Regions
Santa Catarina Minas
Mineral richness of the Oaxaca Valley...
Located approximately 40 km from the city of Oaxaca, within the municipality of Ocotlán de Morelos in the Central Valleys. “Mezcal Minero” owes its name to the community of “Santa Catarina Minas,” which in turn is named after the devotion to Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the mining of various precious metals in the region during the colonial period.
Santa Catarina Minas, known as “The Cradle of Mezcal,” is famous among enthusiasts and connoisseurs for its still-ancestral production methods (in most palenques), using wooden mallets for hand-milling and clay pots for distillation.
The production scale in these clay pots (which hold between 80 and 100 liters) is relatively low because hand-milling doesn’t completely break down the agave fibers, leaving sugars inside the crushed plants. This often leads to prolonged fermentations that can last up to 20 days.
Likewise, the double distillation that takes place in clay pots combines the tepache and agave bagasse (a common practice among most mezcal producers), using intense flames for the first distillation and a small ember for the second, with the goal of minimizing the evaporation of higher alcohols.
This respect for the labor-intensive process (milling, fermentation, and distillation) results in mezcals that are mostly refined, with pronounced flavors and aromas of wet earth, green (unripe) fruits, cooked agave sweetness, and for connoisseurs, fatty notes reminiscent of bacon or ham, with mineral touches.
