often than not a hybrid between Tobala and Cupreata.
- In this cattle town, the cow must eat the sprouting quiote before the agavero can legally harvest the agave for mezcal!
- It is considered to be denser and larger than its Oaxaca counterpart, Tobala.
- This denser agave is said to produce more lactic notes and mineral rich texture. Do you agree?
- A traditional Guerrero pechuga recipe with the addition of cinnamon
- The hen is hung midair in the still while the rest of the ingredients are added directly into the mezcal on the third distillation
- Many say the aroma and flavor are cinnamon forward and remind them of Big Red chewing gum. Your thoughts?
Time to meet the PEOPLE behind the spirit!
Beyond aroma and flavor, the bulk of the character is made up by the “profile” which can be such a catch all of so many different attributes. These are things like long or short finish, “explosion onto the palate”, the matching between the flavor and aroma as well as balance between the introduction, middle, and end of the journey, the “retrogusto”, the minerality, the burn or lack of burn, the ethanol strength, and so much more. These video interviews will give you plenty of time to discuss all these dimensions!
These mezcaleros can introduce themselves:
Each place, plant, and person accumulates to a unique PROCESS.
This is where tradition meets ecosystem adaptations meets the human touch of each maestro mezcalero.
No evaluation is complete without simply appreciating them. Enjoy circling back to each of these for a final taste before the glass has no further drips to offer. Its always fun to identify the expression you personally appreciate the most as a final act.
Jabali
German is the only producer in town effectively producing the inefficient Jabali expression. Here is one of his tricks to managing the potentially batch destroying foam:
German also only fills the pot 25% full to allow the foam some room for the foam to expand.
Inaequidens
Michoacan boasts one of the most distinguishable alembics in Mexico. You won’t find Filipino-style stills (condenser on top without cooling coil outlet) like this one anywhere else in Mexico.
As mentioned, adding fermented agave juice found in the agaves themselves (pulque), jump starts the yeasts consumption of sugars, turning them into ethanol. Miguel only gets pulque from one specific family in town which is part of his secret recipe.
Papalometl Pechuga
Some regions have strong traditions of “capon’ing” their agaves before harvesting. This traps the sugars in the heart of the agave at its most stressed point right as it’s trying to sprout its reproductive stalk (quiote) which holds the seeds. Jose Erubiel’s son, also Jose Erubiel, explains how cows provide their capon service.
In making a pechuga, which typically has meat hung in the still but is now widely used to describe any ingredients being added into the alembic, there are those who hang all the ingredients and those that put some directly into the pot. Jose Erubiel hangs the chicken allowing its fat to drop down into the pot while the other ingredients become are poured directly into the pot resulting in a much more impactful interaction with the second distilled mezcal.
Which expression was your favorite?
Which detail about a given place, plant, person, or process did you find most fascinating?
We hope you enjoyed this exclusive Palenque Cocina tasting experience.
Salud!
If you’d love to continue your visual rich education of Mexico’s most interesting small batch agave spirits, be sure to check out the Mezcalero of the Month Club!
IfIF
